Police should get tougher on those laughing at lockdown – Letters

Too many people are ignoring advice, say Scotsman readers

Don't whoop it up in a converrtible, stay home (Photo by George Marks/Retrofile/Getty Images)

I live in something of a tourist hotspot and the present spell of good weather makes it an added attraction. In addition, Beadnell village is reputed to have the second highest proportion of second homes in England. Only Grasmere in the Lake District has more.

During the “lockdown” the local police have been stopping cars towing caravans; cars with their back seats stuffed with duvets etc and those with canoes and surfboards strapped to the roof.

This morning, whilst I was pedalling the two miles to the local shops, two convertible cars with the roofs down passed me. Unless buying bread and milk now needs to be done “al fresco,” could police forces add convertible cars with roofs down, to the list of “likely suspects?”

The good news is that the queue to enter the local hardware shop exceeded that to enter the pharmacy! We must be on the right track, surely.

John Rhind

Meadow Lane, Beadnell, Northumberland

Get tough

It is all very well Nicola Sturgeon banging the drum about people being in lockdown but the police should be moving “intruders” on. We have had a couple travel 600 miles from London to Bonar Bridge last Monday. The authorities were notified but these people are still here. They are not the only ones as there are people in Invercharron, people in Dounie. The West Coast has seen a predominance of camper vans at Lochinver. Will the Justice Secretary now reissue instructions to Police Scotland to keep Scotland safe and send offenders to their original homes?

Michael Baird

Dornoch Road, Bonar Bridge

Bridge to peace

Although most sports are suffering badly from lockdown, bridge and other so-called mind sports can give huge comfort to many in their own homes.

I’d always resisted online bridge as I enjoy the company of playing in a club. However, the online offering is available 24/7 and it’s been amazing to play with other aficionados from all over the world. The chat facility means we can empathise: an Indian partner was also coming to terms with lockdown. Sadly, lack of equipment, know-how and confidence means not all players are able to benefit.

Lockdown is highlighting many examples of digital divides. It is particularly concerning that some children do not have full access to online education.

Moyra Forrest

Starbank Road, Edinburgh

Protect workers

As politicians consider the country’s exit strategy from the Covid-19 lockdown and how the country returns to work, we urge all employers to consider how they will protect their returning employees.

Today is the World Day for Safety and Health at Work. At 11am, many of us will pause and remember the scores of UK healthcare workers who have died during the pandemic, deaths that could have been avoided. If the country is to avoid a surge of deaths as we return to work, it is essential that employers carry out risk assessments and provide measures to reduce harm to employees’ health.

This isn’t just about providing PPE. It is about a structured system of care for workers that prevents infection, using a hierarchy of controls, from design of the workplace through to not exposing vulnerable workers unnecessarily.

Nick Pahl

CEO, Society of Occupational Medicine, St Andrews Place, London

Separate lives

Central to the first four Letters to the Editor in your edition of 25 April was the theme that Scotland should not have a separate policy on Covid-19 from England.

In Germany there are a number of voices arguing there should be a centrally dictated policy, but there the Lander have the authority to act independently and made the key decisions. This system has resulted in a much lower death toll. In Taiwan, independent of China, a different system has brought about a satisfactory outcome.

Is it not obvious that a densely populated and urbanised country like England is going to need different policies from Scotland?

We have a separate health service, geography and demography. Our different health service makes it the duty of our government to look at policies in a different way.

Have your correspondents not noticed our different weather which in this case includes the amount and quality of sunshine and hence of vitamin D, which improves resistance to disease. Our demography is typified by pockets of short lifespan coupled with degenerative ailments and environmentally exacerbated illness, and other adjacent parts where the old have life-spans almost twice as long. This requires a different approach.

Iain WD Forde

Main Street, Scotlandwell, Kinross-shire

Why so silent?

Ian Blackford of the SNP described Boris Johnson’s absence at five Cobra meetings as a ‘’jaw-dropping’’ event.

There have been no reports I have seen of his reaction to his own leader’s recently disclosed non-attendance at six Cobra meetings.

