Fewer births and a move to the countryside could reduce threat of pandemics – Letters

A Scotsman reader says big changes are needed to protect us

Should we be looking to the countryside for a safer future? (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

In our grossly overpopulated world, we’ll have to reckon with recurring pandemics.

Since people living and working cheek-by-jowl spread diseases, we need a lower and less urbanised population, even in Scotland.

Therefore, two policies should be adopted: (a) end subsidies for having kids, and (b) end the economic drag of taxing people for working, investing and consuming, by using our community-created land values for revenue instead. These being far lower outside our big cities, there’ll be a fiscal incentive to move out.

A renaissance of our small towns and villages can be achieved.

George Morton

Hudson Road, Rosyth

App dangers?

In his fine analysis of the pros and cons of having a mobile phone app for contact-tracing potential Covid-19 sufferers (“Virus tracing app will raise fundamental concerns over privacy”, 22 April), Martyn McLaughlin asks whether the National Cyber Security Centre might have played some role in the instigation of this technology.

Certain sections of the security and police services will be fervently hoping for covert influence in the design and use of such software.

Their last IT tool for intrusively monitoring private citizens, that is, facial recognition technology, has been neutralised by another consequence of Covid-19: the medium and long term use of lo-tech face masks.

David Muir

Findhorn Place, Edinburgh

Raab and labs

Dominic Raab appears to be unaware of the fact well known in the field of laboratory medicine that what goes on in the laboratory is the easy part to manage.

Has he not been told? His “capacity” to have 100,000 samples a day analysed is meaningless without also developing the capacity to have 100,000 samples taken with the correct procedure from the correct subjects, sent with the correct information in the correct container to the correct laboratory.

Also needed, of course, is the mechanism to transmit the correct results with the correct interpretation to the sender.

Or maybe he does know, but hopes the public don’t.

(Dr) Anthony Birch

Dargai Terrace, Dunblane

Oil to regret

More than £350 billion has been promised by the Chancellor to keep business from collapsing during the Covid-19 crisis. This will inevitably lead to a large rise in the national debt, which was already standing at almost two thousand billion pounds and, no doubt, will result in longterm tax rises for everyone and a much diminished standard of living for most. It could all have been so different.

We only have to look at little Norway, who prudently put away the bulk of their oil revenues in their sovereign wealth fund, which now stands at two trillion dollars. Norway will have not the slightest trouble in funding their economy for many years, if necessary.

The UK actually produced more oil than Norway but, in complete contrast, the UK government, with their usual short-sightedness, blew every penny in cutting income tax for the wealthiest, from 60 per cent to 40 per cent, so there is not a penny left to fund us through these difficult times.

If we had saved even half of what Norway saved for a rainy day we would now be able to easily sail through the economic storm which awaits us, but that would have required prudence and planning, neither of which is to be found in Westminster.

James Duncan

Rattray Grove, Edinburgh

Poosie Nancy knows

Bill Jamieson worries about how we will pay for the government’s “soaring debt”, but he must be aware of this solution which did the rounds in the 2008 crash. It is a slow day in a small Scottish town, the streets are deserted, times are tough, everyone’s in debt and living on credit. A tourist drives through, stops at the hotel, and lays a £50 note on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night.

He goes upstairs, so the hotel owner grabs the note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the £50 and runs out to pay his debt to the pig farmer who happens to walk past. The pig farmer takes the £50 and rushes off to pay his bill to the vet.

The vet takes the £50 and runs to pay her debt to the hotel where she held her hen party the week before. The hotel keeper places the £50 note back on the counter where the tourist left it. The tourist reappears, says the rooms are all unsatisfactory, picks up the £50 and leaves.

No one produced anything. No one earned anything. But the townspeople are now out of debt and look to the future with optimism. Poosie Nancie, Bill Jamieson’s feisty Fife feline, would surely agree!

John Birkett

Horseleys Park, St Andrews

Get it together

Coronavirus is changing the world in ways we could not have envisaged only months ago. When it is combined with the stunning effects of the drastic drop in demand for petrol, plus the increased production by Russia and Saudi Arabia, which have forced the price of crude in the USA into negative value, the cornucopia of oil envisaged by our own separatists can be seen to have been self-deception, as well as deception of the Scottish people.

