Media hypocritical towards Cummings – Letters

Reporters were dangerously close to PM’s controversial aide, says reader

Regardless of what Dominic Cummings did and whether he broke rules, it seems to me that he was not actually accused of transmitting the virus to other individuals. I watched the BBC news on Sunday evening and noticed a great number of journalists and cameramen closely surrounding him at a car, with all of them being well within the two metres social distancing zone as if this was a pre Covid-19 outbreak gathering. I assume that the Metropolitan Police have already interviewed each of them and provided appropriate guidance, including a warning that a repeat will lead to a fine. I would also assume that journalists who were not present will now demand that they all be presented with a P45 from their employers.

John Peter, Monks Road, Airdrie, Lanarkshire

Cummings and goings

It is reported that the Prime Minister is in possession of the full facts following meetings in Downing Street on Sunday resulting in his backing for Dominic Cummings.

However, it is absolutely clear that all the safety advice and plans for the easing of lockdown are being completely overshadowed by these “Cummings and Goings” and the story must quickly move on to the fact that he has “gone”. One can understand the Prime Minister’s loyalty to Mr Cummings, but as with the First Minister’s efforts to keep her Chief Medical Office, Catherine Calderwood, the story cannot be the “lead” on every news bulletin to the detriment of the far more important safety messages.

Richard Allison, Braehead Loan, Edinburgh

Super-elite

The Cummings fiasco can be easily explained when one understands the psyche of the super-elite types such as citizen Cummings. 1) Do as I say not as I do; 2) Rank has its privileges; We, the super-elite, being all powerful, thus enjoy complete and utter immunity and impunity. To suggest otherwise is an example of gross impertinence by you lesser creatures – the governed.

Robert M Dunn, Oxcars Court, Edinburgh

Not the same

I have just watched Scotsman reporter Scott Macnab question our Prime Minister on the question of the legality of Dominic Cummings travel to Durham with his family during lockdown. I was most surprised he questioned this in relation to our ex-Health Minister in Scotland’s resignation over travel during the virus.

Does he not realise the difference between travelling to a second home for pleasure and travelling to protect your own child in adverse circumstances.

Ebyth Morton, Craigleith Drive, Edinburgh

Busted flush

I have just been reading about the potential changes to public toilets in the future and I have to say they made me laugh.

So, instead of men being able to walk into a public toilet with urinals (obviously, with every other one blocked off to create a social distance), go to the urinal, use it and then wash hands before leaving – thus having touched nothing, so to speak; the proposal instead is that men enter a unisex toilet, enter the cubicle by first touching the door handle, then close the door with the other handle, lock it, lift the seat for obvious reasons, use the facility, lower the seat again, unlock, reuse the handle, close the door using the outside handle, wash hands and then exit by a separate door. Sheer genius. Oh, and we expect women, longtime critics of mens’ toilet habits, to go along with this?

James Walker, Union Grove, Aberdeen

No thanks

The recent video by STV of children thanking the First Minister reveals a disturbing and insidious revelation about nationalist Scotland.

Frankly it is not the children at fault here. They have obviously been told what to say by their sycophantic nationalist parents who adore the First Minister so much they have instructed their offspring to say “thank you” to her for keeping them safe from Covid-19.

No child should be thanking an elected politician for keeping them safe. Decisions were made to keep them safe but it’s their parents, relatives and close friends who ultimately implement this, not an elected official or even state action.

Nor should a child be so engaged in politics at such a young age. The idea that my parents would have paraded me in front of a camera to berate Margaret Thatcher for the implementation of the poll tax would have been abhorrent and very odd.

But in nationalist Scotland, there are people who find the politicisation of children acceptable. They drag them out to rallies, give them a placard which they can’t understanding and then film them spouting slogans which they barely comprehend, all to mirror the views of the parents.

David Bone, Hamilton Street, Girvan, South Ayrshire

Mums and dads

Wittgenstein once said: “The limits of my language are the limits of my world”, and it is clearly our use of language that defines us as people. After reading Richard Lucas’s letter (23 May) I almost had to turn to the front page to check that the date was 2020 rather than 1950, such was the archaism of his language.

