Don’t blame SNP

In her attempt to blame the SNP for Glasgow’s appalling record of deprivation, Sally Gordon-walker (Letters, 12 July) ignores the salient fact that the Liverpool University study of the most deprived areas analysed data from 1971 to 2011, when Labour ran Glasgow City Council.

For the first 28 years, successive UK governments at Westminster had complete control of Scotland’s economy and, despite producing as much oil and gas as Norway, Scotland ended up much poor er. With limited fiscal powers after devolution, a Labour/lib Dem administration ruled for eight years before the SNP took over in 2007.

Westminster still controls 60 per cent of Scotland’s taxes and the UK remains one of the most unequal countries in Western Europe, with the most unbalanced economy, whereby the bulk of government investment and wealth is concentrated in London and the South East to the detriment of the rest of the UK.

In addition to spending £100 million a year mitigating draconian Tory welfare policies, the SNP is spending £756 million towards building 50,000 affordable homes, £50m towards ending homelessness and £50m to the Child Poverty Fund as part of its pledge to create a fairer Scotland.

Together with an ageing population, deprivation places

huge demands on our NHS and the SNP has invested record sums with record staffing numbers in their efforts to ensure Scotland continues to have the best health and social services provision in the UK.

MARY THOMAS Watson Crescent, Edinburgh