Readers' letters: ‘Green’ pylons designed to maximise profit

Stephen Mcilkenny’s article (“Pylon row shows moving green energy comes at a cost”, Scotsman, 4 April) implies that the anger expressed at SSEN’s proposed transmission line development from Spittal in Caithness to Beauly derives from a failure on the part of objectors to recognise the necessities of greening our electricity network. The implication is that the opposition is driven by both ignorance and selfishness.

Are pylons being used because they are the cheaper option, a reader asks

Perhaps though, most objections would disappear if there was a belief that the landscape disruption was unavoidable in reaching a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and achieving a fairer energy policy.

Scepticism surely emanates from the fact that the design of the infrastructure is driven overwhelmingly by the company’s desire to maximise shareholders’ profit. Increasingly, even supporters of the need for extensive onshore wind, are losing patience with the sense that multinational corporate profit trumps any other consideration. High power transmission cable can be buried but since this option is a bit more expensive then it’s a non-starter. There is a growing sense that our necessary transition to a greener economy is anything but just.

As with electricity generation, so with tree planting and peat conservation. Reasonable people are surely supportive of emission reductions. It is however less easy to believe in the wisdom and fairness of the development of lucrative carbon markets.

Increasingly it seems we are asked to believe that the only ways to save the planet is to maximise the profits of the already filthy rich.

​Dick Webster, Kingussie, Highland

Colony claims

Dr Andrew Docherty makes several contentious points (Letters, 4 April) suggesting that Scotland is a colony which could equally well apply to any part of any country in the world. Most modern countries are amalgamations of earlier entities and everywhere from China to Belgium and France to the USA is the same. Scotland itself is composed of many earlier kingdoms which could also be regarded as colonies of Scotia.

He writes of “the democratic deficit in Scotland”, referring to “the people’s political will and choice being thwarted”, a good description of the plight of most Scots who are governed by an SNP administration in Edinburgh elected by a minority of the Scottish electorate, though Dr Docherty is, no doubt referring to the Union. However, that is how democracies often work and the UK is no different in that from many others.

When he refers to “the relevant UN commitee” being aware of “Scotland's plight”, he echoes Angus Robertson’s outrageous claims, so I know where he gets his opinions from.

I look forward to the peoples of Shetland and the Western Isles, Galloway and Lothian exerting their influence on the UN for independence from Scotland. They, of course, have never been asked if they want to be Scots, but Scots have been asked if we want to remain British and we answered “yes”, by a large majority, as the United Kingdom is our creation. Our next step is liberation from the SNP.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Union of equals

It is reasonable to surmise that Dr Docherty (Letters, 4 April) considers Scotland to be an English colony. What a load of tosh! Ever since the Union of the Crowns, many people south of the border have felt the opposite to be the case, with Scottish doctors, scientists, philosophers and politicians coming down unhindered to rule the roost. Conversely, the religious freedoms conferred on Scottish universities by the Treaty of Union helped Joseph Lister to become a Professor at Glasgow where his antiseptic principle revolutionised surgery. He had to return to England to convert the sceptics.

I declare an interest as someone who was hired as a medical microbiologist by someone who had been mentored by Alexander Fleming in London. Despite retaining his broad Ayrshire accent, Fleming was never regarded as a colonial helot, but was buried in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral, joining Nelson, Wellington and Florence Nightingale.

Hugh Pennington, Aberdeen

Ireland’s MPs

Dr Andrew Docherty is mistaken in triumphantly claiming that Ireland was a colony (Letters, 4 April).

The whole country was actually an integral part of the United Kingdom from 1801-1921. That is why Irish MPs sat at Westminster, and why six of the counties of Ulster continue to send representatives there.

