Slowly but surely the rot has set in over much of Scotland's former glory. Education now relegated to second rate, our wholly devolved NHS failing to keep waiting lists manageable, our economy so bad Shona Robison is begging the UK for more cash, and so it goes on. Scotland is no longer associated with just whisky and kilts, add in soft justice for under-25s, unworkable gender reforms and no ferries.

Scotland was charmed by a political party offering far more than it could deliver and now offering excuses, not solutions to all the problems it has caused. Scotland urgently needs a change of government but this appears to be a long way off. Independence is not viable, but if even devolution is to have a chance of working our voting system needs an urgent overhaul. Allowing one party to dominate proceedings for so long has been a disaster. Allowing this same party to ally itself with one of the least popular parties in Scotland, then letting it have a huge say in government is undemocratic. Will Scotland ever recover to its former self?

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Grangemouth, Scotland's only oil refinery, could close as soon as Spring 2025 with the loss of hundreds of jobs (Picture: Getty)

No foreign remit

Can Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar explain why, as a Scottish Parliament MSP, it is any of his business to be bringing forward votes on a ceasefire in Gaza (your report, 19 November), thereby giving his party at a UK level political problems and effectively undermining a future potential Prime Minister?

No-one in Scotland has given our pretendy parliament the authority to be debating such issues. Foreign affairs is reserved to Westminster. If Mr Sarwar wants Scottish Labour to be having their voice heard on foreign affairs, he needs to be getting MPs elected at that level. He won’t do that if he causes problems within his own party.

Anas Sarwar should be devoting 100 per cent of his time just now to keeping his foot on the throat of an inept SNP administration. If he can do that, he might just facilitate their rapid implosion, and do his party some good. Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t care two jots about what lightweight politicians at Holyrood think he is doing.

So, any time spent discussing the situation there is time wasted. Virtue signalling is not helping anyone in this situation, not the people of Gaza or Israel, and certainly not the people of Scotland, who have given him a particular remit, and expect him to stick to that.

A potential First Minister has to be able to exercise better judgment when it comes to deciding priorities. If Sarwar cannot do that, he will be no better than the FM we have already, and he has the standards of office set at a very low level indeed.

Victor Clements, Aberfeldy, Perthshire

Global warning

Clark Cross's (Letters, 19 November) appears to believe volcanoes, earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes and tsunamis “create greenhouse gases” because the reconstruction often required afterwards involves materials and machinery that themselves create such gases. That's nonsense on stilts. It's like blaming victims of an injury for the cost of treatment. Greenhouse gases are emitted naturally but the present change is due to man-made emissions.

It is true that we will have to adapt to global warming until someone has the sense to stop it by shading the planet. That's the only hope for the future of civilisation.

Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh

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Readers' Letters: Grangemouth closure symbolic of Scottish Government failures

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