Readers' Letters: COP26 shouldn’t be hijacked by SNP agenda

It seems that the SNP is attempting to use COP26 to politicise the Sustainability debate.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon appeared in newspaper adverts as COP26 began (Picture: Peter Summers/Getty Images)

In their recent adverts run in newspapers they say that “Scotland helped lead the world into the industrial age. Now we’re proud to help lead the world into the net zero age. We’re busy creating a greener, fairer, sustainable Scotland. While not yet an independent...”, but wait a minute... Scotland is an integral part of the United Kingdom and cannot survive on its own – not economically, not financially and not defensively.

Pride can be so blinding. Here in Glasgow, we have more English and Welsh police officers helping at the COP26 event than Scottish officers. Look, Scotland is doing its best but in the big scheme, we just couldn’t host an event of this size on our own.

And let’s stop trying to politicise the issues being discussed at COP26 to grandstand Scotland. COP26 is much bigger than this. It is about finding solutions to the Sustainability challenges facing every country and being responsible about how we care for our planet. It’s not for pushing a narrow-minded, local, conceited and divisive political Independence agenda by taking advantage of some limelight. That is truly missing the whole point of COP26.

Ian Paynter, Glasgow

Kafkaland

Could your readers perhaps enlighten me as to how to escape from the Kafkaesque world I now inhabit in relation to obtaining my booster jag. If I recall correctly the Health Minister advised that all vulnerable people (I am in my eighties) would have been provided with their boosters by the first week in November. I still await a letter.

I live in Edinburgh and was directed to South Queensferry on 2 October to be given my flu jab and while there asked if it was possible to have my booster, showing by my certificate of inoculations that six months had passed from the second injection. I was informed that had I wished this to be done I should have booked in advance. No information in this regard was contained in the invitation letter to attend at South Queensferry.I then tried the vaccination phone line but it was constantly engaged. One suggestion on the internet site was to approach my registered practice. This I did and apart from saying that at my age I should already have received my booster, the suggestion was that I attended a drop-in clinic. I attempted to do this at the Tesco car park clinic, only to be rejected.I contacted my MSP, who is always very helpful, and he wrote on my behalf to the Chief Executive of Lothian Heath Board on 25 October. I have heard nothing further and assume a reply is still awaited.Interestingly, while three of us living in close proximity were sent to South Queensferry, my next door neighbour, who is registered with the same practice as I am, was directed to Ingliston where he was give his flu and booster shots.Stewart Henderson, Edinburgh

Passport to fear

Boris Johnson et al have confirmed that injections for Covid-19 do not render the recipient immune to the virus or less capable of passing on the infection to others, so what purpose does a vaccine passport serve?

The virus is clearly a tool to impose a digital ID, as Johnson has already revealed that eating correctly and taking exercise will earn rewards. How will the government know if we do?

It is quite clear Johnson intends our very existence to be subject to central government approval, whilst protests and social media dissent will be subject to criminal prosecution. This is not conspiracy theory, the intent has been publicly declared. We have not been asked to surrender our freedom, it is being seized from us.

Hamish Hossick, Dundee

Blackmail bid

COP26 was always about money. The latest news from this conference is that India and China have called on advanced economies to provide up to $1 trillion –. $1,000,000,000,000 – “as soon as possible” for developing countries to reduce emissions. This is in addition to the annual $100 billion already promised by developed countries.

China and India would get a huge slice of both. China, India, Russia and other countries have rejected Net Zero targets and offered no firm dates or commitments to phase out coal-fired power. Western taxpayers have been financing foreign aid for well-over 80 years but instead of raising the standards of living for their people foreign rulers, politicians and despots wasted it or the money found its way into Swiss bank accounts.

If posturing Boris gives UK support to this $1 trillion blackmail UK politicians must unite and demand a general election.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Not the ticket

In response to Gary West’s recent Perspective article, as someone who has recently been forced by winter darkness to abandon my bike and rely on bus services, I feel the bus lobby would be better employed improving the reliability and convenience of their services.

