Readers' Letters: Are constituents getting good value from Sturgeon?

Residents of Nicola Sturgeon’s constituency could be justified in hoping that resigning as First Minister should mean their MSP would be much more focused on addressing the challenging living standards sadly experienced by many in Glasgow Southside.

Nicola Sturgeon with driving instructor Andy MacFarlane last week (Picture: Nicola Sturgeon/Instagram)

But is she? Certainly, she has committed herself fully (and successfully) to learning to drive, plus she's busily generating additional income streams from writing: producing book reviews for mainstream media and spending 10-15 hours (her own figures) every week writing about herself for a forthcoming memoir.

I wonder, is she putting as much renewed effort into tackling poverty and its appalling associated problems in her own constituency? This is, after all, her full-time taxpayer-funded job.

Martin Redfern, Melrose, Roxburghshire

Not the brightest

Has there ever been a time in Scotland when our politicians have been held in lower esteem? With a few exceptions they are surely the least able people ever to make decisions on our behalf. Think of the ferries, the Census, the airport, the GR bill, the steel plant... ad infinitum. The SNP and Green contingent in particular, again with one or two exceptions, lack intellectual ability and vigour. Where else would you see a minister in the ruling administration, probably earning around £100,000 a year, checking to see what he has written on his hand when standing up to answer a straightforward question? Holyrood has been a disastrous, failed experiment; a sop to a threat that did not exist.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Blades of glory?

Politicians were too busy polishing their green halos to ask if wind turbine blades could be recycled. There are 11,000 turbines in the UK but not one Scottish or English politician, eco-warrior or Greta Thunberg raised this important question. The 33,000 blades at present spinning around, some 351 feet long, will end up in landfill since they cannot be recycled. So wind turbines not only produce unreliable, expensive electricity, they create long-term environmental problems.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Last Word

So Satan was responsible for the very sacrifice (the Crucifixion) that Christians claim has conquered him (Neil Anderson, Letters, 15 October)! This is such a stupid and irrational idea that it's a wonder that John wrote verse 13:2.No one should take this idea seriously.

Yes, it does seem that Judas was later full of remorse. That's because he had only done what Jesus told him to do. Jesus had expected that, although crucified, he would recover (be “resurrected”), so demonstrating that the belief of the Pharisees in resurrection was correct, so confounding the ruling Sadducees and leading to political turmoil. Jesus must have assured Judas the latter would be protected when it was explained why his action was essential to the plan.

However Jesus' plan failed because a Roman guard decided to make sure he really was dead (Jn 19:34-35). That appears to have caused a serious wound. So concerned were Joseph and Nicodemus that they removed Jesus from the tomb a day early, perhaps hoping to save him. But that broke Jesus' prophecy. He was never seen alive again, so one has to presume that he died and was buried somewhere in Jerusalem.

Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh

Write to Scotland on Sunday

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