SNPpoliciesattackedby writerhavebeensound
In his letter to the PA on January 1, Clark Cross quotes various statistics regarding homelessness in Scotland.
In turn, I will quote from The Big
Issue (the homeless magazine), itself quoting the homeless charity, SHELTER: in England, at the start of December there were 288,470 households listed as homeless.
Allowing a population difference of x11, this shows Tory-ruled England is still worse than Scotland (The Big Issue does make the point that homeless statistics are notoriously unreliable).
If the Conservative Party, in Thatcher’s time, had not sold off council houses cheaply in the hopes of creating goodwill that would translate into votes, there would be more housing available for working class people throughout the UK.
Like all the privatisations, Tory sharks revelled in the money-making opportunities (as they have done with COVID-19).
He also attacks the Scottish Government’s involvement in other areas, calling them ‘vanity projects’.
He mentions Prestwick Airport – should it have just been allowed to vanish?
Ferguson Marine – needed to continue the two ferries for the Western Isles – should that be abandoned, leaving locals to hitch a lift in any passing Viking long ships?
Bifab – an attempt to get wind turbines built in Scotland.
I’m pretty certain that on this one Mr Cross knows fine that the Scottish Government had its hands tied by international agreements.
His London Tory pals were unwilling to do anything at state level – who cares if Jocks lose their jobs as long as it makes the SNP look bad, even if it isn’t to blame?
The Edinburgh children’s hospital – how twisted can you be to consider a children’s hospital a vanity project.
It’s a good political point scoring idea to blame the Scottish Government for the problems there, but didn’t architects design it; construction companies build it ; engineers supervise it; medical experts advise on it; and various health and safety experts supervise it?
From the beginning, we had the Tories and others attacking the SNP for deciding to build a new Forth Bridge.
It was a “vanity project”, “a waste of money”, “... going to be underused...”. Now they have gone quiet on that (although apparently the SNP is to blame for ice on the cables).
As for the Named Persons Scheme and the Hate Crime Bill, the former was an attempt to prevent child abuse, basically by getting people to bring it to the attention of authorities, because too many kids died by people doing nothing although it was being noticed.
Remember, at that time we had several cases, including the tragic child death in Fife.
The latter is an attempt – as its name suggests – to cut down hate crimes.
Pity the Tories can’t come up with an alternative instead of just condemning, but considering their leader is Boris Johnson that would be asking the impossible.
Thomas R Burgess St Catherine’s Square
Perth
Luna Rose - it is called ‘Missing School’.
Granddad I’m really feeling sad, I’m missing all the friends I had, Running about at break time in the playground
And spinning on the roundabout round and round.
Coming off with a zig zag walk,
Just like a waddling dizzy duck.
I miss my sums and doing my words, And Miss Florence’s smile and sometimes a hug,
Daddy’s good at schooling me at home,
But it’s not such fun when just alone. No chattering,skipping and holding hands,
Talking about nothing, just endless happy chat.
Grandad I’m really feeling sad,
I’m missing all the friends I had, I know it’s COVID why we can’t meet up
And I wonder when it’ll soon be gone Then we can all get back to school And forget about this stupid rule. David Michael Wood