Readers' Letters: It’s time to get everyone back in the office

These days, waiting for your call to be answered, seems to take an eternity.

In the past, (whilst waiting no more than five minutes), I would imagine a busy call centre with banks of telephonists, efficiently dealing with customer calls. Wall-mounted digital displays informed the team of calls waiting as well as average call waiting times. Team working, was the key and the poster stating, “The Customer is King” was displayed loud and proud.

Today, whilst waiting 45 minutes for my call to be answered, my dystopian imagination pictures a different diorama.

I can see a laptop on a kitchen table somewhere in suburbia. My call inaudibly flashes below the split screen images of an online shopping site and a long weekend in Prague. The kettle has just boiled, the bacon is nice and crisp, and Bargain Hunt is about to start. I can see no one, but there is a framed poster on the wall of Blondie, advertising the 1978 hit Hanging On The Telephone.

Should working from home be the exception, rather than the rule?

Last month, Sir James Dyson condemned government plans to extend employees’ rights to work from home as “economically illiterate and staggeringly self-defeating”.

It's time to get everyone back in the office.

Gary Freestone, Leicester

Labour pains

Ian Murray wonders why the SNP is attacking the English Labour Party (Scotsman, 3 January).

Let’s start with Labour’s inexplicable support for a disastrous Brexit that is making the UK poorer and more isolated than ever. Murray ignores that every region of Scotland voted to remain in the single market. UK GDP has shrunk 5.2 per cent and inflation is higher than the rest of the G7 because of Brexit. Trade deals with Australia and New Zealand are miniscule compared with the gaping hole left by Brexit, and were so poorly negotiated that they will drive Scottish farmers out of business.

Then there’s Labour’s failure to support the trade unions in their fight for fair pay increases after a decade of austerity and now record inflation. Instead, Keir Starmer sacks a shadow minister who dares to show support for public sector workers who have endured real pay cuts for years and are resorting to food banks.

Further, Keir Starmer refuses to acknowledge what everyone else knows – that the privatisation of public services has been a catastrophe. Private companies skim off profits for shareholders and fail to invest in the workforce and infrastructure, with the result that vital public services – transport, teaching, health care, energy – are on their knees.

The coup de grace, however, is Labour blocking Scotland’s right to choose its future.

With a Labour Party so profoundly out of touch with Scotland, it’s a wonder Scotland has even a single Labour MP.

Leah Gunn Barrett, Edinburgh

Open debate

EU policy expert Mark Foster makes a timely call for an open debate about the pros and cons of an independent Scotland gaining entry to the EU (Scotsman, January 4).

His language is diplomatic but he makes it clear that his appeal is directed principally towards the Scottish Government. He advises that the SNP government should articulate “more clearly” how it would persuade all 27 member states – particularly Spain and Belgium – to agree to Scotland’s accession. On the crucial question of currency he states that the SNP paper is “disingenuous” to claim there are “several options”. Opting out of the euro, even if politically conceivable, would breach EU treaties. And on the question of “free movement of goods, capital, people and services” with our “biggest single trading partner” he points to the potential “risks” and “political headaches” which “demand detailed debate and scrutiny”.

God forbid that political and public debate in 2023 will be dominated by constitutional issues. But if it must be so then let us only hope – if somewhat forlornly – that the SNP will heed Mr Foster’s advice “to embrace constructive criticism” and avoid doing “a disservice” to Scotland by “advertently or inadvertently avoiding public scrutiny” and “wilfully or unwilfully portraying the facts around EU accession in an unbalanced manner”?

Colin Hamilton, Edinburgh

EU referendum

Interesting article by Mark Foster on the EU and Scotland. Two points please; firstly, whilst many are aggrieved that Scotland did not vote to leave, it was a UK referendum, not a Scottish one. Secondly, he does not mention that major constitutional change should not be decided on fifty per cent plus one of the electorate.

The winning margin was too small, and with a 50/50 split in any country, ie in Scotland over independence, any such poll is a recipe for animosity.

