SNP not immune from criticism

SIR, – The comments from Margaret Croll (Letters, March 27), criticising Dennis Grattan is a piece of nonsense, and her true colours were displayed in her final paragraph.

More hospitals were closed during the Labour years between 1996 and 2010, there is no more privatising of services now than at any time in the last 30 years, carers have been disgracefully viewed as unskilled workers since forever and there is not a shred of evidence that thousands of EU hospital staff have “gone home” since Brexit. Every government needs to feel a degree of guilt over handling of the NHS but that must also include Margaret Croll’s anointed one, the first minister of Scotland.

The Holyrood government has devolved NHS control. The present UK Government is attempting to control the most damaging health situation in more than 100 years and my take on the letter from Mr Grattan was that he felt, as do many others, that they were making a decent job of it on behalf of the whole UK and that the devolved areas were working well with him.

This is a time for unity and understanding, an acknowledgment that actions being taken are untried and untested and the UK Government, with the help of the devolved administrations, are doing all they can to limit the damage this virus is wreaking upon us.

The time may come when the Tories must be accountable for past inaction, so must the Labour Party, but to suggest the SNP are virtuous is to forget its underachievements on the health service, police, fire, ambulance and schools.

Walter Service, Fairview Manor, Danestone, Aberdeen