Farmsubsidy farce
Nicola Sturgeon has finally apologised to farmers about missing their Common Agricultural Policy payments, but mere words don’t pay the farmers’ bills.
Add to this the financial mess the taxpayers’ bill accrued by the Scottish National Party from the subsequent European Union fines and we have a sorry picture.
Financial competence is not apparent in the current Scottish Government. Middle income taxpayers, too, are footing higher tax bills than in England.
We also have the Land and Buildings Tax disaster that has skewed the housing market by making purchasing larger properties much more unaffordable. SNP Finance Minister Derek Mackay needs to think long and hard as to where he is heading Scotland.
The SNP may dispute Scotland as being the highest taxed part of Britain, but if it isn’t yet, it is fast becoming so. (DR) GERALD EDWARDS
Broom Road, Glasgow Scottish farmers are up in arms about late payment of EU subsidies. The Scottish Government has accepted culpability and has provided loans short-term as they try to sort matters out.
The farmers are hugely reliant on these EU subsidies. They have just voted to come out of the EU. Am I missing something? (It’s all a bit like our fisherman running to the Tories that sold them out in the first place).
Maybe we are the only country too stupid to run our own affairs after all. DAVE MCEWAN HILL
Sandbank, Argyll How can it be acceptable that the First Minister failed to truthfully answer Ruth Davidson’s question as to whether the Scottish Government would meet the deadline for the overdue CAP payment to farmers?
When she blethered on about having the best of intentions to do so, she knew that they had already applied for an extension in order to avoid a whopping £60 million fine! It is time we had a standards committee for probity in public life! ALISON FULLARTON Lumsdaine, Eyemouth Once again our farmers are faced with delay in the payment of the European Union farm subsidies.
Would the Scottish Government be so complacent if the payment of salaries and expenses to MSPS was delayed?
DAVID GAIRNS Queens Road, Fraserburgh