the ones that got away

[jimwatson]

dear All,

I think that I should put here all the letters that have been sent into the tele but never printed by them. If this is a terrible idea then please let me know...heres the first as a wee taster of what rubbish I write - comments as always are welcome...

letter submitted 22-09-2013

Dear Editor,

One of the joys of being in political opposition is that you can almost say anything you want and never really get asked to substantiate your view. The party in power is often too busy to address your spurious claims. This appears to be the case with Duncan McNeil's latest propaganda piece from Parliament (tele 16/09/2013).

In case he missed it Inverclyde Council does not make decisions regarding leisure facilities. This has been farmed out to the arms length organisation called Inverclyde Leisure. The council does put money into the organisation and if, with the emphasis on the word IF, this is cut will Duncan be claiming that the Labour administration has passed the buck onto another organisation to make tough decisions? No, I did not think so...

Equally, the James Watt College is no longer an entity. Part of the rationale behind creating merged colleges was to remove duplication and adopt a more strategic view for tertiary education. This should be a cost saver in both the short and longer term. Therefore to give them additional funds when the structure has been changed to save money seems to be a bit of a fanciful proposition. It is also dangerous to start scaremongering about course cutbacks and jobs losses when neither are on the table. Sometimes the negativity of project fear seems to be all consuming.

In terms of the bedroom tax, Mr. McNeil omits to mention that it was his party in Government who first introduced the vile piece of legislation that the Condems built upon. It is a vicious attack on the poor and most vulnerable in society and it stems from an uncaring and indifferent Westminster system.

And as for John Swinney accepting the responsibilities of Government, I think that is exactly the thing that Mr. Swinney is currently campaigning for so that he can use the full powers of an Independent Scotland to address the problems that we face cause by the continuation of austerity by the London ruled parties...

Yours faithfully

Jim Watson
via email

[jimwatson]

I would like to apologise to the Telegraph for not seeing this letter being printed by them on the 2nd October. This was my error and I hope that they can forgive me for the scurrilous slight on their professionalism and jounalistic integrity.

I only discoverd this after the editor personally e-mailed me to point out the error of my ways. Thanks Brian for such a wonderful personal service...

Hi Jim,

Just to point out that your letters HAVE been appearing in the Telegraph.
The section has become increasingly busy since we revamped it, and as
such, there is a queue for letters to appear.
I would appreciate if you would refrain from suggesting on internet
forums that your submissions aren't being printed for some reason, when
in fact they have appeared.
I attach a PDF of the letter in question in our edition 2 October.

Regards,

Brian

[samfregreenock]

Oct 9, 2013 16:21:00 GMT 1 jimwatson said:

I would like to apologise to the Telegraph for not seeing this letter being printed by them on the 2nd October. This was my error and I hope that they can forgive me for the scurrilous slight on their professionalism and jounalistic integrity.

I only discoverd this after the editor personally e-mailed me to point out the error of my ways. Thanks Brian for such a wonderful personal service...

Hi Jim,

Just to point out that your letters HAVE been appearing in the Telegraph.
The section has become increasingly busy since we revamped it, and as
such, there is a queue for letters to appear.
I would appreciate if you would refrain from suggesting on internet
forums that your submissions aren't being printed for some reason, when
in fact they have appeared.
I attach a PDF of the letter in question in our edition 2 October.

Regards,

Brian

Jeezo, they must be paying attention to this site then.............

[jimwatson]

Can anyone tell me if this letter was printed inthe Tele - I night have missed it again...

Dear Editor,

It was perhaps the only bit of Hamilton Cunningham’s letter (letters 20-9-2013) that rung true but it is without doubt one of the most scary cases of “Scottish cringe” that I have seen in a long while. Although experts often claim the first part on the road to healing is to admit the problem in the first place…

The nomenclature “Mr. Freebie” is attributed to Alex Salmond. I am not quite sure what the writer means by that but I would imagine it is an attempt to undermine the belief of the Scottish Government in the principle of Universality. Free Prescriptions, free personal care and travel for our senior citizens, free tuition for students, council tax free from increases etc. seem to offend Mr. Cunningham. The principle of universality is not about a “something for nothing culture”, a phrase favoured by Labour and Tory Unionists alike, but a principled stand taken by the government in terms of resource allocations that indicates they believe in a fair and just society, where access to medicine is not regulated by your bank balance and where it is cheaper administratively to offer the benefit to everyone rather then the expense of means testing. It is a mark of a civilised culture and society.

On defence, again I am not really sure where the writer draws his comments from. The structure of defence in an Independent Scotland, assuming the SNP stay as the main party of government, will be based around the idea of a Scottish Defence Force. The remit will be quite clear in that it is designed for protecting the land and surrounding water of our country. It will not be used to take part in illegal wars or be sent abroad as political cover for the USA in their self appointed role as global policeman. Weapons of Mass destruction such as Trident offer no defence against the threats that are prevalent in the modern world. Iran and North Korea do not have the capability of landing a rocket in Gourock never mind anywhere near the rest of the UK. Trident is an expensive relic of the cold war and the sooner it is removed from the Clyde then we can use the billions saved to address more important priorities.

Mr. Cunningham also states that we have the added “comfort” of other Whitehall departments such as immigration. At this point in time the home office is running a truly despicable poster campaign aimed at refugees and asylum seekers telling them to “Go Home”. This campaign is far from comforting and it appears that the right wing anti immigration agenda is being embraced by Westminster to fend off any electoral advances being made by UKIP – it is a disgraceful and unwelcoming stance and should be roundly condemned for the racist drivel that it is!

The NHS has always been separate within Scotland due to our separate legal system. Rather than taking their eye off the ball, the Scottish Government are committed to the NHS remaining in public hands north of the border. Elsewhere we see the creeping vestiges of an ideologically driven privatisation agenda that does nothing for patient care but is more interested in putting profits before people. And the privatisation agenda seems to be pushed irrespective of which party is in power – let us not forget that the first attempt at privatising the Royal Mail came from the Labour Party in Government. If Royal Mail is privatised, we will see a cut in jobs, a reduction in service and the only people who will be happy will be the institutional shareholders who have bought this vital public service on the cheap, although they may have to wait some time on their dividend cheques being delivered…

I will not address the other comments made by Mr. Cunningham since I really do not want to take up too much space in the letters page. His theory of left wing and republican infiltration into the SNP would be laughable except he probably truly believes this to be the case. In my book, the only certainty about the referendum is that a No vote will be a missed opportunity for voters to get the Government they actually vote for in Scotland. A no vote is a vote for the continuation of austerity policies that sees almost 1 in 4 children in Inverclyde living in poverty. There are also no absolute guarantees that anything would be better remaining in the UK but having been part of that union for the last 400 years I am prepared to countenance the possibility that Independence will offer us a better future…

Yours sincerely


Jim Watson
via e-mail

[samfregreenock]

Don't recall seeing it but I may just not have noticed it