Advertiser letters, Thursday, March 10

Interestingly a sizable minority said that they "did not yet have enough information to make a choice".

Over the last 43 years they have seen our sovereignty seriously diminished, oil and gas revenues squandered while pensions, hospitals, bus services and libraries are cut back for lack of funds, a million people thrown out of work due to EU regulations and directives (source: Office of National Statistics), much of our industry taken over by foreign companies, our army, navy and air force run down to dangerous levels and all the rest. And yet these people still say they don't have enough information?

How much do they need to understand the EU is the worst, not the best, choice for the future?

Jack Streeter

via email

I wonder whether you or your readers have calculated the future changes to Council Tax for Argyll & Bute? We recently received our notices for this year and from the plans announced by the Scottish Government we can look ahead to next year. The ratio between the 4 bottom bands remains the same but the 4 upper bands have been widened by a published ratio.

Next year these new bands are proposed to be used from April and the Council will be allowed to increase them by a maximum of three per cent. There is little doubt that this three per cent will be used as they used to go up between five per cent & 10 per cent every year before the current freeze was introduced.

Using these assumptions I calculate that Bands A to D will go up by only the three per cent to £808, £943, £1078 and £1213 respectively; this is almost exactly 70 per cent of households. Band E will rise from £1439 to £1592; a 10 per cent rise affecting 15 per cent of households. Band F will rise from £1701 to £1983; a 16 per cent rise affecting eight per cent of households. Band G will rise from £1963 to £2373; a 21 per cent rise affecting six per cent of households. Finally band H will rise from £2356 to £2972; arise of 26 per cent affecting only 244 of the most expensive houses in Argyll & Bute at 0.5 per cent of households.

For those in expensive houses but without the income to make these payments there will continue to be a rebate system.

We have had the freeze now for nine years and the exorbitant council tax payments have been reduced by the action of inflation but that could not go on indefinitely.

Let me challenge your readers to suggest a better but practical way forward, that is within our current powers and without punishing the very poorest by raising extra income tax on all bands.

Dougie Blackwood

Douglas Drive East

Helensburgh

The hyperbole surrounding politics sometimes means that actual policy gets forgotten about and it is policy that we should be voting for at the Holyrood elections in May.

I have, since 2014 been beyond lucky to have had the opportunity to study firstly at Clydebank College and now at Glasgow University without having to pay fees.

This is an SNP policy and it’s a Scottish Labour policy to re-introduce these fees, that policy is like handing the children of minimum wage earning parents an ‘accept your lot’ ticket.

I am glad that I have this opportunity to get educated without a price tag attached to it and grateful that I don’t have to accept my lot.

Progress should not be hindered by the money in your pocket. The next time a Labour canvasser chaps your door, please on my behalf ask them why shouldn’t I be educated at degree level.

Amy Mckechnie

via email

Is it because they are becoming ‘demob happy’ that SNP Government Ministers have taken to playing Hide-and-Seek?

The game seems to be that the First Minister and her colleagues attempt to hide the facts, reports and information requiring the rest of us to seek the truth, using at times Freedom of Information.

It is now 12 months since the Scottish Government ended consultation on plans for a new Super ID Database. Despite repeated questions by Scottish Lib Dems in Holyrood, SNP ministers have refused to say whether they will go ahead with their controversial proposal. Experts have warned of the dangers of expanding access to the NHS Central Register to 120 public bodies and assigning everyone a unique reference number, opening the door to the introduction of ID cards in Scotland.

The SNP are trying to slow down the bullet train! In 2014 a business case for developing a high-speed rail link between Glasgow and Edinburgh was submitted to Ministers, who are now refusing to release the document requested under Freedom of Information laws by the Scottish Liberal Democrats. Over three-quarters of a million pounds have been spent to date developing the plans for the link.

Another great way to hide the truth – spin. The spin the Justice Secretary has put on police numbers disguises the real situation. SNP claim that they have recruited 1,000 extra police officers. However Unison calculated that 1,400 civilian jobs were lost. Officers should be out on the ground in our communities but instead they are being dragged away to cover roles previously fulfilled by skilled civilian staff.

It’s time to end the trickery and deception. Voting Scottish Liberal Democrat on May 5 will help ensure open and truthful government.

John Brown

Helensburgh

Today as I walked on Sinclair Street I saw an HGV delivery lorry totally parked on the pavement outside Tesco. It was delivering to WHSmith. It was blocking the view up and down the street for pedestrians. I have also seen the Tesco van parked on the pavement at another time. There have been several vans parked on the pavements on West Princes Street.

Does the traffic warden not have the authority to ticket these vehicles who are going to wreck all the good work done in replacing the pavements? I have never seen him move on vans or lorries who abuse our town. He seems to be more intent on catching people who have parked in proper parking spaces for longer than an hour. Why spend all that money on making the town nice to have the good work undone by these selfish people?

Perhaps the council will have to give some thought to putting barriers up to stop this practice?

Brian McGeachy

via email

I am grateful to Graeme McCormick (Letters March 3) for clarifying the SNP position on the pierhead development and welcome the support he expresses for this important project. What I still find puzzling is that he then expresses concern that the project might not be sufficiently funded. Why then, when the Administration was allocating £7m for the project, did the SNP councillors think that £1m would be sufficient?

However, It is disappointing to note that last week John Swinney has announced proposals to remove the council tax freeze and to change council tax banding – but not until next year (after the May elections). These are not new powers, these are powers the SNP government has chosen not to use.

As I said in an earlier letter to your columns, a little more flexibility from the SNP government would have made setting councils’ budget a little less difficult and would have reduced the level of cuts that have had to be made.

Andrew Nisbet

Convenor, Dumbarton Liberal Democrats

As our UK defence secretary Mr Fallon has announces an extra £640m investment in Trident-related programmes helping ensure jobs and security in Helensburgh and the rest of Scotland,

Nicola Sturgeon and the republican Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn have been standing shoulder to shoulder at the latest CND rally in favour of scrapping Britain's deterrent and throwing 11,000 jobs on scrapheap. It's clear that the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party are not only best placed to stand up to the SNP rather than the weak Nationalist appeasing Labour party but also are the only main party wholeheartedly backing our Trident deterrent.

The SNP’s stance against Trident shows it will always put separation before anything else and with Labour arguing amongst themselves over the policy, the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party are the only party sticking up for those highly skilled workers and their families.

Labour are finished it's time that the real opposition to the SNP are given the seats to take the fight to the Nationalists so give your support to the Conservative and Unionist party in the upcoming Scottish election and help see the SNP held to account.

Alastair Redman

via email