Mr Lucas makes a number of criticisms about the Scottish Government’s route map out of lockdown without making any suggestions himself as to how “normal” life might be re-established, other than that the measures should suit his definition of families’, irrespective of whether they may be safe or not.

His assumption that every household includes a “mum and dad” and the way he spits out venomously the words “SNP feminist theory” suggest Mr Lucas lives in a chocolate box world situated on an Ealing Studios film set.

It may come as news to him that “liberating”, as he calls it, women from domestic duties and “equality” are no longer theories but basic human rights women from all backgrounds have campaigned for for years, and in many cases achieved.

It is clear Mr Lucas yearns for a time when men were men and women knew their place and weird ideas such as equality were a lunatic’s pipedream. It’s maybe time Mr Lucas used language that might locate him more effectively in the real world, much as he may find it distasteful.

D Mitchell, Coates Place, Edinburgh

Irony in action

Oh, what a wonderful irony in Gill Turner’s latest contribution to Scotsman Letters (25 May), accusing Brian Wilson of writing a “weekly metronomic rant” against the SNP, and of being “something of a one-trick pony” in relation to his Saturday column; ironic, because barely a day goes by but Gill Turner seeks through the Letters page to defend any and every aspect of the governance of Scotland by this inept administration.

In his recent columns, Brian Wilson has raised legitimate questions in relation to the conduct of the SNP administration around the Nike conference and unless Gill Turner has the gift of omniscience, it cannot be stated with such conviction that “not a single life was lost” as a consequence of this conduct.

It is absolutely right for Brian Wilson to continue to question how the transmission of 
Covid-19 might have been accelerated in Scotland through the management of the situation.

I look forward to Brian Wilson’s weekly contributions, which I find to be humane, balanced and insightful, asking questions which need to be asked of those in power, not just the SNP.

Keith Wilson, St Teresa Place, Edinburgh

Farm failure

A fortnight ago MPs debated the new Agricultural Bill, the first since 1947, which will be the foundation of UK food and farming policy post Brexit.

An amendment to the bill, proposed by a Conservative MP with farming experience, was, shamefully, defeated by 328 to 277 votes after the Government refused to endorse it.

The new Clause 2 proposed had wide support from farming unions, landowners and tenants’ bodies and all major animal welfare and environmental organisations.

Alas, many Scottish Conservative MPs who represent rural constituents who rely heavily on farming were among those who voted down the amendment which would have enshrined in law the principle that imported food producers must match the quality and animal welfare standards of UK farmers’ production. That, basically, is the position under EU law at the moment.

Those MPs opposing the motion claim that accepting the amendment would make it impossible to sign a trade deal with the US or anywhere else and that under World Trade Organisation rules we can apply standards to the quality and health of the product but we cannot regulate on another country’s method of production so long as the product itself meets UK standards.

This will, however, be dependent on each trade deal whereas the amendment would have ensured that those seeking to enter the lucrative UK markets for food and animal products are clear that they must meet standards which are acceptable in the UK.

The Agricultural Bill will now pass to the House of Lords, who should send it back to the Commons to rectify this grave error.

John Dorward, Brechin Road, Arbroath

Inquiring minds

Tom Wood (Inside Justice, 25 May) makes an excellent suggestion to speed up justice and get around the problem of jury trials that have been held up by the lockdown – switch to an inquisitorial system rather than the adversarial one we use at present.

It is used by most European countries, such as France (we’ve seen it dramatised in TV’s Spiral), and elsewhere in the world. An examining magistrate or judge investigates with the help of the police to determine if a case needs to go to court. Evidently it saves a lot of time and expense.

Mr Wood suggests that here a sheriff would take the role of the examining officer, but surely it should be the procurator fiscal’s job.

Already it is they who determine whether or not there is a case that can go to court.

Steuart Campbell, Dovecot Loan, Edinburgh

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