Mission for Ruth

Once again I find myself dumbfounded at the cheek of Conservative spokesmen. For many months now, the Tory health spokesman has been complaining bitterly about the performance of the NHS, A&E waiting times, ambulances, etc. Yesterday it was the number of GPS (“Hundreds of Scots GP’S retire early as workload pressures cause burn out”). That much of the blame lies with the underfunding of the NHS by the UK Conservative government in London, as well as the SNP Scottish Government diverting scarce resources elsewhere, seems totally to have passed him by.

Now we have the Scottish Conservative finance secretary saying Scotland’s new taxation system will drive away wealth and investment, even though the SNP’S changes are far too timid to actually tackle Scotland’s problems. No, what will drive away wealth and investment is the hard Brexit being pursued by the Tories. The loss of passporting rights is absolutely guaranteed to result in highly-paid jobs in Scotland’s finance industry disappearing to Europe, making us all worse off.

The Scottish Conservatives need to direct their energies into persuading their own party south of the Border to change course urgently.

PHIL TATE Craiglockhart Road, Edinburgh