Readers' Letters: Humza Yousaf's Scottish Bond is doomed to failure

First Minister Humza Yousaf wants there to be a Scottish Bond (Picture: Andy Buchanan/AFP)

Humza Yousaf must know his party is in for an electoral drubbing, both at Westminster and now even at Holyrood. How come? Simple: Mr Yousaf is losing the plot. He wants to introduce a Scottish Bond to sell to the international markets. This from a government unable to build two ferries and in ownership of a train system, and even an airport, that almost certainly will lose money.

On top of that, this is a government that fails to build roads and cannot even fix potholes. As an added bonus, it is well known for being business unfriendly.

Of course, this pronouncement by Mr Yousaf at the SNP conference has caveats. The next step will be to commission a detailed analysis and do necessary due diligence. It will get no further than that and be quietly dropped if Mr Yousaf is lucky. If he, or his successor, is unlucky it will go ahead, only to be poorly subscribed to.

It is a lose/lose strategy. Is anyone other than Mr Yousaf surprised?

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Oh, the irony

I was born in Aberdeen, as was my father and his father. The most common saying in the family was “never a borrower or a lender be”. The irony of announcing the proposed Scottish Bond in Aberdeen was not lost on me.

Richard McIntosh, Newmarket

Imagine my surprise

Are we to believe that it was quite fortuitous during Nicola Sturgeon’s “surprise” appearance at the SNP conference that they just happened to have a (short) video montage of her career highlights or was this yet another orchestrated headline grabbing warm-up act for the main event of the week ?

As she descended the escalator from above, into the waiting arms of her adoring flock, their eyes streaming tears of emotion, it was much like the homecoming of a long-lost relative arriving just in time for the funeral service of a much-loved old friend. In many respects that is exactly what it was, hugs and kisses, tea and tears over the demise of the dearly departed SNP.

No amount of waffling reviews and marketing hyperbole can turn a turkey into a classic movie or Nicola Sturgeon’s X-rated performance in office into a happy-ever-after fairy story. Her legacy is a string of policy flops for a B movie, “Full of the Wind”.

She is not the Messiah, she is a very naughty girl.

Allan Thompson, Bearsden, Glasgow

Poor show

First Minister Humza Yousaf has hit so many hiccups with his master plan to freeze council tax in 2024 he would have been better to take good advice from his many highly paid advisers – well, those who haven’t let him down badly. Local authorities association Cosla and coalition partners the Scottish Greens are all upset about the financial implications of the freeze and, ironically, the poor in Scotland will not benefit from the council tax freeze.

Mr Yousaf would have done better to honour the SNP promise to overhaul the council tax system, which is now completely unfit for purpose as it fails to take household income into account.

Dennis Forbes Grattan, Bucksburn, Aberdeen

Terrorise BBC bosses

The BBC refuses to call Hamas “terrorists”. The solution is easy. The government should declare that anyone refusing to pay the BBC licence fee will be immune from prosecution.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

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