Dear Editor
Councils and all public organisations have had drastic funding cuts, leading to a reduction in service provision. Funding cuts have been imposed on other organisations that provide necessary additional services to the public in many forms; these organisations rely heavily on volunteers, backed up by a few paid staff working to their physical limits.
If the policy of funding cuts continues, community structures are in danger of breaking down; vital services will not be available, leading to more privatisation taking place – for which, of course, you have to pay.
All money is raised through taxation, VAT, etc., which in turn should be used to fund services: political policy closing services is in fact making people pay twice for services. We are told ‘the country cannot afford them’, but as you know not millions but BILLIONS of pounds are being made in profits: disgraceful, disgusting amounts being paid to individuals who could hardly have earned such amounts – let alone spend it! And this at a time the public is being told a charge may be made in future for a doctor’s appointment and some treatments.
We are told repeatedly the country cannot afford it; the German fascist propaganda minister Dr Goebbels said: ‘If you tell a lie, tell a big one, over and over again, then people will start to believe it’.
A. Delahoy
Silverknowes Gardens
25
0
20
Money will be found to replace Trident at around £130 billion. Operating costs are £2 billion a year. High Speed Rail running only London to Manchester will cost at least £50 billion. MPs expenses are already back up to what they were before the scandal – around £70 million. Taxpayers lost £1 billion over the cheap sell off of the Post Office. £1.1 billion will be invested in countering cyber-terrorism when the only thing stoking terrorism is the Uk foreign policy. The NHS in England is slowly being privatised, more than 70% of cuts are still to come and many senior ministers, cross-party, have said they want to scrap the Barnet Formula to bring Scotland into line with Englands regions. That would drastically cut Scotlands funding. Scotland receives more funding than every region except London and N.Ireland but contributes a lot more than it gets back. Polls show the Tories and UKIP could possibly form a coalition after the next Uk election in 2015 and take the UK out of Europe. The future looks increasingly grim with a No vote in the referendum. And still we are not told what new or increased powers we will get if we vote No. Will it be sufficient to allow us to protect our NHS? Can we get rid of Trident and avoid getting involved in future illegal wars? The powers we need to protect and benefit Scotland are simply not going to materialise if we vote No. If anything it will be small powers that tinker round the edges and they will take many, many years to be passed to Holyrood.