Herald letter: Indy contrary to Christian belief

TO an outsider like myself, the debate about independence and the Church of Scotland (Letters, May 24 & 25) is very clear-cut.

My recollection of the central message of the Christian faith is “to love thy neighbour as thyself”. If this is the case, it would appear that political aims based on division and distancing ourselves from our nearest neighbour are contradictory to Christian belief.

Perhaps the seed of that message has fallen on stony ground in the case of Scottish nationalists?

Peter A Russell, Glasgow.

Herald letter: Our councils must be freed from the dead hand of Holyrood

BY coincidence, we have in The Herald today (May 17) several articles which lead us to the same conclusion.

The first such article is your report on the view of Andy Cliffe of Glasgow Airport citing the city’s massive but unfulfilled potential (“Airport boss says Glasgow is missing out on huge potential”). The second is the letter from Colin Green of Dumfries regarding the state of Scotland’s high streets and what might be done to rectify it. Finally, and what draws this and many other issues together, is the stark warning from Tim McKay of the Accounts Commission that radical change is needed if Scotland’s councils are to avoid a bleak future (“Councils’ deal is ‘overdue’”).

From its very inception, there was never any pretence that the Scottish Parliament would be a champion of local democracy and indeed it has transpired that local councils and councillors are seen by the Holyrood establishment as part of the problem, and not part of the solution. The latest iteration of this is the SNP Minister Joe FitzPatrick telling us that he wants “a New Deal for Local Government that promotes empowerment and provides greater flexibility over local funding with clear accountability for delivery of shared priorities and outcomes”.

The whole point of local government should be that it does not have to share the priorities of central authority. The outcome of doing so is a monoculture of policy and practice which is unresponsive to local needs and deeply conservative in nature. For example, if there had been no plurality of policy formulation in Glasgow, there would have been no tenement refurbishment and community-based housing associations; likewise the city would not have seen arts-based regeneration and there would have been no Miles Better Campaign and no 1990 City of Culture and no tourist industry and probably no International Financial Services District. It is no exaggeration to say that Glasgow was saved from a slow death by the district and city councils, led by Michael Kelly, Jean McFadden, Pat Lally and many others – all of whom were working against the grain of central government.

Today, we have the call from Mr Cliffe for Glasgow to once again live up to its potential, and we have need for towns and districts around the country to have their local voices in the form of councillors and provosts to speak up for their high streets. And as pointed out by Mr McKay, they need the financial means to do the job that Holyrood is so clearly unable and unwilling to do. A good start would be a programme of double devolution from Holyrood to local councils, and a flexible menu of local taxes and charges supported by no-strings-attached redistribution across Scotland from more prosperous areas to less well-off councils.

Peter A Russell, Glasgow.