It seems the twice election agent for our new MP and local Labour party contributor to the letters page, M.C. Barry (Tele Postbag, October 7), has been so long in opposition that he’s forgotten what comes with being in power.

I think regular readers of the letters page will be well aware that the majority of my letters enthusiastically attack Westminster parties of any persuasion and centre around the South of Britain navel-gazing they indulge in and its detrimental impact on Scotland. 

He’s under the illusion that there’s a difference between Labour and the Tories in this respect. I beg to differ. The phrase ‘two cheeks’ comes to mind.

It’s interesting to note what hasn’t been highlighted by the letter. ‘The awful Rwanda scheme has been binned’ but ‘the awful two-child benefit cap policy’ remains, keeping roughly half a million children across Britain in poverty.  

The SNP Government spent £70 million last year to mitigate this in Scotland, money that could well be used elsewhere. Interestingly the Children’s Commissioner for Labour-run Wales has called for the Welsh government to copy the Scottish Child Payment.  I doubt you will ever hear our new elected member, Mr McCluskey, being asked to support this in Westminster. As M.C. Barry stated in his letter, readers can make up their own mind about why that might be the case.

The National Wealth Fund referenced in the letter sounds all shiny and new, but is it? This involves £7.3 billion of public funding being given to the existing UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB), founded by the Tories, three years ago (more poof of my ‘two cheeks’ comment earlier). 

The UKIB has so far invested £4bn of the £22bn of taxpayers’ money made available to it since its launch in 2021. Has anyone told Rachel Reeves, as this could be the missing £22bn she’s been looking for?  

Why has this additional funding been provided by Labour as a priority, to a bank that can’t spend what it already has? This despite MPs criticising the bank last year for “reinventing the wheel” by funding projects already backed by private capital. 

Readers, especially our pensioners, can make up their own mind about why that might be the case.

He mentioned a bill to only remove hereditary peers from the House of Lords. He failed to mention Labour’s national policy forum last year backing the recommendation by Gordon Brown that the Lords should be abolished and replaced with “a second chamber that is smaller, offers the taxpayer better value for money, and is reflective of the regions and nations with elected representatives rather than political appointees”.  

This much-watered-down version of what the party actually wants will potentially remove 88 of the roughly 800 members. This will include 45 Conservative and four Labour members. Readers can make up their own mind about why that might be the case.

On pensions, the £900 increase this year he implies is a Labour benefit was nothing to do with Labour as it was before the election.  He also fails to mention that pensions in Britain are the worst in Western Europe and the number of pensioners now paying tax has doubled since 2010 from 4.5 million to 9.15 million. With no plans to increase the tax threshold for pensioners this isn’t all as good as he tries to make it sound.  

More interestingly, he fails to mention the removal of the winter fuel payment by Labour in Westminster, which disproportionally impacts Scottish pensioners keeping them colder and poorer than before Labour came into power.

To be fair, this attack on some of our poorest in society wasn’t in any manifesto pledge, and has been downplayed by the mainstream Scottish media. Readers can make up their own mind about why that might be the case.

You’d better believe I’m going to come back on GB Energy being established and headquartered in Scotland. That topic needs a whole letter of its own where readers can make their own mind up about who really benefits. I think Labour’s John McTernan, Tony Blair’s former adviser, put it best on Times Radio recently when he said: “It just went from the country demanding change to a Government delivering drift.”

M.C. Barry says that Labour will “fix the foundations”. They could have chosen to pile-drive the foundations by increasing tax on the wealthiest people in Britain and raising enough money to reverse the austerity measures that Mr “Read My Lips” Sarwar says would not happen under a Labour government. 

Instead they are building the foundations on families in poverty by retaining the two child benefit cap, the bedroom tax and taking the winter fuel allowance away from millions of pensioners.

To my mind, they don’t want to upset all those rich people who make donations to the Labour party and provide some of its members with lots and lots of freebies. Readers can make up their own mind about why that might be the case.

Paul Malloy, Newton Street, Greenock

Hypocrisy over Alex Salmond

So, Alex Salmond, as we all know, has sadly died. 

Reader, the great many people in the SNP who bad mouthed him and attempted to destroy him are now praising him to the heavens. And making the rest of us spew up. 

The pretension is eye watering. They are truly sickening. Have they any scruples or shame?

John Bowes, Fancy Farm Road, Greenock