Published: Thursday, 15th January, 2009 10:00am

All will pay for Labour's spending

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THE Scottish Government"s request to bring forward a capital allocation was knocked back by the Treasury (Press, 8th January).

This wasn"t a gift that was asked for but an advance that could provide much needed employment and avoid cut backs such as those illustrated in your article.

In the usual Labour support for Westminster, Alex Rowley attacks the Scottish Government 'you have to question the financial competence...'. I wonder if it has occurred to Mr Rowley that before the financial crisis Britain was the fourth or fifth richest nation on earth, now it is forecast to have the deepest and longest recession of any developed nation! (OECD and IMF). Whose financial incompetence has led to this situation? Surely not Gordon 'Prudence' Brown. Even the odious Tony Blair admitted that the boom was 'a matter of luck'.

Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling have raised British national debt to its highest ever level in an attempt to stimulate the economy through, among other measures, capital projects. The proposed new Forth crossing is a 'capital project'.

Of course, Labour, in their usual cynical manner, have calculated that the Scottish Labour vote is in the bag so they will spend vast amounts in the English marginals they need to win the next election. Wherever Brown spends the money remember we will all pay for it through increased taxes in the future.

Curiously, Willie Rennie MP, without any embarrassment, wades into the argument, probably forgetting that during this election campaign Liberal-Democrats were campaigning against the Forth Road Bridge tolls, which Tavish Scott MSP, also a Liberal-Democrat, transport minister at the time, wanted to raise!

Jim Tolson, Liberal-Democrat MSP, claims it 'is outrageous that Scotland could be independent and yet go cap in hand to Westminster'. Mr Tolson clearly knows nothing about Scotland"s finances which indicate that Scotland would be a healthy small nation with a better standard of living than now. These politicians who belong to the unbelievable, the unelectable and the unprincipled parties must have sore knees indeed!

Worst of all, of course, is the party who have betrayed the poor, disadvantaged and the lower paid among the work force and can be best characterised as dishonest, incompetent, anti-democratic, big-business friendly and war mongering.

They are responsible for maybe hundreds of thousands of deaths but unfortunately there are still rank and file who believe they are a Labour party.

Bill McLean,

5 Rosemill Court, Newmills