Readers' Letters: Let's accentuate the positive as we enter a new year

While last year seemed to be one of doom and gloom in the world, from ongoing war in Ukraine, conflict in Gaza and the cost of living crisis, there was, in fact, much to celebrate.

The rebuilding of the scimitar oryx population in the wild is good news, says reader (Picture: Mohamed El-Shahed/AFP via Getty Images)

Medically, we are seeing a pace of progress that has not been witnessed for a century. Artificial intelligence and 3D printing provide amazing opportunities, and thanks in part to vaccines devised to tackle Covid-19, there is the opportunity to help eradicate certain types of cancer.

The rise of renewables also became unstoppable, and according to a report by the International Energy Agency), they will provide half the world’s electricity by 2030. The year also saw the Amazon rainforest breathe a little easier, with rates of deforestation down more than half compared to last year. This follows efforts to halt tree loss, most notably in Brazil.

The list of endangered species continued to grow in 2023, but some creatures bounced back from the brink. One of them was the scimitar-horned oryx, which until 2023 was listed as “extinct in the wild” but has been successfully reintroduced to Chad using captive animals. Other notable successes include Scotland’s surging golden eagle population and the return of the bittern to England.

There were also notable wins for the LGBTQ community as a clutch of countries broke down some of the barriers to same-sex partnerships. For example, Nepal registered its first gay marriage in November, becoming one of the first Asian nations to do so. Latvia, a laggard in relatively liberal Europe, also voted to legalise same-sex partnerships.

So, while for many of us last year may seem one to be despondent about, there were some notable positives to be celebrated.

Alex Orr, Edinburgh

Scotland wins

The Republic of Ireland is not utopia (Martin O’Gorman, Letters, 4 January) but it is far better prepared to meet current challenges than a stagnant British economy outside the EU. Recently, The Economist magazine ranked Ireland the “clear winner” among European economies as the world enters a “troubling” period. In a feature entitled the European Economic Pentathlon, the publication ranked the EU economies based on “five major challenges” facing all of them, including demand, debt, demography, decarbonisation and decoupling exposure.

On average, Irish citizens enjoy a higher standard of living plus lower levels of poverty than in the UK, and international trade has boomed, with 44 direct ferry sailings to Europe each week.

While the UK national debt increases, the Irish government is putting some of its budget surplus into a New Ireland Fund, something Scotland could have done had we been a self-governing nation when North Sea Oil revenues were flowing to Westminster and used for tax cuts and London infrastructure rather than investing in the A9 or modernising our shipyards and manufacturing industries. As a result, Scotland’s GDP is half that of Ireland’s.

The current UK Government is cutting Scotland’s capital budget by 20 per cent, after inflation, by 2028/29, which is brutal for Scotland’s infrastructure, including roads, building houses, schools and hospitals.

We all want things to improve but it should be recognised that, despite Tory austerity, Scotland has a much better-performing NHS than in England or in Labour-run Wales, and our school pupils are achieving better exams results, with 94 per cent of all school leavers going on to positive destinations.

Under the SNP poverty levels are now lower than in England and Wales and the unique £25 a week Child Payment is acknowledged as a game changer by relevant charities.

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh

Poor prospects

Now we have entered the New Year, one would hope that there might be improvements in all aspects of life in Scotland. But alas, there is little hope of that happening either politically or economically without a change of government.

Scotland’s First Minister, Humza Yousaf, and his SNP colleagues are totally incapable of improving the lot for Scotland's people. It certainly is very apparent that the SNP/Green alliance has completely lost the plot in so many areas of Scotland's administration. On an almost a daily basis we read of gross failures on their part in government, both at national and council levels.

Hopefully in 2024 we can expect to encounter new horizons in this northerly part of the UK, with an end to the Scottish Nationalist cause; and a re-emergence of values which will benefit all parts of these Islands.

Let's face it – the SNP has had plenty of time to change life in Scotland and has failed miserably!

