Readers' Letters: MSPs must resign after Cass Review on NHS gender services

Similar to the Post Office, although not so long in gestation, it seems that those who we elect to keep us all safe and in good health have let us down yet again.

Retired consultant paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass presented her Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People last week (Picture: Yui Mok/PA)

Susan Dalgety asks where the Scottish Government ministers are hiding following publication of the Cass Review on the NHS gender services in England (Perspective, 13 April).

OK, it’s England but given that our government have apparently been supportive of children being permitted to change gender without consultation with their parents, the silence is rather ominous to say the least.

More to the point, it needs to be pointed out that we have a Children's Comissioner whose sole responsibility is to review legislative action to ensure that it does not impact in a negative way on our children’s wellbeing.

Given that the UN has been clear on the Rights of the Child it would appear that Scotland has been too lax on ensuring that conversion practices are indeed safe and follow UN guidance. The guidance is extremely clear that parents and parenting should be at the heart of involvement in their children’s wellbeing, which is at odds with reports that parents are not being informed when children in education suggest they want to be known and addressed as a different gender.

Patently the Cass Review also suggest that little or no research has been carried out as to the longer term impact of medical and other affirmative action on those who are still developing mentally and physically, which is extremely alarming, and again, totally at odds with UN guidance.

Perhaps parents and other voters might consider that those in the Scottish Parliament who support gender realignment as practiced in the recent past are culpable in allowing our children to be potentially damaged by their support for this policy. I suggest that these MSPs should consider resigning given the information we, the public, now have available to us.

A Lewis, Coylton, Ayrshire

That’s puberty

I wonder if we'll ever hear any apologies from Nicola Sturgeon, Humza Yousaf et al MSPs at Holyrood who tried to allow gender change at the drop of a hat? They should also get down on their knees and thank Alister Jack for pulling them back from the cliff edge.

The Cass Review should wake everyone up to the fact that there are groups in our country who have dark, twisted ideas about the human race. Mother Nature makes the occasional mistake but the nonsensical idea promoted by Stonewall and others that biological sex is debateable will hopefully now be deposited where it should have been years ago, the wastebin of history. Isn't it just common sense? We all go through puberty... confusing?

Of course, that's puberty, get over it!

Stan Hogarth, Strathaven, South Lanarkshire

Gender agenda

In my naivety, I had assumed that medical practice in the 2020s was based on research leading to “evidence-based medicine”. Dr Hilary Cass, in her timely report, tells us that, in the case of “gender identity” clinics, invasive treatment has been delivered to adults and children which has been based on flimsy research and “remarkably weak” evidence. There should be a rigorous investigation into how this happened, in a profession whose motto is “first, do no harm”.

It seems likely that the Cass report will result in measures in England restricting the use of puberty blockers and hormones for confused children whose problems may or may not have anything to do with “gender”. But the chances of this happening in Scotland, where the Gender Recognition Reform Bill remains in limbo, are remote. There is in the coalition at Holyrood a party whose MSPs believe that children should be encouraged to change their “gender”, perhaps as early as age 6 or 7 – the Scottish Greens.

In what other area of a child’s development would the very young have their bodies experimented on with unproven treatments in the name of an unscientific belief system, which is what “gender ideology” is? Gender is a social construct; it is sex that is biological fact. The bottom line from which all of this should begin is, as Lord Winston says: you cannot change your sex.

And why are we taxpayers spending so much money on gender advocacy groups and similar quangos? Holyrood funds a cornucopia of organisations of this kind whose main function appears to be supporting SNP government policies. An overhaul of that arrangement is long overdue.

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Rogue states

No one can disagree with The Scotsman editorial (15 March) calling for de-escalation in the Middle East crisis. But I find it baffling that you do not even mention the stimulus for Iran’s largely symbolic missile attack, namely the deadly assault by Israel on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, contrary to international law. It is perfectly clear this provocation was ordered by Benjamin Netanyahu in the certain knowledge that the inevitable Iranian response would rally international support for his right wing government and its brutal war of revenge in Gaza. Your suggestion that the latest events are a reason for not suspending arms sales shows that, at least for The Scotsman, his cynical manoeuvre has worked. Israel is not an “ally”of the UK. Both Iran and Israel are rogue states who routinely break international law. We should not make things worse by supplying arms to either side.

Robert Cairns, Ceres, Cupar, Fife

Deliberate move

The attack by Iran on Israel will be condemned, yet there has been little condemnation of the Israeli attack on the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, which kicked off the latest round of hostilities. You get the impression that Israel deliberately stoked this up!

William Ballantine, Bo'ness, West Lothian

Burning brightly

With reference to the letter from Mandy Cairns of Communities Against Woodsmoke (13 April), what a right miserable country Scotland has become under the SNP Government, no longer able to enjoy the warmth and comfort of a roaring fire on a cold wet winter's night!

Log burners require a high degree of work, including the chopping and storing of logs, and so are never likely to have more than limited use. Properly installed, used and maintained there should be very little in the way of pollution.

Ms Cairns also seems to under the impression trees are being felled purely for use as firewood. Here in West Lothian, particularly in East Calder, West Calder and Livingston, acres of ground are being cleared of every single tree, bush and shrub in order to build as many houses as possible on the site.

It is very sad to see the huge piles of tree trunks awaiting collection, but at least the wood will be going to a sustainable source if it is being used to heat someone's house instead of using a gas boiler – which I understand are also soon to be outlawed.

Margaret Walker, Livingston, West Lothian

Log line

William Loneskie is far more perceptive than Mandy Cairns regarding woodburning stoves (Letters,15 April). If someone is lucky enough to have a home where the surrounding terrain gives them a 100 per cent reliable sustainable source of aesthetically pleasing fuel, often totally free of charge other than their own labour gathering it, only a fool would turn it down. The contrary viewpoint is that of the centralists who want to control and restrict every aspect of our lives, including our private lives, and charge us for the privilege, while they sit in taxpayer-funded offices counting paperclips.

Ian McNicholas, Ebbw Vale, Wales

Look elsewhere

Mandy Cairns makes some reasonable points in her letter against burning wood to heat the home. Many people wouldn't like to be smelling their neighbour's smoke in their homes if the wind was in the wrong direction. However, this wouldn't be a problem for isolated houses.

But why doesn't her group direct their attention to Drax Power Station, which probably burns more wood than the rest of Britain put together and receives green subsidies and credentials?

Geoff Moore, Alness, Highland

Bearing up

Joyce McMillan says that rising temperatures in the Arctic are a serious problem for polar bears (Perspective, 12 April). Accompanying the article is a picture of a polar bear supposedly in danger on a melting ice floe. In every discussion about global warming, bad weather or a changing climate it appears mandatory to mention polar bears.

Since 2004 we have been repeatedly warned polar bears in Western Hudson Bay, which is part of the Arctic Ocean, could become extinct. However, a new study reveals that this isn't true. A paper by zoologist Dr Susan Crockford, published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation, showed that the polar bear population estimate at 12,000 in the late 1960s has increased to just over 32,000 in 2023.

Why are the climate brigade still feeding misinformation and pictures to the media that polar bear numbers are dropping and their climate extinction is just round the corner? Are they frightened that their climate research grants dry up and they get pushed off the Climate Gravy Train?

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

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