Readers' Letters: Don't say Sturgeon cried 'crocodile tears'

Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of shedding crocodile tears after breaking down at the UK Covid Inquiry. Crocodile tears are considered to be devoid of emotion, based on the natural behaviour of the reptiles which produce those tears. They eat their prey in order to survive, and for no other reason.

People have the wrong idea about crocodile tears, says reader (Picture: Kenzo Tribouillard/Getty)

This interpretation is misleading, having nothing to do with pretence or hypocrisy. Crocodiles do produce tears while eating, hissing and puffing as they dine, but there is a physiological reason for this. When they bite down hard, this forces air through the lacrimal ducts and tears are pushed out. The tears also have a protective function. When they’re out of the water, their eyes produce fluid via the tear ducts, to clean and lubricate the eyes.

I have no doubt that Ms Sturgeon’s tears were genuine, considering the humiliating position she was in. You don’t have to be a stalwart SNP member to understand why she wept. Her whole life was dedicated to the cause of Scottish independence, and she failed to gain that goal. I’m not a nationalist, but I would never kick someone who is already down.

Carolyn Taylor, Broughty Ferry, Dundee

Same old story

In his most recent column Brian Wilson laments what he sees as the politicisation of the Scottish Civil Service and says “The Civil Service exists to offer informed impartial advice” (Perspective, 3 February). It is a worthy ideal and I don’t know what his experience in government was, but in practice this is not always followed. I remember members of the 1945 Labour Government complaining that senior civil servants were obstructing them in implementing the manifesto on which they were elected. Also, this ideal fails to take account of the ever-increasing role of the special advisers.

Mr Wilson also calls for “open and transparent government” something, we have never had. I don’t think we are likely to see, for instance, discussions in Cabinet being recorded and broadcast.

S Beck, Edinburgh

Reputation intact

Very few will share Brian Mon teith’s view that Scotland should have relied on a UK-wide approach to Covid (Perspective, 5 February). He ignores Boris Johnson’s lack of judgment and the billions lost through dodgy PPE contracts to Tory cronies. Thank goodness for devolution plus Nicola Sturgeon and Jason Leitch’s clear messaging, which was praised throughout the UK – no doubt why political pressure was put on BBC Scotland to stop Nicola Sturgeon’s daily briefings.

A UK-wide approach would have failed Scotland, as evidenced in the witness statement of Professor Sir Ian Diamond, chief executive of UK Statistics Authority, showing Scotland had the lowest age-standardised mortality rate among UK nations when, given the appalling health condition of many of our citizens, it should have been the highest. Also, unlike England, Scotland prioritised vaccinations in care homes, which must have saved many lives.

By concentrating on the side issue of WhatsApp messages, the central issue of the Scottish cabinet papers which appraised the options available and formed the basis of final decisions appears to have been ignored by Mr Dawson and the media at large.

Far too many seemed determined to trash Nicola Sturgeon’s reputation, but this doesn’t seem to have worked as the Norstat opinion poll, conducted after a week of WhatsApp media frenzy showed that public trust in Nicola Sturgeon (32 per cent) and Humza Yousaf (25 per cent) remained higher than in Rishi Sunak (16 per cent), Keir Starmer (22 per cent) Anas Sarwar (21 per cent) or Douglas Ross (16 per cent).

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh

No exceptions

Britain suffers from two major ills – entitlement and exceptionalism. We believe we are exceptional because of a glowing historical story – developing industrial and scientific revolutions and winning wars. Foolishly, we think our scientific thought has made us exceptional – but science is only about things that can be put in test tubes.

Complacently we think entitlement will always win out. There is private education-based entitlement. There is the proud history of the working class entitlement. We think it easy to do what Labour did after the Second World War – bring in a vast array of reforms. That was only possible because we won a huge Ioan from the USA to avoid the threat of bankruptcy. There are no such sugar daddies available today.

The news instead is actually sobering, which doesn't suit our deluded mindsets. The next government will feel constraints both from the electorate and international financial institutions. Will the electorate get affected by propaganda or emotionality this time?

When we exercise our right to vote next time we need to keep in mind the dictum that has for long now been neglected: “Men love in haste and repent at leisure.”

Andrew Vass, Edinburgh

Ferry surprising

Most would think that after the events of the past eight years the use of even the word “ferries” would be anathema to nationalists in Scotland. Not so. Apparently, a group of them are campaigning for a ferry service between Rosyth and mainland Europe.

Perhaps someone in the nationalist camp should quietly tell them that there was such a service, until relatively recently, but it proved an economic disaster for the operator and was stopped after losing vast amounts of cash. It was clear most travellers in the UK using ferries to the continent preferred the Newcastle links, the city being only an hour or so from Edinburgh by train or car. Unless, perhaps like the cash-devouring pretend embassies, those pushing for a new ferry service expect the taxpayer to pick up the bill for what in the end is merely another SNP vanity project.

One would have thought the CalMac ferries experience, the steel plant, the airport and all the other reverse-Midas SNP foul-ups would have made the nationalists see sense.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Bad attitude

SNP MSP Drew Hendry was interviewed by Martin Geissler on BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show. As ever, his belligerent attitude to every topic was evident. We must rid Scotland of this divisive, nationalist blame culture as soon as possible, it has ruined our great country.

Douglas Cowe, Kingseat, Aberdeenshire

Pressing on

In support of other separatist attacks on the media for its coverage of Scottish Government scandals, Robert Menzies invokes the Leveson Inquiry (Letters, 2 February). He denounces “the same free press which sabotaged the findings of the Leveson Inquiry and persuaded parliament not to implement what was for them its more unfavourable parts.”

Leveson was mainly concerned with phone-hacking and breach of privacy, neither of which featured in reporting on ferries, deleted WhatsApp messages, colourful emails, secret cabinet meetings or even XL Bully dogs.

Although personally quite flattered to be credited by Mr Menzies with “an intimate knowledge of how the press works”, no explanation springs to mind in answer to his question as to why “newspapers most opposed to separation choose to run separate editions in Scotland” but not in Wales or Northern Ireland. Perhaps population and/or circulation numbers in these places wouldn’t make such editions commercially viable? Just a guess.The hostility of Robert Menzies towards journalistic liberty appears to be yet another example of “Wheesht for Indy”.

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

Nanny McFees

Minority rule generally turns out to be a disaster. Too many individuals are attracted by the prospect of power, which goes to their head. The Scottish Government is a classic example and the result is either no government, incompetent government or dictatorial Nanny State rule.

The City of Edinburgh Council jumped on the bandwagon with their ill-thought-out and poorly implemented Spaces for People and Cyclists, which needed review post pandemic. The latest venture led by Councillor Scott Arthur is the withdrawal of main arterial routes in the centre of Edinburgh. A university academic, it appears that he may have little or no experience of the workings of the real world and the needs of business, leisure, shoppers and workers, who require business to create jobs and prosperity with the aid of essential "blood flow" via essential and sufficient arterial traffic routes. This approach to governance of the people by dictatorial Nanny minorities will surely result in public defiance, if it continues. Well thought-out environmental alternatives must be available.

Fraser MacGregor, Edinburgh

Crowded jails

Scottish jails are now full despite the best efforts of the SNP/Green alliance to keep under-25s out. There is no money left as it has been used for ferries and overseas donations so the simple answer is to let some prisoners out early.

This tactic was tried in a slightly different form by sending older Scots into old people’s homes during the pandemic, with catastrophic results. Nothing has been learned so what happens when the first “early release” prisoner reoffends in some major way? Will the SNP minister for prisons resign or will we simply get another inquiry. and where will the money come from for that? Holyrood simply isn't working.

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

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