No party is mired in sleaze like the Conservatives - Readers' Letters

Brian Monteith’s mendacious article (Scotsman, 8 November) seeks to deflect away from Tory sleaze by arguing that all parties have their faults. But sleaze is a particular political disease rife amongst the Tories, for which Brian needs to ’fess up.

Owen Paterson was found to have committed an ‘egregious’ breach of lobbying rules

Sleaze is corruption which decays democracy from within and thus the foundation of sound government and accountability. No party is mired in sleaze like the Tories or has been for at least the last 30 years. The Tories are the rot striking at the heart of Britain today.

At least the Major government of the 1990s recognised this and attempted to stem it by setting up the Nolan committee but there has been backpedaling ever since the Tories were returned to power and returned to their bad old ways.

MPs for hire, cash for questions, cash for access, cash for cronies in the award of lucrative government Covid contracts (Owen Paterson secured a deal for his "constituent” Randox for manufacturing a Covid test). A £3 million donation to Tory Party funds buys you a seat in the House of Lords. The Tories have done more than any other party to degrade our democracy and are emblematic of Britain’s terminal decay. The faults of other parties pale into insignificance.

Readers should note that in the Scottish Parliament paid advocacy by MSPs is a criminal offence and allegations would be reported to the Procurator Fiscal. Westminster ought to do the same. If he is a true "natural conservative” believing in personal probity and sound government Brian should be arguing for cleaning up the Tories, not deflecting from their sins.

Mairianna Clyde, Edinburgh

Higher standards

Brian Monteith fails to acknowledge that standards in Scotland on lobbying are higher and much more transparent due to the Lobbying (Scotland) Act 2016. Under this, paid advocacy as shown to be undertaken by Owen Paterson could be a criminal offence and reported to the Procurator Fiscal.

Also, there is no cash for peerages system at Holyrood and news that a £3m donation to the Tory party virtually guarantees a seat in the House of Lords shows how inflation works as only £1m was required when Tony Blair was in power, yet Sir Keir Starmer wants to keep the 784 unelected members but won’t co-operate with the SNP at Westminster.

In 2002, Labour got rid of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Elizabeth Filkin, as her standards were deemed too high after she found Nigel Griffiths MP guilty over breaking financial rules on claims for his Edinburgh South constituency office.

Brian Monteith refers to Derek Mackay, who left the SNP before being expelled, whereas last week the Tories allowed their MP Rob Roberts back into the party after being suspending for sexually harassing a member of staff.

Apart from the numerous examples of Tory sleaze and cronyism over Covid contracts, we have lost count of the number of times Boris Johnson and co have misled Parliament. Outnumbered 11 to one, Scottish MPs have little or no influence at Westminster and the sooner we get out of that cesspit, the better.

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh

Brian’s answer

Brian Monteith is obviously searching for the Liberal Democrats, whom he chooses to ignore completely!

Margot Kerr, Inverness, Highland

The first stone

Boris Johnson’s actions in the Owen Paterson saga were shameful. When we needed a strong hand and firm leadership to prevent future flagrant breaches of probity, such as Mr Paterson committed, Boris I am afraid resorted to his tribal position and initially wanted to back an alteration of sleaze rules to help his friend. That act may cost him his job in time, but even if he manages to hang on to power, he is surely holed below the water line.

How wonderful it would be to have a party running things locally who would never dream of doing such sleazy things. Nor would they ever have their leader’s book printed by a publishing company in receipt of a public hand-out. This party would quickly and transparently handle and publish in full complaints of, for example, an MP knowingly travelling with Covid on public transport to and from Scotland and London at the height of the pandemic, and many other alleged misdeeds.

Let he or she without sin cast the first stone.

Alexander McKay, Ednburgh

Fish in a barrel

If Boris Johnson resigns because of the Paterson scandal and Rishi Sunak takes over, the nationalists will have lost their greatest asset and find it difficult to get personal with Sunak.

