Readers Letters: Conducting rail strikes during Covid is selfish

ScotRail conductors have chosen a fine time to begin six weeks of strike action.
ScotRail trains are threatened with ongoing Sunday strikes (Picture: Getty)ScotRail trains are threatened with ongoing Sunday strikes (Picture: Getty)
ScotRail trains are threatened with ongoing Sunday strikes (Picture: Getty)

As key workers enter their 13th month of the pandemic they now have the added stress of a more time-consuming and convoluted commute. At best this industrial action is ill timed, at worst it’s an invidious and cynically timed distraction at a time we should be pulling together. Those gainfully employed should be thankful of their employment; an opportunity not afforded to us all.

The RMT Union that encouraged and facilitated this industrial action has consistently defended the need for the role of the conductor on our trains on the grounds of safety. Japanese trains do not have conductors. Those same trains have an enviable reputation for reliability, safety and punctuality.

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Maybe it’s time to conduct a proper review on whether we actually require conductors on our trains?

Nigel Morton, St Margaret’s Road, North Berwick

Answers please

Like Moyra Forrest (Letters, 5 April), I read with interest and anticipation the communication from the Electoral Commission’s booklet and was disappointed to find no information as to how regional votes are counted. Likewise, I have been unable, thus far, to find the answer elsewhere. I am sure the mechanics of the system are not rocket science and wonder if one of your regular non-partisan contributors might enlighten a bear of little brain with as straightforward as possible an explanation of just how the regional voting system actually works.

(Dr) S R Wild, Alnwickhill Road, Edinburgh

Feeling gloomy

I'm afraid I am reaching a deep level of despair for the future of my grandchildren. We are surely facing the possibility of another Darien Scheme in devolution, with standards of living plummeting as massive debts hit everyone.

We seem incapable, as a society, of thinking rationally! We are obsessed with climate change but want to be free to fly cheaply to the sun in gas-guzzling planes.

We complain that vaccine passports would be discriminatory but there is proposed choice; vaccine, a recent test or letter of health dispensation. With free testing coming, I can't see what is discriminatory in this proposed list and if you are one for whom the vaccine is a health risk, surely the risk of Covid in another country must rank pretty high in things to be avoided!

Everything is outsourced, with personal responsibility and accountability denied. Schools are now “responsible” for much of what was “parental education” in my day. Government (financially, the majority of us) is held responsible for ensuring the quality of life we desire and that we are financially protected if disaster strikes (even if that was partially of our own making). Even God, comes in for some blame, if things don't work out the way we would like.

My despair is further compounded by politicians trying to “buy” my vote with promises that don't represent the view of the majority and probably won't be implemented because of “the big bad wolf” in London. The giveaways often paid for out of a pocket of money skimped off budgets previously allocated elsewhere but deliberately underspent are misused to be a sugar-daddy to a gullible electorate.

I am left feeling Scrooge-like, but Happy Easter, perhaps the chill-wind from the North is a sign of things to come!

James Watson, Randolph Crescent, Dunbar, East Lothian

Damning verdict

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The recent Audit Scotland report on education was damning enough. Limited improvement in some areas was acknowledged but the verdict of the Auditor General was that Ms Sturgeon's ambition to close the attainment gap had ended in failure – it remains "wide".

Now Lindsay Paterson, professor of educational policy at Edinburgh University, informs us that the position is even worse than reported. He states that figures obtained by the Times newspaper "show not only no progress between 2016 and 2019, but perhaps even a worsening of the situation". The complete picture is "masked by the standard reporting" which focuses only on pupils who have passed one or more Highers before leaving school. This method of reporting is described as "purposefully inadequate", which comes as no surprise given the SNP's routine attempts to suppress information which is in the public interest.

The figures, described by professor Paterson as "fine-grained", reveal amongst other things that looking at the richest and poorest areas shows a gap greater than 20 per cent in attainment at A grade in Higher and greater than 25 per cent at A grade in National 5.

