The Herald

Reason to fear SNP’S control of benefits

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I NOTE that UK Work and Pensions Secretary Esther Mcvey’s appearance at the Holyrood Social Security Committee was disrupted by the unseemly heckling she was subjected to by members of the public, causing proceeding­s to be suspended on more than one occasion (“Tory minister is heckled as she says rape clause offers extra support”, The Herald, April 17). It baffles me why there is a public presence at these serious meetings when the inevitable consequenc­es are disruption by an ill-informed and boorish element with either personal axes to grind or who are there for party propaganda purposes. Either way it is unedifying, unhelpful and preventabl­e but sadly gives the TV news producers what they would mistakenly describe as “good television”.

No mention was made in the BBC Reporting Scotland report I watched of Professor Adam Tomkin’ s question regarding the likelihood of Holyrood being ready and able to take over the benefits system by 2021. Ms Mcvey said:

“We need more informatio­n coming forward and we need it quicker and with greater clarity.” She added: “At the same time we will have to put measures in place to ensure that, if the Scottish Government can’t do it, we will no doubt end up doing it through agency agreements”.

With the well-documented list of SNP failures – farmers’ payments, Police Scotland, NHS, education and so on – one wonders what possible hope there is that this most complicate­d of all their challenges so far will not result in anything other than another hopeless debacle with Westminste­r providing the safety net once again.

Donald Lewis,

Pine Cottage,

Beech Hill,

Gifford,

East Lothian. ESTHER Mcvey’s outrageous defence of the Tory rape clause and the Home Office’s deportatio­n of Windrush immigrants (“Russ apology for treatment of Windrush generation”, The Herald, April 17) is further evidence that Scotland needs all the powers to take its own decisions in order to treat people with normal decency rather than spending millions on bombing

Syria.

With Labour abstaining rather than voting against Theresa May’s contempt for Westminste­r democracy then it really is time we got out of that place.

News that the UK Government is using the Supreme Court to thwart democratic decisions of our Scottish Parliament is a reminder that devolved power is power retained and UK promises made in 2014 were worthless.

The Continuity Bill was approved by a majority of MSPS from four different parties with only the Tories, and Liberal Democrat Mike Rumbles, opposed to protecting Scottish Parliament’s hard-won powers.

They forget that a majority in every electoral area in Scotland voted to Remain in the European Union.

As the Scottish Parliament currently has a legitimate electoral and democratic mandate from Scottish voters to hold another referendum on independen­ce, it should use its mandate to legislate now for another independen­ce referendum without naming a date so that we are ready once the harsh reality of Brexit kicks in.

Let us not forget that a central plank of the anti self-government campaign in 2014 was that Scotland had to vote No in order to remain in the EU.

Mary Thomas,

Watson Crescent,

Edinburgh.

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