Readers of The National

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Letters If VisitScotland's iCentres are hardly being used, they should close

IT seems a bit sad that VisitScotland iCentres are to close, but if the concept has had its day then why keep it going? They will surely have statistics regarding visitor numbers, so will know if they have been tailing off dramatically, likely due to the rise in use of personal devices that can access the internet 24 hours a day.

Letters Why should anyone have a 'duty to suffer' if terminally ill?

GIVEN the general tenor of Tuesday’s letters about assisted dying it would seem that their opinion is that no matter what, we should all have imposed on us “a duty to suffer” if terminally ill. To which I immediately think, to what end? To appease who and what? And to what purpose? Why should anyone have imposed on them from others an outright denial of their own autonomy to make their own decision when faced with a terminal and outrageously painful end (if that is the way it is shaping up)?

Letters I hate to agree with Murdo Fraser, but on topic of ‘hate crime’ I do

AFTER having a good laugh at the unlovely Murdo’s complaint to Police Scotland I took a moment to reflect on the new “hate” crime law and what it will lead to. I hate to agree with Fraser – whose politics I detest – but both he and Joanna Cherry are not wrong when they suggest this legislation will open a Pandora’s box of malicious and fatuous complaints to the police.

Letters With nearly 100 MPs stepping down, it's time for serious reflection

AS politicians enter a period of recess can we take time to reflect? Reflect on the political scenario we find ourselves in, awaiting a much-needed Westminster election. On reflection it has been a pretty rough time for the Conservatives, much of which has been self-inflicted, but unfortunately it is the country that has suffered the consequences. Yet what the country has heard from Labour has been a commitment to more of the same. No commitment from Labour to introduce a “Child Payment” like we have in Scotland across the rest of the UK in an effort to tackle the ever increasing poverty rates, which are a damning reflection on us all. And what about the cost-of-living crisis still crippling many households?

Letters Haudin yer wheesht and hoping for independence will not work

STAN Grodynski (Letters, Mar 25) would prefer that I “condemn the UK Government” than comment on “perceived SNP shortcomings”. I have been condemning the UK Government for the past 50 years but they just don’t seem to be listening! I live more in hope than expectation that the SNP might still be listening.

Letters Reducing pensions is a political decision, not an economic one

I LOVE Shona Craven’s articles and mostly wholly agree with them. But I take some issue with her article on the WASPI women (Claims of pension ‘theft’ were always misleading, Mar 26). The government did in fact “steal” our pensions, in my case about £50k’s worth, somewhat rubbishing the ombudsman’s announcement that the DWP failings did not result in “direct financial loss”. Of course they did.