Readers' letters: Johnson administration is in The Thick of It

Boris Johnson has come up with a pathetic excuse of ‘nobody told me that I was breaking the rules’ - those very rules which he, as leader of the nation, had imposed upon the people of the UK and by which he too was bound.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is beset by scandal and hanging on to his job.Prime Minister Boris Johnson is beset by scandal and hanging on to his job.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is beset by scandal and hanging on to his job.

Downing Street staff apparently drinking at their desks, messengers sent to off licences with suitcases to smuggle in more alcohol as required. In the heart of the British state!

Its absurd, everybody knows that, yet the people of the UK have to sit back and watch the charade of a senior civil servant, an honest woman by all accounts, investigating to establish the truth of something which the mountain of evidence would suggest is patently obvious.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Now we are at the stage of a police investigation? Why, when they could just have asked the bobbies at the door, presumably at the back door too, and watched the CCTV footage

And, as we watch the news of an evening, the scenes in the Parliament get even worse, led by the PM when he deigns to appear, grunting, shouting, jeering, like a kids party might be if it all went wrong and there were no adults there to calm them down. It is really ridiculous.

The world laughed at the madness of Brexit, they were astounded that the people of the UK should vote for the chump Johnson as Prime Minister, but they must now be thinking that we have lost the plot altogether.

‘The Thick of It’ now seems like a documentary of more sensible times.

Les Mackay, Dundee

Gray area

Sue Gray, the Civil Servant who is leading the investigation into certain goings on at number 10 during lockdown, is being told by the Metropolitan Police to amend her report in case her findings prejudice the ongoing police investigation on similar matters.

The police say the report must have 'minimal reference to what they are investigating', 'avoid any prejudice', 'key details may be refused', and 'limits on publication etc'. On this basis the report is hardly worth the paper it is printed on.

One means of getting the full report into the public domain is to delay publication until the Met have completed their investigation, which may take some time, and there is always the possibility of 'leaks'.

Bereaved families who have lost loved ones during the pandemic have criticised these aspects of the report indicating that 'it has broken the trust of the public'.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It would appear that some people do not want the full report to be published, or also it may be as the saying goes 'their jacket may be on a shuggly peg’.

James Macintyre, Linlithgow

Life of Brian

Brian Wilson always writes with confident authority (Scotsman, January 29). However, on occasion we are entitled to question the validity of his sources.

For example, the story about 11 civil servants preparing for the next independence referendum appears to emanate from the Sun newspaper.

However, if you read the article, and although the headline screamed £700,000, it is clear that the author was forced to concede that it was not possible to extrapolate from the information he retrieved from a FOI request, the precise amount being spent on preparations for a referendum.

Undaunted he made light of the information gap and the subsequent coverage enthusiastically taken up by other metropolitan-based newspapers, has resonance with the old aphorism that a lie can be half way round the world before the truth has put its boots on.And another thing, the ex-energy minister Brian Wilson states categorically that the figure for oil prices of $114 mentioned by the SNP prior to the first referendum "never came close on a single day".

And yet records appear to show that in July 2008, the price reached €147. So we know Brian Wilson believes the Sun, but what are the rest of us to make of his assertions?

Gill Turner, Edinburgh

Keir’s mistake

Sir Keir Starmer appears to think that making more concessions to those who want to separate Scotland from the UK will be the magic pill Labour have lacked from the halcyon days when they went unchallenged north of the Border.

I do not know who is advising him on Scottish affairs but whoever it may be is living in cloud-cuckoo land.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Labour voters who have left the party have plenty of choice if what they wished a stronger nationalist-leaning representation. They could for a start simply vote for the SNP or Greens and get the real thing, but that does not seem to have registered.

In any case, disaffected labour voters – as is shown across the UK – left for many reasons, not least of which was Jeremy Corbyn and Momentum. Who would vote for an ‘’SNP-Lite’’ when the real thing is easily available?

Yet Sir Keith has been fed this ‘’more powers’’ line, which to many following politics up here plays right into the hands of the SNP, who would be the only winners.

