Readers' Letters: Churchman right to say politics should be gentler

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby is on to something in calling for more tolerance in our political life, and certainly here in the UK (Editorial, 2 January). There is intolerance which sometimes spills over into demonisation of “the other” (which we certainly see here in Scotland). There is absolutism, ie, in policy, little compromise, with parties ramming through their manifesto, regardless of what percentage they received in an election. This points to a problem with the Westminster voting system.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said politicians should treat opponents as human beings (Picture: Henry Nicholls/AFP)

There is a “win at all costs” mentality, with excessive spin, and a bending of the rules if necessary. The common good too often comes way behind party advantage – not a new problem but one which seems to have worsened. By British standards, our body politic is not healthy!

William Ballantine, Bo'ness, West Lothian

Fantasy money

Leah Gunn Barrett is in no position to accuse other correspondents of “economic ignorance” (Letters, 30 December). Her belief concerning national debt is that “The government, as a sovereign currency issuer, can always create the money to repay.”

Such simplistic notions derive from Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), otherwise known as the Magic Money Tree. This has been debunked numerous times and is nothing more than financial hocus-pocus; Ms Gunn Barrett repeatedly writing letters about it will not make it work in practice. Venezuela, Argentina and Zimbabwe have all attempted to implement MMT, with ruinous consequences. Bankrupt Argentina was once amongst the ten wealthiest nations in the world, while Venezuela is utterly impoverished despite being rich in oil reserves. Zimbabwe was “the bread-basket of Africa” when it exported enormous quantities of food but nowadays the country can’t even feed itself.

A recent University of Chicago survey of leading economists has found that none of them supported the MMT doctrine that countries could simply print money to finance their debts. This merely increases the money supply, fuelling price rises and inflation.

Unfortunately, MMT is just the kind of fantasy that our beloved Scottish Government and their separatist followers are desperate to believe in.

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

Full-time job?

Liz Lloyd, Nicola Sturgeon's former chief-of-staff, tells us the former first minister “is hiding away writing her book” before adding “but she is in parliament and doing fine”. Oh dear, a rare slip followed by a weak recovery from a once prominent SNP spin-doctor. Sturgeon is paid nearly £68,000 pa as an MSP by us to be fully occupied each and every day on behalf of her constituents of Glasgow Southside, part of which comprises areas of extreme poverty and deprivation.

If she's busily isolating herself, trying to dredge her memory, and then cobble together her autobiography, is she serving her constituents effectively and justifying her significant public sector salary? Or perhaps Sturgeon considers being an MSP a part-time job. Alternatively, maybe it's time for her to accept what so many of us already know – her retirement from Holyrood is overdue.

Martin Redfern, Melrose, Roxburghshire

Wrong question

The conditions in Scotland will never be right, nor should they be, to allow what Liam McArthur MSP calls “assisted dying” in Scotland. His assumptions are based on poor data and understanding of the issues, both morally and socially, provided by the Dignity in Dying campaign.

He is asking the wrong questions. The two key questions here are people’s fear of dying and the lack of palliative care provision across Scotland. This is why some folk chose to travel – the fear of not having the right care at the right time.

If, like me, you live in Orkney, I can understand why someone may chose an “assisted death” out of fear of the lack of care and support. A home death in Orkney is not an option, nor is it safe. We have no palliative care services that can deliver when needed. Mr McArthur would do well to sort this out before he takes us down his purposed road of what is correctly called “medicalised killing”. His data is based on asking the wrong question: “Would you like to see ‘assisted dying’ in Scotland?” He should have asked: “Would you like to see medicalised killing in Scotland?” and he would have received a very different answer.

Mr McArthur thinks he is being supported by Dignity in Dying, when in fact he is support their campaign. He needs to wake up and smell the coffee, as does Holyrood. Sort palliative care out and the ferries in Orkney first, Mr McArthur – that is why we sent you to Holyrood.

Francis Edwards, St Bruno’s, Sanday, Orkney Islands

Plans needed

In all the fine words and condemnation emanating from the Scottish opposition parties about Scottish education's seemingly inexorable slide down the pan you have to look very hard to find anything on their website, press releases or Holyrood speeches about what they would actually do to fix the problems of discipline, the disastrous Curriculum For Education and absence from school.

I looked at the Labour and Conservative web pages. A load of blah about restoring standards, personalised tuition, more teaching support staff and, in the case of the Tories, 3,000 more teachers… from where? Oh, and how terrible the SNP/Greens have been.

The opposition parties have had 16 years to work out what should be done and how to win an election. There's one coming up next year, and while education may be devolved they should surely be using all the airtime they get to showcase their plans and convince people the road to changing education and enabling their party to do it starts by voting for the pro-UK party with the best Scottish policies. The usual excuse is that the SNP would just steal their policies.

Bring it on! By the time of the next Holyrood elections around 100,000 kids will have left school mostly unprepared or skilled for the world of work and another 100,000 will have started.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

AI nightmare

Mr Bates Versus The Post Office on ITV X is an absolutely brilliant drama documentary with superb acting which describes one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British criminal history, caused by the Post Office's Horizon computer system. It is frightening to see the way the Post Office Investigation Branch behaved like the Stasi, and the way postmasters and postmistresses were treated. Between 2000 and 2014 more than 700 were wrongfully convicted of stealing cash. One Surrey postmistress was sentenced to 15 months in prison when she was pregnant. Others committed suicide. All were bankrupted. The prosecution relied on “expert” witnesses who said that the Horizon computer system made by Fujitsu was infallible, when in fact it was rotten.

The lesson to be learned as we enter the dubious age of driverless cars and AI – where computers take decisions affecting us all – is that computers are neither failsafe nor completely reliable.

William Loneskie, Oxton, Lauder, Berwickshire

Glass cronies

We are told the First Minister hit out – with good reason, many would say – at the UK's Honours List “cronyism”. Only in an administration lacking even the most basic sense of irony and self-awareness could people make remarks like this, presumably with a straight face.

Fair enough. But does it ever strike Humza Yousaf, or his special advisers, that his administration had just appointed, without any known selection process, Michael Russell, a former SNP president, as head of a supposedly impartial and taxpayer-funded advisory quango?

It would be difficult to find a more blatant example of old pals’ act-cronyism. When will they learn what people in glass houses should not do?

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Party pooped

On 31 December I tuned into BBC Scotland to watch the Hogmanay Show. What a disappointment. It turned out to be Edith Bowman chatting to various “celebrities” interspersed with sort of Gaelic folk-rock musical performances, plus, of course, the fireworks display at Edinburgh Castle and the street parties.

It's not so long ago that the BBC presented a studio Hogmanay Party including an accordion band, country dancing, well-known singers, pipers and... the bells!

None of that was to be seen this year. In the end, I watched a 1984 BBC Hogmanay party on YouTube, featuring the likes of Moira Anderson, Bill McCue, Sydney Devine, dancers, a country dance band and an actively engaged crowd of guests of all ages, all thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Why is it seemingly so impossible for BBC Scotland to remember that the traditional Hogmanay celebration in Scotland was always based upon parties large and small, and lots of singing and dancing. Surely we get enough of celebrity chatting and anonymous music from BBC Scotland 364 days of the year?

Derek Farmer, Anstruther, Fife

Electric point

Oh dear me, no, Mr.McKenzie (Letters, 2 January)! The answer to power cuts caused by falling pylons is to get rid of them, not trees. It's surely about time another way of transmitting electricitywas found, rather than depending on ugly, unsafe pylons.

Lovina Roe, Perth

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