The knock-on effects of the virus will hit world trade extremely hard and even Germany will struggle to sell cars, Spain to sell holidays and the UK to sell financial services. It will, of course, hit Edinburgh’s financial services industry hard as well. The outcome will be that the EU, which is already in utter disarray, with Hungary being ruled by decree; the south and north at odds over even more rescue packages for the former’s basket-case economies; Schengen at an end; and Emmanuel Macron trying to become top man will have to come to the table with a deal we can accept.

The EU will be in great need of their biggest market (that’s us, by the way) getting a good deal from them, no less than we want a market for our produce and services. Necessity is the mother of invention and the world will be in great need of trade when we return to some measure of normality.

It is time for the separatists to get real and build on the consensus that Nicola Sturgeon is, no doubt with teeth gritted, working with the UK Government. We will sink or swim together as the UK, not two separate entities. There is no room for divisiveness.

Peter Hopkins

Morningside Road, Edinburgh

Let my people go

The best news to come out of France in recent weeks is the U-turn by President Macron on his decision to continue the confinement of the over-70s after the rest if the population is set free on 11 May. In the wake of his earlier speech, a pensioner spokesperson warned: “The prolonged containment of elderly people will cause great physical and mental suffering, and almost certainly lead to a loss of the will to live.” Macron accepted this caveat, saying “the Swedish option will be available” ie the final decision will be left to the individual.

How I wish we “oldies” were allowed such personal freedom by Holyrood and Westminster.

(Rev Dr) John Cameron

Howard Place, St Andrews

Open the doors and...

Churches should reopen. Many church buildings are large and many congregations are small. There is plenty of room for safe self-distancing.

(Rev) Dr Robert Anderson

Old Auchans View, Dundonald

No to Heathrow

We are still in the midst of the largest public health crisis in 100 years so the Perspective piece by Heathrow’s chief executive (“We’re working to keep Scotland connected long after Covid-19”, 10 April) is ill timed, ill-conceived and simply another attempt by a desperate corporation to mislead the Scottish public.

There can be no doubt that the world has changed dramatically and that the aviation sector along with many others may will see a reduction in size, with many business models no longer fit for purpose. Indeed, even aviation industry experts are predicting that pre-crisis demand not returning until 2022 at the earliest.

Further, the chief executive fails to reflect on the Court of Appeal ruling that the Airports National Policy Statement was unlawful, as the UK Government did not consider climate change commitments. Consequently, the hopes of expansion of Heathrow’s shareholders hang by a thread. UK aviation emissions in 2018 were at an all-time high so claims that sustainable fuels can help reduce emissions are simply not credible when based on technological solutions that do not currently exist or will not be commercially viable in the next 30 years.

Connectivity for Scotland is indeed important but why should passengers and freight continue to be reliant on Heathrow? It would surely be better economically and environmentally for direct connections to the world to be delivered from Scottish airports.

Paul Beckford

Policy Director, No 3rd Runway Coalition, Tinkers Way, Downham Market, Norfolk

Can the plan

Through Cityplan 2030 and the City Mobility Plan, the City of Edinburgh Council is currently consulting on our housing and transport strategies for the next ten years. These should both be put on hold until we have some idea about what the world will look like when we come out of the current Covid-19 pandemic.

The strategies are underpinned by assumptions about population growth, economic growth, tourism, preferences for public transport and more. None of these assumptions will have foreseen what would happen in 2020. Predicting the future is always difficult but when the word “unprecedented” becomes a cliché you know its time to put the crystal ball away.

It may be the case that the council is compelled by the Government to produce a plan. If that is the case then they too should recognise that now is not the time for longterm plans – our focus should be surviving the pandemic and the immediate aftermath. Important strategic decisions shouldn’t be made with limited consultation and even less information or we will be regretting them for the next ten years – maybe even longer.

Aonghas McIntosh

Juniper Park Road, Edinburgh

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