William Ballantine, Bo’ness, West Lothian

1984 template

MSP Foysol Choudhury's article “Scotland's must give a voice to victims of colonialism, slavery and empire” (Scotsman, 3 January) encapsulates why our museums and cultural hubs need to be defended from wilful ignoramuses and squadistas of self-righteous bullies whom, like Isis and the Khmer Rouge, won’t rest until anything daring to speak a narrative contrary to their own prejudices has been “ethically cleansed”.

No museum has ever “hidden” its exhibits’ origins, as Choudhury claims. Had he the remotest clue how a museum works, he'd know they're filled with guides and volunteers all too eager to give chapter and verse – warts and all – to the displays (as many a suffering visitor “just wanting to look round” will testify!). Too many loud-mouthed politicians only visit museums for photo opportunities and nothing more – making them a large part of the problem.

At the Govan Stones where I volunteer, visitors are often shocked to learn that mass slavery certainly didn’t start with the British Empire: indeed, we ourselves were victims of Viking slave raids for centuries. Of particular concern are school children and students clearly being indoctrinated elsewhere with historically skewed rubbish from those who see Orwell’s 1984 as a template, not a warning.

Mark Boyle, Johnstone, Renfrewshire

Colonial claims

Foysol Choudhury MSP shows a strange sense of priorities. At a time of raging inflation, food and fuel poverty, industrial chaos, lack of affordable housing and near breakdown of the NHS he uses the platform of a Scotsman article to suggest his top priority is the establishment of a museum of slavery and colonialism in Scotland.

Slavery and colonialism have existed since the dawn of time. The two are not synonymous. Indeed, it was only colonialism which put an end to slavery in many parts of the world. Colonial rule in Africa and elsewhere was relatively free from the corruption and communal strife which have characterised many of these countries since independence.

Finally the people of Scotland today are not responsible for activities which ceased decades or hundreds of years ago, activities from which few of them derived any benefit.

Our existing museums and historic sites are being starved of funding. They should be the priority for funding, not a breast-beating, historical irrelevancy.

Robert Cairns, Perth, Perth & Kinross

It all adds up

The nation’s numeracy is the target for our PM so all those at school will be required to study maths until 18 years of age.

I hope he's done his homework on this because I’m sure I read somewhere that there are only three types of people in this world… those who can count and those who can’t.

Stan Hogarth, Strathaven, South Lanarkshire

Health crisis

It was widely predicted but sadly has come true. Humza Yousaf’s "recovery plan” for the Scottish NHS is definitely in reverse gear (“Scottish A&E waits hit ‘up to four days’ in NHS crisis”, Scotsman, 4 January). Dr John-Paul Loughrey's excoriating report made difficult reading.

Where is Nicola Sturgeon in all of this? When the pandemic was causing difficulties we received a daily report to keep us informed. The situation is arguably worse now yet she is keeping a low profile and still ignoring the calls for her Health Minister to go. This is not leadership.

Gerald Edwards,, Glasgow

Ripe for reform

Reform Scotland has said there is an “unacceptable” lack of clarity from the Scottish Government on the changes needed for Scotland to meet its net zero targets. (Scotsman, 3 January).

Reform Scotland wants an immediate ban on the sale of new gas cookers, and for a “pay-as-you-drive” scheme to be introduced on all Scottish roads.

What planet are the people in Reform Scotland on? Scotland’s emissions are a miniscule 0.13 per cent of global emissions. Meanwhile the world’s major polluters continue to pollute even more and their climate promises have been cast aside as “Old King Coal” is back on his throne worldwide. In Germany a village is soon to be razed for a lignite mine and ten fossil fuel projects are set to get 1 billion euros of support.

Reform Scotland is a charity but with stupid green statements like this its charitable status should be immediately revoked.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Long holiday

Whilst the rest of the country endeavours to return to work this week with no trains to use and the NHS in meltdown, our entitled MSPs remain on holiday, not to return until Monday, 9 January.

Why on earth is our First Minister not facing questions today at FMQs and the Scottish Government doing all it can to avert further public sector strikes? It is a disgrace and they should be ashamed of themselves.

Richard Allison, Edinburgh