On the other hand, Scottish pro-UK politicians should hang their heads in shame if Nicola Sturgeon resigns over one of the many scandals swirling around her and they can't lay a glove on Humza Yousaf, John Swinney, Kate Forbes or Angus Robertson, one of whom is her likely successor. It should be like shooting fish in a barrel.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

COP off target

Unless there is a last-minute miracle it is now clear that COP26 is heading for failure by missing the target 1.5C of warming by 2050. Scientists are suggesting that at best around 1.8C may be achieved if, and it’s a very big if, pledges made are acted on.

History may judge that just four countries were mainly responsible for causing a climate disaster with millions suffering famine, disease, made homeless or suffering serious injury as a result of extreme weather, rising sea levels or loss of food sources.

China, Russia, the US, and India collectively make up more than half of the world’s emissions. Without their full support to stop using fossil fuels and undertake urgent emission reversal measures the conference was doomed to failure.

One positive is the increasing awareness among young people who will be most affected by climate change and who quite rightly are very angry with politicians serving up more “blah, blah, blah” rather than agreeing road maps to implement cutting emissions starting immediately. It’s frustrating that many making the decisions only care about their ideology, core vote, perception in the media and satisfying big businesses providing financial support. Just as the health experts have been sidelined from influencing decisions on the pandemic, environmentalists have been ignored in favour of political expediency.

Boris Johnson will claim credit from agreements that have been made but most will see through the gloss and wonder why we thought politicians from the leading emitting nations would ever agree to measures that oppose their parochial interests. Let’s hope COP27 is more successful for all our sakes and they start listening to the science.

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

Population boom

While reading Susan Dalgety's article on Malawi and COP26 (Scotsman, 6 November) I was struck by one particular throwaway statistic: the population of Malawi is "approaching 20 million”.

I had always thought of Malawi as a relatively small country. I found that the population of Malawi was 2.9 million in 1950 and it is projected to reach 45 million by 2050.

Clearly population increases of this level in Malawi and elsewhere are unsustainable and no amount of aid or environmental improvements can ever make them so. Yet COP26 and other discussion forums seem to be tiptoeing round the issue. A robust policy on population control should be a requirement for all environmental and other aid programmes.

Bob Cairns, Perth, Perth and Kinross

Energy mix

According to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, “just short of 100 per cent of all the electricity we use in Scotland is from renewable sources”. And so far at COP26, a global climate change conference, Ms Sturgeon is still to be queried on this rather misleading statement.

To be accurate, she should say, “provisional figures indicate that in 2020, the equivalent of 95.9 per cent (revised from 97.4 per cent) of Scotland’s gross electricity consumption was from renewable sources”.

Of course, this does not mean that only 4.1 per cent of gross electricity consumption in Scotland is coming from non-renewable sources. Data from 2018-2019 via the National Grid’s Carbon Intensity website shows that an estimated 50.7 per cent of the electricity that Scotland actually consumed in that year came from renewable sources and 49.3 per cent therefore, from non-renewable sources.

2020 was a record year for renewable electricity generation in Scotland. In 2021, however, lower wind speeds and reduced rainfall have resulted in reduced wind and hydro generation of 17.6 per cent and 29.8 per cent respectively in the first half of the year.

Undoubtedly renewables now form a key part of Scotland’s electricity mix but it is a balanced electricity mix with our nuclear/gas power stations providing the security of supply on which Scotland actually still depends.

Penny Bell, Haddington, East Lothian

A&E irony

The current crisis gripping Scotland's A&E departments seems to have robbed those in charge of all sense of irony, or indeed any sense at all.

It is widely acknowledged that much of the pressure on A&E stems from patients who are unable to access their own GP within a reasonable time. To seek to "solve" the A&E crisis by directing people back to the GP who couldn't see them in the first place is frankly bizarre and smacks of utter desperation.

In addition, Glasgow Health Board has advised people only to attend A&E if their condition is life-threatening. As a 70-year-old with no medical training, how will I know that my condition is life-threatening?

David Mitchell, Dyce, Aberdeen

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