Alexander McKay

New Cut Rigg, Edinburgh

Time to research

During this very difficult time for all of us, might a different approach give some answers and hence prepare the population for future epidemics and pandemics which are inevitable. Why is it that some people on exposure will develop symptoms and be very ill, or even die, but others with the same exposure show minor clinical symptoms – or indeed, none?

Would this not be the ideal time and opportunity to fully investigate and research this clinical fact? The result could provide an answer and give the population an opportunity for better all-round health and perhaps, as a result, natural immunity in future.

The chiropractic profession has been posing this question since the influenza epidemic of 1918-20, however, neither the profession nor its university faculties have the funds or the facilities to undertake this task.

Maybe some of the millions being raised at this time could be allocated, as unfortunately this type of research would have little or no commercial value, and therefore it is unlikely that the pharmaceutical industry would be interested.

(Dr) JL Graeme Wight

Roseburn Place, Edinburgh

Waste of time

Your article: “ ‘Right and proper’ for public inquiry into response to outbreak” highlights a piece of outrageous nonsense. There is nothing right and proper about playing the blame game at this stage when we are in the midst of this appalling crisis with ever-increasing deaths and a plunging economy. Of course, our First Minister leaps to support this barmy proposal, no doubt to add more fuel to her ever smouldering grievances against England in general, and Westminster in particular.

In any event, public inquiries always produce the same result. A waffling report the size of a telephone directory invariably concluding that no-one is to blame, and the culprits, thus exonerated, proceed to promotions with their careers unblemished. The only ones to profit are the umpteen rapacious lawyers whose pockets have, for several months, been filled to overflowing with taxpayers’ cash.

David Hollingdale

Easter Park Drive,Edinburgh

Spurious link

The death of nurse Shannon Napier after giving birth is an absolutely tragic event for this young family (your report, 27 April). But why does the reporter connect the story to Covid-19, when there is, as yet, no evidence to suggest that there is such a connection?

The wording in the last paragraph desperately tries to link the death of this young nurse to the virus, by stating the number of healthcare workers who have died during the coronavirus pandemic. It is irresponsible reporting at a time when we are all looking for responsible writing.

Paul McPherson

Kinchurdy Road, Boat of Garten

Plastic fantastical

There has been some excitement generated recently about a new enzyme that can eat waste plastic, perhaps solving our current problems with same. Perhaps some caution should be exercised. Back in the 1950s I read a science fiction story about the invention of a new vacuum cleaner (for want of a better description) that, instead of just sucking up dust, actually destroyed it using an electronic ray. It became the new Dyson, everyone enthusiastically destroying the unwanted dust in their homes. Unbeknown to the users, this machine actually set up a dust destroying chain reaction, busily destroying every speck of atmospheric dust in the world.

Stripped of the filtering effect of the dust, the earth was then exposed to all the harmful solar radiation, threatening all living forms. Eventually a method of cancelling the chain reaction was found and a programme of re-dustification was instigated to restore the atmosphere to normal.

Who is to say the same thing couldn’t happen with plastic – just imagine if all plastic everyday objects were to spontaneously dissolve.

Unlikely I know, but we all thought coal, oil and gas were great news once upon a time.

Peter Kent

Mayfield Terrace, Insch

Hardly uncaring

David Hannay (Letters, 25 April) seems confused. Drug-related deaths in Scotland are not caused by the “war on drugs.” They are caused by the drugs. How a desire to steer people away from drug abuse in the first place and to help addicts escape their downward cycle shows a lack of humanity, I do not know.

I’m all for treating drug addiction as an illness, as Dr Hannay suggests. So let’s cure it, not sustain it.

Keith Proborszcz-Maloney (Letters, same day) suggest that it is logically inconsistent to make heroin illegal while we can freely buy a cup of coffee. It is not, nor is it illogical to allow fireworks while banning the sale and use of landmines.

Richard Lucas

Leader, The Scottish Family Party, Bath Sreet, Glasgow

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