Readers' Letters: Cameron should kick out 'pretendy' Scots embassies

First Minister Humza Yousaf seems to have upset Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron during the former’s criticised attendance at COP28 by speaking to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan without a UK government official being present.

First Minister Humza Yousaf upset David Cameron over his COP28 meeting with Turkish President Erdogan (Picture: Peter Summers/Getty Images)

Our "pretendy” world leader seems to have breached long-standing protocols by doing this and strayed into territory which is the prerogative of the UK Government. In keeping with Scottish Government practice, no doubt there will be no record of the meeting, only the participants will be aware of whether the First Minister showed his displeasure with UK government policies.

It’s hardly the type of action which will improve trust between Westminster and Holyrood. Perhaps Lord Dave should go ahead with his threat to kick out the “pretendy” Scottish embassies from UK embassies overseas. Then again, it might have been more beneficial for the First Minister to have stayed at home and attended to more pressing matters like combating violence in schools and improving the educational prospects for our children!

Bob MacDougall, Kippen, Stirlingshire

Rein Yousaf in

Is it any wonder the Foreign Office is furious? The whole eye-wateringly expensive circus of the uninvited First Minister's trip to Dubai is deeply disturbing. Apparently, an agreement had been reached with the Foreign Office about Scottish MSPs overseas and this protocol, it seems, was deliberately breached by Humza Yousaf.

His meeting with the ruthless president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with no agreed FO official in attendance and the circumstances surrounding it are stomach-churning. Did he have notes and minutes taken of his meetings? I think most know the answer to that.

He invited himself to a climate conference where it was painfully clear no one knew him or had heard of him – his photo op with Ursula von der Leyen, where he seems to have interrupted her coffee break as she was perusing papers but put on a face for the camera – was excruciating. Every move he made, every approach that we have been shown, indicates a tragi-comic Mr Bean figure.

Mr Yousaf would have been much better staying at home and attending to the mountain of problems he has here. You must wonder who is advising the FM and if they have his best interests at heart as he and his party continue to plummet in the ratings.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Trident works

It’s easy to grant Marjorie Ellis Thompson’s “answers on a postcard” request for examples of conflicts Trident has succeeded in preventing (Letters, 8 December).Ukraine used to have atomic weapons. When it gave them up, Russia invaded. The UK’s nuclear missiles and those of our Nato allies have protected us from similar aggression, so that even Ms Ellis Thompson and self-styled “First Activist” Humza Yousaf may sleep soundly at night.Trident’s home at HM Naval Base Clyde is Scotland’s biggest single site employer, providing work for 7,000 people locally as well as generating thousands of other jobs in service industries. But this matters little to the anti-nuclear Scottish separatists. They would be happy to leave weapons of mass destruction to the likes of Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un.

Incidentally, it would be interesting to know where Ms Ellis Thompson gets her information about Poland and Romania supposedly having higher living standards than Britain by 2030; does this prediction apply to GB as a whole, or just to Scotland if the SNP/Green coalition cling on to power until then?

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

Bargaining chips

Like most decent people, I find it disturbing to see pictures of the extreme conditions in Gaza and long for an end to the fighting, but I cannot forget the unheralded atrocities of the attack on innocent civilians in Israel by terrorists.

It is also hard to reconcile the understandable votes of the United Nations for peace and the absolute silence on the fact that murdering terrorists have taken hostages and using them as bargaining chips. It used to be a given that one never bargained with ransom demands as it only encouraged further ransom acts; but that is exactly what the silence of the United Nations is achieving and thus encouraging further hostage taking all round the world. The same double standards seem to apply in relation to Qatar, which acts as host to a terrorist organisation and is regarded by large-scale sports events.

The non-action of the West in many areas of the world over the years has been founded on selfish interests like trade and sponsorship deals. The price is often paid by civilians in the outbreak of war incidents (32 in the world at a recent count) but with the apparent legitimising of hostage taking it might soon well hit our own streets.

James Watson, Dunbar, East Lothian

Back office blues

Andrew Parrott argues (Letters, 11 December), that even if Scotland loses another 1,500 police officers, it will still have more officers per head than areas across the UK except London. As ever, a soundbite favourable to the SNP government looks good until closely examined. In the early years of Police Scotland there were several voluntary redundancy programmes through which thousands of civilian staff who did excellent jobs, left. These roles were backfilled by highly trained frontline police officers, at greater cost than the staff they replaced. So Scotland may well have more police officers per head, but far too many are now carrying out civilian jobs rather than being where they should be, in front-line policing doing what they are trained to do, where the public want them to be, and where they would be effective in tackling and preventing crime.

Quoting figures without the full context paints an artificially positive picture and Mr Parrott, perhaps unwittingly, seems to be repeating the SNP narrative, but Scotland deserves better than the “get out of jail free” card that “it’s worse in England”.

Scotland’s police officers do an amazing job despite, not because of, the SNP government. Let’s just hope the investigation into the murky world of SNP finance concludes soon so that more officers can get back on the beat.

Brian Barbour, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland

Aim for excellence

I understand why Stan Grodynski (Letters, 11 December) prefers to write about UK Pisa scores rather than admit how dire Scotland’s performance has been. They have been falling since the first Pisa exercise in 2000. Then, the Scottish scores were 533 for maths, 526 for reading and 522 for science, all comfortably above the Pisa average. After a steady decline in all three subjects, by 2022 the Scottish scores had slumped to 471 (maths), 493 (reading) and 483 (science). Yet Scotland has about 20 per cent more spent on its public services, thanks to the generosity of Mr Barnett, than the UK average.

Decline set in before the new curriculum was introduced, yet it has accelerated since its introduction. The one politician who has got to the heart of the matter is the SNP’s Kate Forbes, who recently criticised the prevailing view that “we need to make education simpler and easier in order to ensure everyone is achieving the same”. She continued, heretically, saying that what is needed is “hard work... aspiration and ambition”.

For too long there has been a culture of “all must have prizes”, with no-one winning because no-one can be allowed to lose. Mediocre work is praised to avoid discouraging its author. This reveals a complete failure to understand children’s inherent competitiveness and how they respond to stimulus and to being stretched. Achieving beyond their expectations gives them immense satisfaction.

I hope Ms Forbes’ welcome words result in schools valuing hard work and achievement once more and soft-pedalling the current emphasis on social issues and identity.

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Nationalist flop

In the topsy-turvy world of Scottish Nationalism there quite simply appears to be no place for any cooperation with the ages-old Parliament at Westminster. Any decisions taken by the SNP/Green alliance are intended to signify their defiance of the English – or “auld enemy”, as portrayed in history books. Little or no consideration is given by them to the fact that for over 300 years we have all been British, and are recognised as such internationally. It is very sad that in this northerly part of Great Britain a faction of the population believes there is a case for the disintegration of the UK, itself a relatively small nation in global terms.

The vision of the Labour/Liberal founding fathers of what became known as the Scottish Executive in 1998 was for the creation of a forum in which matters of special importance to this northerly part of the UK could be debated, and possibly agreed, at regional level. It was never their intention to try to preclude Westminster.

And unfortunately, what has come about more recently, as a direct result of SNP extremism, is an administration which is neither proficient in political matters, nor acceptable to the majority of Scots. Drastic changes are needed now since it is obvious that most functions devolved to Holyrood are in a dreadful state. The people of Scotland cannot wait until the scheduled 2026 Holyrood elections for changes to be implemented.

The Scottish Nationalist cause has done nothing positive for Scotland – it has caused rifts between families and friends – and has been the root cause of political disharmony.

Robert I G Scott, Northfield, Ceres, Fife