Face the facts

Gill Turner (Letters, 7 March) is quite right in saying that we live in a post-truth era. Here are a couple of recent examples.

A report in The Scotsman informed us that despite a £150 million cash boost to try to improve NHS waiting times – already well below target at 73.9 per cent – the latest figure at the end of February was 71.9 per cent.

Most people would consider that things had got worse and see this as a waste of public money. Not so the Health Secretary. She described the statistics as “a foundation for further improvement”!

John Swinney adopts a similar approach. He stated recently that “literacy was improving across almost every level” and “the same is true for numeracy”.

We would assume that the Education Secretary had actually read the last PISA report. It showed that performance in reading had indeed improved – but only because it had been seen to dip significantly in the previous report. Performance in maths and science had continued to decline.

Mr Swinney is simply not telling the truth.

These are just two of an abundant potential supply. I am not, of course, claiming that the SNP have a monopoly on disinformation. Unfortuthe nately for all parties, spin is the order of the day.

Is it too much to expect that – even just occasionally – a party in power might face up to the facts and admit its failings? It might even gain some respect.

Perhaps the SNP could show the way.

COLIN HAMILTON Braid Hills Avenue, Edinburgh

Since the post-brexit increase in support for independence I notice that some on the Unionist side are proposing a new threshold of a twothirds majority or somewhere between 60-70 per cent (for example, David Bone, Letters, Saturday).

Under this system, with an 80 per cent turnout, 2.3 million votes for Yes would not be enough to win against 1.2m for the Union. In effect, a single vote for the Union is worth two for independence.

I’m sure all sides of the political divide would agree that Scottish football generates more division, abuse and sometimes violence than did the 2014 referendum.

As a Hearts supporter, and given their precarious position in the league, I’d now like to propose that for the rest of the season a goal for Hearts will count as two. From my perspective this would ease any anticipatory anxiety I have about the final outcome of the league.

Apparently, if Unionists are to be believed, this system would be less divisive. I encourage others to get behind it and look forward to the national healing which will surely follow.

ROBERT FARQUHARSON

Lee Crescent, Edinburgh