Readers' letters: Book Festival author Mikaela Loach grabs her 15 minutes of fame

Mikaela Loach was extremely disrespectful to her Edinburgh Book Festival audience by staging a walk-out (Scotsman, 14 August) over sponsorship by Baillie Gifford, and by being so probably harmed her message.

Had I choosen to go to her event I would have had to leave my house two and a quarter hours beforehand. A car journey to the next village to catch the half-hourly train (buses don't connect on a Sunday). Then a long walk from Haymarket to the venue (being well over my three score years and ten this can take some time).

And how does Miss Loach show her appreciation of the effort the audience makes? She doesn’t. She seems to have decided that her principles became important. They were not important the day before when she could have cancelled and all the ticket buyers could have been contacted. Nor did she stick to the statement in the letter she signed saying she would not come next year unless the sponsor did what the writers wanted. But then again, that would not have gained her 15 minutes of fame.

I hope those who did attend ask Miss Loach personally for their ticket money and other expenses back. And I hope the writers I am going to see do not pull a similar stunt and remember no one can call themself a writer if no one reads their books

Author Mikaela Loach (far right) kickstarting the mass walk-out from her Book Festival panel event (Picture: Harvey Blackmore)

Elizabeth Hands, Armadale, West Lothian

Sham consultation

There is the usual sort of government consultation open at the moment about a proposed increase in council tax by up to 22.5 per cent. It is “usual” in that the consultative document completely slants the reader towards a finding that it is “fair” to increase the amount council tax-payers have to pay if in bands E to H, and it limits the answers you can give.

The council tax band that a property has was fixed in 1991, 32 years ago. The expected five-year revaluations never happened. What is not fair” is to impose this increase on householders whose properties, judged by 2023 values, not 1991 (we don't live in 1991!) are patently in too high a band, particularly if that is band E. Such householders have been over-paying for years. Any increase could only be fair if simultaneously there is a revaluation, or at the very least, individuals in the wrong band are given a right of appeal based on 2023 comparables .

After all, the Scottish Government recently accepted that five years was too long to wait to reflect changes in property values, and reduced the period for revaluation to three years for commercial property. So how is 32 years not “too long” for council tax?

Ian N Steele, Kirkcudbright, Dumfries & Galloway

Party affiliation

Although I would be the last to help out a nationalist in distress, I feel that I have to defend Angus MacNeil, MP for the Western Isles. Mr MacNeil has been expelled by a party “conduct committee” (Scotsman, 12 August) of the SNP. He remains MP for his constituency, however, and is free to do so until the next election.

Humza Yousaf, the disgruntled leader of Mr MacNeil’s former party, the endangered SNP, when interviewed by LBC’s Iain Dale said of Mr MacNeil: “Your constituents elected you on a party ticket, that’s why you were voted in.”

Clearly, Mr Yousaf doesn’t understand our electoral system. We do not elect parties in the UK. We elect individuals to represent us. Like him, or loathe him, Mr MacNeil has every right to remain MP, however much his former party leader complains. Ever has it been thus, since Winston Churchill crossed the floor and left the Conservatives to become a Liberal.

I have to say that, if Mr MacNeil stands as an independent at the next general election, that his chances and that of the SNP of being re-elected will be the same as that of the current Alba MPs: a snowball’s.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

No GP exodus

Your report on nurses and doctors (Scotsman, 14 August) highlights a claim that “one in four GPs is considering quitting in the next two years”, based on BMA Scotland’s press release of 13 August. This claim is incorrect.

The press release actually says “a quarter of GPs are planning to leave their practice in the next two years”, and does not give reasons – possibly because of retirement, or a change of practice – for this result. The press release is clear that this “quarter” is of the 850 respondents to BMA Scotland’s survey. The “quarter” is approximately 213 GPs (rounded up).

Public Health Scotland reported on 13 December 2022 that, including trainees, the headcount of GPs was 5,209. Only 850 GPs, 16-17 per cent, bothered to respond to the survey. Therefore the survey result is that only about four per cent of the total of GPs in Scotland are planning to leave. Your report could have correctly said: “The survey response suggests that about 96 per cent of the GP workforce in Scotland are not planning to leave their practices in the next two years.”

E Campbell, Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire

Nurses’ destination

Health workers should be grateful to Pamela Nash (Scotsman, 14 August) for reminding them that they would be worse off if Scotland remains in the Union and that independent Ireland in the EU is the most popular destination for nurses leaving.

There are more than 65,000 nurses in Scotland – the best per head of population in the UK – and less than one in a hundred moved abroad last year

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh

Thin blue line

We were promised by the Scottish Government that Police Scotland would bring about a new era in policing – cost-effective; efficient and responsive to local needs. The organisation has fulfilled none of these criteria, with the retiring Chief Constable even admitting that his force is institutionally racist and discriminatory. Now we can add wasteful to the whole sorry mess.

Why did a cash-strapped police force, which is axing civilian jobs, spend £25 million on electric vehicles (Scotsman, 14 August) when there was no infrastructure in place to allow these vehicles to be used for core policing purposes from day one as intended? It may have looked good for Police Scotland to be able to proclaim to be the most environmentally progressive police service in Britain but getting the basics right in fighting crime and responding to community concerns would have been a better use of money in the short term.

Hopefully new Chief Constable Jo Farrell will lead the force in a more successful direction and earn her inevitable Damehood.

Bob MacDougall, Kippen, Stirling

‘English’ values

Anglophobic sentiments such as those expressed by Leah Gunn Barrett (Letters, 12 August) are often heard from many others of the separatist persuasion.

Ms Gunn Barrett’s tirade denouncing the leadership of our universities, cultural and business organisations includes an accusation that: “All high status and well-remunerated posts are advertised in the London media market. English, not Scottish values, prevail.” So just what are these “English” values, exactly? And how are they different to presumably superior “Scottish” ones? No doubt the bizarre doctrine of Scottish Exceptionalism would feature in any explanation.

Come the revolution, looks like all of us capitalist lackeys had better pack our bags and flee south of Gretna, taking our unwanted “English” values with us.

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

Vorderman for PM!

Might I suggest that, in expressing her disgust at the hypocritical behaviour of Westminster Home Secretary Braverman, Carol Vorderman has shown more compassion and concern for refugees and migrants than the Blairite Tribute Band with the trio of Cooper, Reeves and Lammy shadowing what were once the great offices of state, supporting their cardboard cut-out leader in remaining silent as human tragedy unfolds?

The facts are these: Britain accepts fewer refugees and migrants than the majority of countries in the EU. This unseemly haste to appeal to the perceived bigotry of the mass of English voters is appalling. It certainly does not reflect the communitarian and basic human empathy of the Scottish people.

Marjorie Ellis Thompson, Edinburgh

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