And, in any case, the Nationalists are surely fully aware by now that they simply do not have the power to stage another referendum on “independence” without an agreement being reached with Westminster on the matter. The Supreme Court ruled out the competence of Holyrood in such constitutional matters. Is the current ruling SNP/Green coalition claiming to be above the law?

Surely Scotland, and its people, deserve better than this poor excuse for an administration?

Robert I G Scott, Northfield, Ceres, Fife

Blame Europe

Regarding “The UK’s reputation has been trashed around world” (Perspective, 4 January), if Kenny MacAskill is correct that France and Germany were “aggrieved” at the UK's leaving the EU, he should realise the close vote in 2016 was determined by Angela Merkel’s unilateral overnight throwing open of the EU borders to potentially millions of Middle East and North African immigrants in 2015. Then there was the “thin gruel” offered by her and Francois Hollande to David Cameron in the pre-Brexit negotiations – despite the widespread desire for more genuine EU reforms throughout other member states, as Mark Rutte, the Dutch premier, wisely indicated in a speech in early June 2016, albeit too late to affect either our vote or the hardline attitude of his lords and masters in Brussels.

Further, if India and Malaysia are indeed “turning the screw with glee on the old colonial master for the sins of empire”, it is sad if they do not also appreciate the many benefits they obtained from that period and the risks now of too close a relationship with Russia, which would probably have been their colonial master had it not been the UK.

Finally, does Mr MacAskill really mean that, in 2024, we should support the brutal unprovoked Russian imperialist invaders rather than Ukraine? His insulting reference to racism is beneath contempt.

John Birkett, St Andrews, Fife

Tide is high

What possessed Peter Hopkins (Letters, 29 December) to claim sea levels are not increasing? Certainly not the relevant authorities (Met Office; IPCC; National Geographic; NASA; etc), who all agree that sea level rose about 20cm between 1901 and 2018.

Furthermore, the rise, is accelerating. By the end of this century the rise is expected to be 50-100cm. This rise is unprecedented in the last 3,000 years and is due to global warming.

Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh

Scotland on trial

Thomas Peter Ovenstone (Letters, 4 January) states: “Remaining in the union is a recipe for disaster.” No explanation, no evidence. Allow me to state that leaving the UK would be a recipe for disaster. We could provide evidence for those, who, like Mr Ovenstone, disparage and denigrate the UK at every turn and claim to want to exit it.

All we need is to persuade the UK Government to treat Scotland as a separate country for a trial period of 2-5 years (depending on how much of it we can stand). That would mean exclusion from all UK facilities that we currently enjoy and the withdrawal of financial support in the form of the Barnett formula and other goodies. If a pandemic befell us in that time, we would, with our annual deficit and £1.5 billion black hole, be on our own.

At the end of the trial period we could revert to the current dispensation, which most people would welcome “with open arms”, as separatists like to say.

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Students cap

Media articles have pointed out that that “only 55 per cent of students attending Scottish Universities are home based compared to 74 per cent in England”. There was no mention of a further reduction in Scots at Scottish universities following yet another SNP cut to the budget for tertiary education.

Will the Education Secretary be providing the data to Holyrood over the new cap for Scottish pupils?

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway

Uninspiring

As the starting gates are flung open for the race to be the next occupant of No.10, it seems that the public are faced with runners boasting differing degrees of mediocrity rather than suitability for the top job.

Of the main contenders, Rishi Sunak looks increasingly like a little boy lost while Sir Keir Starmer has carried out more flip flops than a performing seal. Liberal Sir Ed Davey is beginning to feel the heat for inaction over the horrific Post Office scandal when he held the Postal Affairs brief and our First Minister seems more intent in solving the problems of the NHS in England than fixing the NHS crisis in Scotland.

It's hardly an inspiring bunch when the country is crying out for leadership in an increasingly unstable world.

Bob MacDougall, Kippen, Stirlingshire

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