My irritation is particularly focused on Lothian Buses X7 service. In recent weeks, when using this in Dunbar, my bus has finally arrived up to 30 minutes late… or not at all.

One possible reason for this is that the vehicles employed are far too long for this busy town’s streets. Drivers find it difficult to negotiate the entry to the High Street from the south and the entry to West Port from High Street. Recently I witnessed the lengthy traffic log-jam when two Lothian buses met at that junction. I assume this experience is merely a sample of the Lothian passenger experience.

Perhaps if buses were more frequent, more reliable and more suitable for our historic streets, many more people could be persuaded to use the services?

Kit Fraser, Dunbar, East Lothian

NHS doing well

If Dr Gerald Edwards (Letters, 4 November) truly believes that the First Minister and her Health Minister are to blame for the current predicament of the Scottish NHS, the insinuation being that they are distracted by the aspiration of self-determination for their country, how does he explain the more perilous state of the English NHS?

The NHS in Scotland may be devolved but funding for the NHS across the UK is effectively controlled from Westminster. Holyrood does not have the economic powers that would have enabled the Scottish Parliament to substantially act earlier to counter the initial spread of Covid-19 after it continued to enter the UK through borders which Holyrood does not control. Holyrood has no say in UK immigration policy so staff lost to the Scottish NHS and our care network due to Brexit cannot readily return.

Yet, in spite of the significant limitations of Holyrood’s current powers, even in devolved matters such as health, the Scottish NHS continues to outperform the NHS in England across most objectively measurable outcomes, from A&E waiting times to relative numbers of family members and friends regrettably lost to us due to Covid-19.

Perhaps it is time for Dr Edwards to focus his ire on the heart of the problem, and other matters related to health across the UK, such as increasing poverty evidenced by the spiralling use of food banks, which is a Westminster Government led by a Prime Minister focused on making the rich richer (especially Tory Party donors) while those struggling in our “society” continue to suffer.

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian

Hothouse ahead

Tim Flinn (Letters, 3 November) is right that planet earth itself is not at risk; instead global warming risks our civilisation. The planet will survive whatever happens to us.

But then he gets confused over cause and effect and ice ages.Earth is presently in an ice age (the Quaternary glaciation) that began about 2.5 million years ago. But ice ages (defined as periods when there is permanent ice at the poles and on high ground) show intermittent inter-glaciations as the ice retreats.

The present inter-glaciation, which began about 12,000 years ago, allowed civilisation to emerge. The variation in glaciations is a consequence of variations in the Earth's orbit, not any variation in the sun.Some think we may be entering another glaciation but, if so, mankind's release of greenhouse gases has put a stop to it and, instead, we are heading for hothouse Earth.

Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh

Power grab

Two points re: yesterday's Scotsman Letters.

First of all, surely all people with an interest in Scottish history, including Gill Turner, will now know that Robert the Bruce was born in England of an Anglo-Norman father and that he crowned himself King of Scotland, having murdered in Dumfries the rival with a better claim to the throne – he was certainly not King of Scots by the will of the people.

Fraser Grant again brings up the old chestnut of “unfair” connection charges for Scottish (actually, mainly foreign) electricity producers. Let me inform him that transport of electricity is expensive – the Beauly-Denny link of only 200km and 1200 MW capacity cost £1 billion. If you want to profitably sell eggs in London it would be wise not to choose Wick as your place of production.

He also complains about the UK providing expensive new nuclear plant.

Let me explain that the National Grid must have a substantial fraction of base load energy which intermittent sources such as wind cannot provide but for which nuclear power is ideally suited.

If Mr Grant really wants to be informed of the potentially precarious state of Scottish power production I would commend reading the article by a professional expert mentioned by Brian Monteith in his Scotsman column of 1 November.

(Dr) A McCormick, Dumfries

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