This time, it cannot, or will not, provide the documentation relevant to the Scottish Government’s decision not to require full repayment guarantees from Ferguson Marine to insure it against any failure on the part of that company to fulfil the contract for two ferries. Was nothing committed to paper – or computer – about this matter? If not, that was entirely improper and perhaps illegal. If so, has someone destroyed the paper or computer that recorded the decision?

It is all very well for Ms Sturgeon to say that she “regrets” this. Regrets, she’s had a few, and that is not enough. It is certainly not enough for her – who “will take no lessons” – to say that her administration will learn any lessons needed. If she had learned lessons from all of the disasters that her regime has perpetrated, she would be the best-educated person in Scotland.

It is simply implausible to claim that information about the decision to waive a crucial requirement in a contract with a political friend does not exist anywhere. At the very least, someone, somewhere knows who took that decision. That person needs to be named and required to explain why this happened.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon hasn't managed to put the ferries 'fiasco' behind her. (Picture: Russell Cheyne - Pool/Getty Images)

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Buy local

I toured the north east of Scotland last week and was amazed at the enormous stretches of rich productive farming land. It made me realise that together with the equally productive areas of the Central Belt and the Borders, plus our rich fishing industry, Scotland can well supply Scots with food. Living in Edinburgh, I have been tempted by cheaper foreign imports but if we are heading for independence – and the polls all suggest that we are – it is up to us to support our farmers and fishermen (and food processors that use Scottish produce) by buying Scottish.

Previously, price rather than excellence has motivated me. Chancellor Rishi Sunak must be aware that his much trumpeted 3 per cent pension rise is a cruel joke to the elderly, offset as it is by 8 per cent inflation. However, the more we buy Scottish goods, the cheaper they will become as farmers and food processors are able to sell larger amounts.

For instance, as we drove past Tain on our way to Dornoch, I remembered the delicious Blues, Bries and Caboc that I have enjoyed, but now I looked up Scottish cheese makers on the internet and saw that there were many, many more Scottish cheese makers making every kind of cheese. It was a wake up call to me, to buy Scottish and get the best. Scottish Beef, lamb, venison, hams, pork and fish are great and often cost less than foreign imports. Scottish mussels are bigger than the ones I got in France and taste delicious, as do Scottish fruit, vegetables and potatoes.

My experience is that the price depends more on where you shop than what you buy. Yes, we have a shorter season than some other countries but modern fruit growers are pushing the barriers with modern methods. Let us support their efforts, just as France insists on buying French produce. Look at their supermarkets. There is usually one small corner for “Foreign Produce” and no one lingers there.

Now I look for the Saltire on everything I buy. If we all asked our supermarket managers to buy more Scottish products they will do so.

Buy Scottish and make Scotland rich.

Elizabeth Scott, Edinburgh

Nicola Sturgeon denies 'cover up' over Ferguson ferries fiasco

Scottish senseless

It seems the census is another fine mess into which Scotland has been dropped by decision-making but nationality-obsessed politicians. Some 700,000 Scots have yet to complete and return the forms (Scotsman Online, 25 April). What could have possessed the decision makers in the SNP/Green coalition to postpone the census for a year after the rest of the UK? Could it have been anything other than the wish, no, compulsion, to do things differently because we are Scottish.

The surely politicised questions, I am certain, put others off. The probing into what people consider themselves, gender and sex-wise as well as nationality – including the lack of a clear Scottish-British option – I am sure put others off. I did complete mine, but reluctantly, for the first time ever.

If only the nationalists would put nationality aside, just now and then.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Over the top

Ahead of the May council election, Pol Yates states that Scotland “needs to move away from the criminal, racist and cruel government in Westminster and gain independence” (Letters, 25 April). Really?

Criminal? The UK enjoys the rule of law without favour, and has done so in England since Magna Carta in 1215, which warrants that not even the monarch or the government, or the Prime Minister, is above the law.

Racist? The UK cabinet is the most diverse in history with the major offices of state held by ethnic incumbents. There are 896,00 Indians, 682,000 Poles, 456,000 Pakistanis, and 312,000 Nigerians living in the UK, the overwhelming number of them in England. England is bursting at the seams, with education, health, and social services stretched above the limit. That is why the government wants immigration controlled.

Cruel? Boris Johnson galvanised the world's first national vaccination programme against Covid, saving thousands of lives. He is leading the West in its response to Vladimir Putin's criminal, racist and cruel war against the Ukrainian people. The UK government is spending £5 million every day in accommodating illegal migrants in hotels.

Nationalists should focus on Scotland's needs. For example, children living in Nicola Sturgeon's constituency are the poorest in the UK, with a poverty rate of 69 per cent. Glasgow's streets are overrun with over a million rats thriving on waste, a fact dismissed by Glasgow's SNP council leader, Susan Aitken. Contract documents on the CMAL ferries were rushed through before an SNP conference, according to Jim McColl, the yard owner. Now Audit Scotland cannot find a paper trail about where the money went. And after ten months the police are still investigating the disappearance of £600,000 of SNP member donations.

William Loneskie, Oxton, Berwickshire

Land and freedom

There is concern regarding land ownership in Scotland, with about half of all rural land in private hands, some foreign.In 1840, French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon claimed that “Property is theft”. In a way, he was right. Originally the first owner of a parcel of land must have appropriated it, that is, staked a claim to it. All subsequent owners base their rights to the land on that first claim.It is reasonable, therefore, to believe that no one has any basic right to own any land in Scotland; it should be owned on behalf of everyone by the state and occupiers should pay to occupy it.How can such a situation be achieved? Could the state step in every time property is sold and claim ownership of the land (not anything built or growing on it)? Would the state have to buy the land?People could be allowed to occupy land provided they pay a Land Valuation Tax to the appropriate local authority, acting as an agent for the state. This would do away with the unfair Council Tax. What people do with the land would still be subject to planning law.Is this pie in the sky or a realistic solution to the land ownership problem?

Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh

Save buildings

Whether the reader is a churchgoer or not, the 52 churches and church halls in Fife, recently listed for possible closure, must come as a shock to those of us who have grown up close to one of those “doomed” buildings.The first thing I'd like to know is the composition of the Church of Scotland Committee who drew up that published list. Were architects or historians on it or was the group made up entirely of active church leaders?While the buildings listed for possible closure, and/or sale, have all got religious pasts, it should be remembered that they were built by and for the local community. It is therefore only right that those mostly small and rural communities should have a major say in what happens to those older churches built by our ancestors.If the coffers of the Church of Scotland can no longer bear the upkeep of those properties, our government must foot the bill. Last year our political masters gave away £1.3 billion of our money to 27 overseas nations so perhaps a large part of that cash can be given to maintain many of those 52 Church of Scotland buildings.

After all, “Charity begins at home”!

Archibald A Lawrie, Kingskettle, Fife

Heavy burden

How many voters in the May election are aware of the impact COP26 costs will have on their standard of living?

The Green Transition, put forward by Patrick Harvie MSP, will mean a £40,000 bill for every flat owner in Scotland. The proposed ban on the import of shale gas will wipe out the work at Grangemouth and cut £50 billion per year from Scottish GDP. That means a £20,000 tax hike to maintain public services at their current level. The Green Revolution, announced by the Climate Emergency Review Group, comes at a cost of £150bn or a debt of £60,000 per household. Repayments on the 25,000 MW Scotwind project adds a further £50,000 debt onto household budgets.

COP26 timescales should be based on ability to pay instead of a Holyrood dictat that fails to ascertain the total cost of each initiative.

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas

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Readers' Letters: If there’s no ferry cover-up, find documents

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