SNP just can’t make its baby sums add up
WHY are we not surprised that the Scottish Government has yet again got its figures wrong?
In a blaze of publicity we were told by our First Minister Nicola Sturgeon that every newborn in Scotland would get a baby box filled with essentials at an annual cost of £6million.
That was outrageously expensive enough — yet within just a matter of months of their launch, we are now told the cost has risen to £27million a year and each box costs around £500.
Someone somewhere should get his or her knuckles rapped because this is seriously bad accounting.
Or were we deliberately misled by the original figure? With their army of accountants and financial advisers, how difficult could it possibly be for the Scottish Government to work out the average annual cost of baby boxes for every newborn?
If the new figure had been estimated in the original discussion process the scheme should never have been approved. It is a shocking waste of taxpayers’ money. ElizabEth CorbEtt-zok,
Stepps, lanarkshire.
Less is more
I dOWNSIzed from my family home because I knew that, when I retired, I would be unable to run a house that size. I bought a new ground-floor flat, which costs a fraction to heat and is easy to look after, now and when I am less able.
The money I made selling the old house has been invested and is giving me an income. So instead of struggling to manage on my pension, I have enough to have a reasonable standard of living. riCharD MartiN,
hazlemere, bucks.
Rubbish attitude
I APPLAUd any measures that will reduce the menace of litter but I wonder if a 5p-20p deposit on bottles will have any effect on the morons who drop litter.
It is beyond comprehension that people are perfectly able to carry full containers of food and drink to a location but are unable to carry the much lighter empty containers to the nearest bin or to take them home. I have seen parents drop off their children at school in the morning and at the same time empty the remains of the previous day’s ‘Happy Meal’ onto the street.
These children will grow up thinking it is normal to do this just as, no doubt, their parents have. What are schools doing in this respect?
Currently, many local authorities sell the recyclable rubbish collected. Will they lose this revenue?
a lagDEN, livingston, West lothian. MANY years ago in my youth in Aberdeenshire, Turriff, had an excellent way to deal with this type of irresponsible behaviour.
Any person caught dropping litter was ordered to spend a whole day cleaning up debris and litter.
Might this be a way forward to deter others from despoiling our towns and countryside?
PEtEr tENNaNt, Dunoon, argyll.
Clean up your act
IT is clear that the only people against your proposed bottle and can deposit/return scheme are from within the packaging and drinks industries. It suits them that they can argue their responsibility ends when they deliver their products to shops.
Well, the environment belongs to us all. If the deposit scheme doesn’t clear up all the empties, then a mandatory tax on single-use drinks containers sure will.
l. broWN, St andrews, Fife.
Caring at home
MY LOveLY mother-in-law, Molly, is nearly 95, has dementia, mobility problems and needs 24-hour care.
Since her husband died two years ago, we, as a family, have been looking after her; he had asked all of us not to put her in a care home.
We’re all trying to do this for as long as possible. Our daughter cares for her five days a week, with her other 11 grandchildren calling in most days. My husband and his three brothers, with us wives, look after her the other days and nights. We also have lovely carers who come in the mornings to help.
We are not so young ourselves. Molly’s eldest son is 71, my husband is 69 with various health problems and her other two sons aren’t much younger. We are all contributing financially.
Molly had a hard life, losing her mother when she was a teenager and looking after her six younger siblings.
Until she was in her 80s, she worked for cystic fibrosis charities, raising thousands of pounds. One of her granddaughters has the disease.
But I don’t think we should judge people who, in the end, have to put their parents in care homes: sometimes that is the only solution.
I loved my dad very much, but he had Alzheimer’s and in the end Mum and I couldn’t cope with him at home and we agreed it was time for him to go into a care home. He was only in his 70s and it was the most heartbreaking thing I’ve had to do. I’ll never get over it.
We should do what we can for our parents for as long as is possible. It isn’t easy, but anyone who sees Molly smiling, sitting in her favourite chair watching the birds in her lovely garden with her family around her will know it’s worth it. Mrs SUSaN WaUgh, Milton keynes, bucks.
Free up homes
IN ALL the talk about the housing crisis, I haven’t seen much mention of one prime reason — the huge number of family dwellings now occupied by students.
In the Lincoln area where I live, around 35 per cent of family homes are given over to students. If universities had to accommodate students on campus, there would be a massive new supply of family housing without a brick being laid.
rob lEWiS, lincoln.
A local for locals
IN 2010, I led a campaign to keep open one of two pubs in a village in Co. durham. Punch Taverns, which owned it, claimed there was no possibility of it remaining viable and the planners, as usual, ignored detailed arguments by locals. More than 280 signatures were ignored.
However, after the conversion plan was ditched, the pub was bought by a small local brewing company and has been a wellappointed, thriving pub restaurant for several years. It is now undergoing redecoration to keep it in tip-top condition.
gil StokoE, Peterlee, Co Durham.
Spare partners
AT THIS time of year, we’re asked to keep an eye on neighbours who live alone, but what about if they want to go away for a break? While on holiday, my husband and I have often talked to ladies on their own because their husbands, lady friends and relatives have died.
So husbands, can’t you spare your wives for a few days to go on holiday with their single friends?
Sadly, your wives may be in this position someday.
MaUrEEN CaMP, london SW17.
Hotel horror
I ALSO stayed at Cuba’s Sol Rio de Luna y Mares Hotel, where the roof fell in on a British wedding party (Mail) and it was the worst holiday of our lives.
during our stay I had food poisoning, there was a drug raid in which the dJ was arrested, my cousin had a drink spiked and ended up in hospital, and the staff served out-of-date, rancid food.
While we were there 18 months ago, building work was being done on what appears to be the location where the roof collapsed.
Thomas Cook didn’t seem to care: my mother-in-law emailed them, as did I, but we’ve heard nothing other than: ‘We’re sorry and we will inform the hotel.’ In the end, we gave up.
MEliSSa WhitE, address supplied.
Spelling it out
SHOULd Scrabble be considered a sport, with knighthoods awarded, perhaps (Mail)?
No, sport consists of hunting, shooting, fishing and racing, the ‘sport of kings’. Cricket, football, tennis, hockey, etc, are games, not sport. Scrabble, crosswords, sudoku, etc, are pastimes.
E. thoMaS, Manchester.