Education was Nicola Sturgeon s "priority" at the last election and we were asked to judge her on that. Quite evidently she has failed. Perhaps politicians should be judged like football managers. With results like these the punters would have been calling for Ms Sturgeon's head long before now.

Colin Hamilton, Braid Hills Avenue, Edinburgh

Pride before fall

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has rejected Conservative counterpart Douglas Ross’s offer of an electoral pact, but if he is not prepared to listen to him perhaps he will pay some heed to the latest poll which forecast a net loss of four Labour seats? Pride before fall and all that?Andrew Kemp, Mossbank, Rosyth

Jagged edge

D Jamieson (Letters, 5 April) refers to the "apparent success" of the UK vaccination programme and the EU's "willingness to allow vaccine exports from its territory". Let's get one thing straight. The EU does not manufacture any vaccines; they are manufactured by private companies under contract. Thanks to the foresight of the UK government signing contracts a year ago, and pouring millions into the Oxford AstraZeneca research and development project, Britain's vaccine roll-out has been a spectacular success. That run by the European Medical Agency has been criticised by the WHO as "too slow".

In addition to investment at home, the UK government invested £21 million, boosting AstraZeneca's Halix factory in Leiden, Netherlands in April 2020 and signed contracts with the company to supply the UK with the Oxford AstraZeneca jag. Now the EU wants to break those contracts, and force the British-Swedish company to supply the EU instead. They have even talked about seizing the factory, breaking international law, and they haven't contributed a single euro to the plant.

William Loneskie, Justice Park, Oxton, Lauder

Get Yes done

I hope someone will tell Nicola Sturgeon that it wasn't Covid that changed my mind about independence. It was Brexit. Before Covid. I'll vote "yes" now in any referendum, in the hope that we can return to Europeanmembership.

Jenny Martin, Dudley Avenue, Edinburgh

Understatement

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You quote Nicola Sturgeon as saying that Brexit may have contributed to the surge in support for Indyref2. What an amazing statement by her, when the chaos and cost of Brexit is clear for all to see. It would appear that nothing will deflect her from her determination for independence at any cost, and costs that she seems unwilling to quantify.David Gerrard, Spylaw Park, Edinburgh

Time to wake up

Brian Monteith’s article (Perspective, 5 April) summed up one of the biggest problems we have in dealing with the SNP and their supporters. The Institute of Fiscal Studies, a highly reputable organisation, has confirmed that Scotland receives 30 per cent more public funding than the average citizen in the UK. Does this interest those who vote for the SNP? Absolutely not; the majority of independence supporters believe Nicola Sturgeon and her proclamations (or even worse, the likes of Richard Murphy, who continually denies the legitimacy of GERS) over Britain’s leading independent microeconomic research institute.

I fear that those who support independence will only finally wake up to the financial reality if it is ever achieved. Unfortunately I will take no comfort from being able to say “I told you so”.

Jane Lax, Aberlour

Time for change

“The people of Scotland” have endured six years of Nicola Sturgeon’s controlling nationalist regime. This is a “government” of free this, free that, to entice gullible followers. There has been little in the way of policy to enhance business and the economy, with very poor decisions made on vanity projects costing taxpayers hundreds of millions.

Undoubtedly Ms Sturgeon is a master orator with the ability to charm and entice those who can be charmed and enticed. She is great at soundbites, promises much but delivers little of substance. Young people especially who are charmed by powerful, authoritative figures should be very aware of political leaders over the centuries who capitalise on economic woes, popular discontent, political infighting and blame to take absolute power. These regimes never end well.

Six years of woeful decision making, conveniently for Ms Sturgeon, covered-up and forgotten about by Brexit and Covid. Enough is enough. Time to dump this tired and inept regime.

Douglas Cowe, Kingseat, Newmachar

Time for Devref2?

Perhaps Scotland should, after all, have a second referendum at this time.

A re-run of the 1997 vote on devolution might be a sensible idea, allowing the "Scottish people" to consider their increasing governance. The 1997 vote surely passes the "once in a generation" criterion.

J MacKay, Glen View, Cumbernauld

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