Labour failed the Western Isles

Remember Mr Manson, the man who got our NHS into serious debt and created chaos. Despite the public meetings in the town hall, the Labour government only removed him because he criticised them.

Lets not forget the jobs front in the early 2000's, there was a Welsh company at Arnish who used the local grant money to sustain jobs in Wales. Only after it closed and the workers made redundant did anyone from Labour pay attention and that was after the workers asked a number of embarrassing questions.

When the fish processing plant in Scalpay closed in Spring 2005 the workers commented that Mr Macdonald was reluctant to become involved. As for factories employing 400 people, this is a figment of the Labour imagination.

The number of social houses built under Labour you could count on one hand. Despite there being major build programmes under the SNP, there are still many more needed. So much for Labour addressing the declining population.

Lets not forget Labour's proudest moment in 2008 when the banks crashed because Blair, Brown and Darling deregulated the banks. This allowed the banks to amount unprecedented toxic debt. Bailing out the banks cost the public purse, almost £1 trillion, which has only grown under successive Labour and Conservative governments.

We now have excessive austerity as a result where the poorest in society are paying the price while the wealthy including the top bankers are getting rich.

Both Blair and Brown were at the heart of the rich getting richer and the poor get poorer. Brown was that bad he robbed the poor working peoples pension pots of £10's of billions and then told the people to make provision for old age.

I suppose only Calum Macdonald can answer why the Labour government failed to provide a new inter-connector. The need for it was recognised long before he was replaced as our MP and he could have called on the support of Labour governments in both Edinburgh and London.

The last thing these islands needs is another inept Labour MP who is well and truly out of their depth.

Archie Harper

27 Shulishader

Isle of Lewis

HS2 0PU

Letter: Labour “failed” the Western Isles

3 June 2017

Sir,

In response to Calum Macdonald's letter (30th May) it clearly defines how far divorced from the realities within the Western Isles constituency he was when he was our MP.

Under Labour, not only was there problems with the NHS here on the islands, there was total dissatisfaction across Scotland. The number of people discharged from the Western Isles hospital only to be re-admitted within a very short time was incredible. Hardly a day passed without an incident of some sort.