Letter: Policy rethink

Mr Birkett will be aware that matters such as the level of the state pension and winter fuel allowances are outside the powers of the Holyrood parliament.

However, as radical thinking seems to be missing in Holyrood, we are left with the important fact that the Scottish Government budget is not a budget, but simply an exercise in the allocation of a block grant; and that while we are to spend 200 million on an unrestricted bus pass, and several millions on free prescriptions from 1 April, our education system is to receive substantial cuts in funding.

In this block grant situation, it really is a matter of taking from Peter to pay Paul.

Of course, were the decision before us in May whether to give the SNP a mandate to negotiate independence, and that happy event came to pass, then we really would end up discussing a real budget, and have scope for radical ideas.

Jim Sillars

Grange Loan

Edinburgh

With more than 74,000 individuals - or four in ten students - studying in higher education part-time, it is heartening to see their needs are finally being recognised within the debate on university funding (your report, 7 March).

Under the current system, part-time students still pay tuition fees in Scotland and have limited access to assist with those fees and other forms of support available to their full-time counterparts.

Given the critical role that part-time study plays in workforce development, widening participation in higher education, social mobility and serving remote communities, now is the time to remove the artificial and archaic divide between full- and part-time study. Part-time provision is a key part of the "Scottish solution".

(Dr) James A Miller

Open University in Scotland

Drumsheugh Gardens

Edinburgh