If Labour in Scotland put forward a strong pro-UK stance and lost, they would at least go down honourably and with integrity intact.

In any case, I thought nationalism was the every antithesis of (democratic) socialism.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Nuclear partner

MSP Liam Kerr did well to explode the myth that nuclear power is expensive, but then claims that onshore wind farms are 'part of the solution' ('SNP is wrong to pour scorn on a move to low-carbon nuclear', Scotsman, 28 January).Nuclear power provides clean base-load electricity but cannot cope with daily variations in demand. Nor can unreliable wind farms; they are not the partner that nuclear requires to keep the electricity grid stable.Gas turbines can meet the excess demand but they burn a fossil fuel.

Pumped storage can meet a short term hike in demand but there is not enough of it.

Tidal power is reliable and might be used for this purpose but again there is too little.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Imports and battery storage might be considered. What would be the best partner for nuclear to keep the lights on without damaging the atmosphere?

Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh

The Quebec case

Nicola Sturgeon seems to be determined to have another referendum by the end of 2023.

Support for independence is around 50 per cent and that for another referendum anytime soon is substantially lower. How that equates to satisfying the will of the people is anyone's guess.

In Quebec the nationalists had a vote on independence from Canada in 1980 which they lost by about 10 per cent.

They persisted with their desire for independence, which was front and centre of all their policies in government and managed to engineer a second vote in 1995 which they lost narrowly.

By now the Quebec electorate had had enough of their separatist policies and they have only been in power sporadically in the last 27 years and independence has not been seriously on the agenda again in that time.

Nicola said after the last referendum that before she pushed for another one she would wish to see the polls showing 60 per cent in favour of independence for at least six months.

That had been quietly forgotten about as subsequent polls have not shown anywhere near that level of support.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She needs to be careful that the electorate do not get scunnered with her obsession for independence while they are more interested in good jobs, affordable housing, improved education and the like, or her government could go the same way as the nationalists in Quebec.

Jack Watt, St Ola, Orkney

Nudge, nudge

In 2010 the then new Prime Minister David Cameron set up the UK Behavioural Insights Team, popularly known as the Nudge Unit consisting of social psychologists, behavioural scientists and policy makers whose role was to 'encourage' citizens to make what the government believed to be 'good lifestyle choices.'

Creditiable successes include increased organ donation, a reduction in people on benefits and increased tax recovery.

Such subtle state influences, however, also tread a slippery slope that verges on a version of George Orwell's grimly prophetic fiction,1984

Before dismissing this as another conspiracy fantasy, it should be noted that China already has in place a Social Credit System, whereby mass surveillance assessment provides ratings for personal behaviour, performance, economic and social reputation.

Rewards for compliance may be lower taxes, travel permits, preferential education and good jobs. Those who fail to measure up are blacklisted and forfeit alll such 'privileges'.

Such extreme levels of control may never happen here, but even a less radical model threatens our civil liberties.

It is worth reflecting on the levels of fear and state control generated by the Nudge Unit that has been advising the SAGE committee throughout the pandemic.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Scottish Government's proposals to enact permanent Covid powers gives further cause for concern

The other compelling issue of our times, climate change, sees punitave carbon taxes imposed on irresponsible fossil fuel 'polluters' while enticing financial inducements are offered to so-called renewable energy sources without any true sense of balanced reaason.

The latest nudge to reduce our carbon footprint comes in the form of the UN Carbon Offset Platform, where you are invited to make a payment to a 'project' of your choice - usually wind, solar or tree planting – in order to reduce carbon emissions.

The reward is a Voluntary Cancellation Cerificate and maybe some tax relief for being a 'responsible' citizen.

The writing is clearly on the wall but who can read it?

Neil J Bryce, Kelso

Write to The Scotsman

We welcome your thoughts. Write to [email protected] including name, address and phone number – we won't print full details. Keep letters under 300 words, with no attachments, and avoid 'Letters to the Editor/Readers’ Letters' or similar in your subject line. If referring to an article, include date, page number and heading.

A message from the Editor

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription. Click on this link for more information.

Comments

 0 comments

Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.