Members of public force politicians to face up to paucity of convincing ‘facts’
The leaders’ debate on BBC1 on Sunday was hardly an edifying spectacle. How any party could claim to have “won” is difficult to comprehend.
The most telling contributions were made by a nurse who has to resort to food banks and a teacher who provided first-hand insights into the state of the education service. It was interesting to see how these two ordinary citizens took the wind out of the sails of the politicians. Glib assertions of unrelated facts and figures simply fell flat.
It seemed, not surprisingly, to be of little consolation to a nurse relying on food banks to be told by Nicola Sturgeon that she is £300 better off than a nurse in England. Nor, I suspect, is it of consolation to a pupil or the parents of a pupil in S2 who can’t read or write to a decent standard to be told of record numbers of passes at Higher grade. Especially since – as the teacher in the audience pointed out – the standard of higher exams has dropped significantly in recent years.
It was certainly refreshing to see politicians being put on the spot without being able to simply resort to shouting down their interlocutors or take refuge in fudge and obfuscation.
COLIN HAMILTON Braid Hills Avenue, Edinburgh Nicola Sturgeon is appearing at both the UK and Scottish leaders’ TV debates. Quite a feat for someone not standing at the general election.
Why isn’t Angus Robertson representing the SNP at the leaders’ TV debates rather than Nicola Sturgeon? He heads up the SNP in Westminster and she’s not an MP.
Is the reality that the SNP is not only a single issue party but a single politician party?
MARTIN REDFERN Merchiston Gardens, Edinburgh
There has been much comment that although this is a general election the issues raised by the public during the Scottish Leaders’ debate were in relation to devolved matters. However, this was not surprising as none of the participants are standing as candidates for Westminster and their areas of responsibility are solely related to devolved matters. Thus Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister was correctly taken to task on these devolved issues in Holyrood and for once was really put through the mill on her Government’s appalling record on Health and Education. There is an argument that the representatives should only have been selected from individuals standing as candidates for Westminister. Then perhaps the issues discussed might have been restricted to national matters. When Nicola Sturgeon attended the earlier debate in England she was (as in 2015) given a free ride as those on the panel had no in depth knowledge of her performance on devolved matters and probably were not interested anyway. She was therefore able to indulge, without due criticism, her usual approach of blaming Westminster for everything, even those issues she has the power actually to do something about in Edinburgh.
The section in Edinburgh where the nurse really left her with no defence, squirming and looking most uncomfortable, was most enjoyable. Subsequently, as was to be expected, cybernats have been out in force trying to discredit the nurse. Well, to them I would say “too late, the cat is already well and truly out of the bag”!
RAYMOND PAUL Braid Farm Road, Edinburgh Ian Lakin mocks Nicola Sturgeon for defending the benefits available to the citizens of Scotland in the ITV Leaders debate (Letters, 22 May). From this I assume Mr Lakin insists on paying his bus fares and donates £8 to health charities for every prescription he receives. Furthermore, he will have arranged his financial affairs to ensure the state can defray any costs he will incur in the event of him having to require free personal care for the elderly. We can also assume he has no requirement for working tax or child tax credits, disability allowance or the discredited personal independence allowance and that he has no need of a motobility car. All the kind of “make-believe fictions of the SNP movement” which are about to become grim reality for those in need of benefit support here and for our cousins in England and Wales.
Mr Lakin claims that the momentum is with the Unionists. What is clear is that after the paucity of criticism in Scotland of Theresa May’s manifesto, the “I’m alright Jack” ethos is back in the Unionists’ camp with a vengeance.
GILL TURNER Derby Street, Edinburgh I wonder if pensioners in Scotland think the plan to make them pay for social care out of the value of their properties (except for £100,000 of the property value) is fair? Why are the Tories grabbing at such stealth taxes when really their plan for Brexit should unleash millions for the NHS and social care? Is it because they know that the last referendum was just lies, and hard Brexit plans will leave UK Plc poorer? Why take free school meals away from poor families if we can be sure that the minute we leave Europe we will all be immediately better off? Is this May’s nasty party pulling the wool over people’s eyes?
ANDREW VASS Corbiehill Place, Edinburgh