Scotland just does not need our money
I FIND it laughable that Jo Juniper thinks that England subsidises Scotland so that they can have free prescriptions, university education and other benefits (M.E.N. Viewpoints, December 23).
The whole point of devolution is that Scotland looks after its own financial affairs and decides where the money is to be allocated, rather than central government.
There is no point being upset because one part of the UK receives better benefits than elsewhere. If you want these benefits then move to Scotland.
Incidentally, Scotland has never seen a penny of North Sea oil revenues. It all went into the Westminster coffers and stayed there. Scotland has paid its own way for a long, long time without the help of English money. Scotland does not need it. A Ladybarn Lowlander
This is why Labour lost
WHY did Labour lose the General Election? Because voters like me, who have voted Labour for 40-plus years, are sick to death of being taken for a mug.
Look around every Labour constituency ward and you will see deprivation everywhere.
You will also see run-down properties, filthy streets with litter sprawled all over the place.
Go to a Tory constituency and you will think you are in a different country, with well-kept open spaces and good quality housing and litter free streets.
So why do Conservative wards look better and appear to be run better than Labour wards? Because if local Conservative councillors and MPs don’t deliver on what they get elected on, then they will be deselected.
You could put up a two-headed monkey in a Labour ward and they would be voted in year after year – and people like Jeremy Corbyn banked on that to win the General Election. But for once it backfired and the penny has dropped with Labour voters, highlighted by Mr Corbyn who tried to drag us back to the 1970s, thinking that’s what Labour voters wanted.
That shows how thick he thinks ‘Northern’ Labour voters are.
Look around Labour wards outside the city centres and you will see mostly low-cost housing.
That’s another trick of the political elite, because people on low incomes generally vote Labour and that is not meant to be condescending, it’s just a fact.
This election was a game changer, so what is Labour going to do for us?
They can start by investing in hundreds of run-down wards, and build houses that allow people to progress from a low income properties to a more upmarket house, instead of having to move into a Conservative ward.
In other words, stop treating us like second class voters or Labour wards may one day end up Blue, with Labour ending up in a museum. Name and address supplied
Why were the people there?
NOT for one moment does my heart, as a father-of-three and grandfather-of-six, not go out to those having lost loved ones and their families in the New Zealand volcano disaster.
Nor do I not shake my head in wonder at the incredible selflessness, courage and skill of the helicopter pilots and other magnificent first-responders going in to save others. However, it must be asked – what on earth were the authorities thinking of – allowing sightseers to enter the very crater (as well as be on the very rim), of an active volcano? And what were people thinking of in doing any of the preceding? Howard Hutchins, via email