Indeed, it would be a relief to many if Scottish separatist MPs followed the long-standing example of their nationalist political cousins in Sinn Féin by refusing to take their parliamentary seats in London.Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

More deficits

There are several democratic deficits in the UK that Bill Cooper ignores (Letters, 5 April). Also, he implies that Hadrian’s Wall is the border between England and Scotland. The Wall is wholly in the north of England. The border between the two countries is broadly the Tweed-Solway line, established in the 1237 Treaty of York, and demarcates two legal jurisdictions.

His phrase “contesting every parliamentary seat in the UK” ignores the democratic deficit of the unelected House of Lords. Neither he nor I can stand as, or vote for, a candidate for a seat in the House of Lords.

Another democratic deficit is the fact that about 20 per cent of ministers in the UK government are unelected Lords. Ironically, the latest Lord to become a minister, the 7th Earl of Minto, benefited from democracy in a by-election in October 2022, when peers voted to elect him, using the single transferable vote system, to fill a hereditary vacancy in the Lords.

E Campbell, Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire

Border crossings

Elizabeth Scott (Letters, 5 April) posits Scots would have a better chance of crossing the Channel after independence as they would avoid the holiday queues at Dover. How exactly?

Is it because the queues would be at Berwick on the A1 or Gretna on the M6 or Coldstream on the A698? Or perhaps at Scottish ports for the new ferries the SNP government will have rapidly built?

Rodney Pinder, Kelso, Scottish Borders

Nato expansion

The 1949 founding treaty on the Nato website states: “As the power of the Soviet Union spread to several Eastern European countries, there was concern among Western European countries that Moscow would impose its ideology and authority across Europe.” The Soviet threat disappeared over 30 years ago so why is Nato expanding to include Finland?

The Russian people have suffered no fewer than four major invasions from the west since 1700 (by Sweden, Napoleon and two by Germany) and lost many millions of people. The unfortunate Russian populace must be looking on nervously as 1,300km is added to Nato’s border with their country.

Geoff Moore, Alness, Highland

Health strategy

In an extended interview on the BBC’s Today programme of 4 April, discussion of yet another all-encompassing report on the state of, and strategy for the health service, placed emphasis on the importance of diverting large amounts of money from acute to preventive medicine.

In my many years of working on the acute side, it was constantly claimed that preventive medicine was the answer to reducing the pressures on hospital services which soak up the bulk of the NHS cash. I have no arguments with the principle but the logistics simply do not work in practice.

Preventive medical principles take generations to put into practice with, in general, a public reluctant to forego self-indulgent lifestyles, which are not going to change overnight. Money has never been seriously invested in preventive medicine as hospital services have in the past and will in the future have to cope with the increasing demands precipitated by their own success in medical and surgical advances. They are victims of their own success, with significant increases in life expectancy.

As we get older, we develop multiple medical conditions, the result being the demographic time bomb, long predicted and currently overwhelming acute services.

Life expectancy in Scotland is plateauing but be under no illusion that the pressures on acute services will plateau in parallel. There will never be enough financial resources to indulge in the laudable practice of preventive medicine while hospital treatments continue to flourish and even less cash is invested in social services and care of the elderly and needy in the community.

Dr SR Wild, Edinburgh

Cancer crisis

The revelation of the worst-ever waiting times for cancer treatment (Scotsman, 5 April) is shocking and the figures must hide the true suffering of cancer victims and their families.

From a 95 per cent success rate to start treatment within 62 days in 2012 to the last recorded figure of 71.7 per cent is an incredible decline and must raise the question of how many people are dying unnecessarily due to the late onset of critical cancer care.

Of course, Covid has been a major factor in the ability of the NHS to respond adequately to the increasing incidence of cancer contributed to by an ageing population etc but the sad fact is that the government has acted insufficiently to meet the challenge of rising cancer rates over the years, largely through incompetence and complacency.

Health Secretaries such as Humza Yousaf failed to get a grip on the cancer “epidemic” and it’s likely that his successor Michael Matheson, based on his track record, will be little different. A depressing outlook for cancer victims.

Bob MacDougall, Kippen, Stirling

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