Readers' Letters - Politicians must remember fishing industry during election

Watching the Scottish leadership debate I was surprised that so little emphasis was given to our Island and coastal communities.

Discussions regarding North Sea oil licensing is obviously vital to our UK economy, but so, too, is the Scottish Fishing industry, both offshore and onshore.

The industry is still adjusting to a post-Brexit reality governed by a botched trade deal that denies the UK full control over its own waters. This vastly complicates the efforts of the industry to obtain a fairer share of quotas and has slowed progress towards a better management regime.

One can only hope that the penny will drop with Central Belt politicians on election day!

DG McIntyre, Edinburgh

Gravy train

It is indeed a jolly sight to see Douglas Ross is not yet ready to give up the Westminster gravy train.

Indeed, during a cost of living crisis it’s responsible for a man like Mr Ross, who has done so much to make life miserable and harder than it could be for ordinary people, that he keeps a good salary coming in, and all the pension and expenses benefits that go with it.

Of course, he heroically gives his Holyrood salary to charity while claiming Holyrood expenses, and the lucrative MSP pension, and he does this all with a straight face while jumping up and down over an £11,000 iPad bill which has already been paid back.

Yes Mr Ross is a true gravy train hero. Keep up the good personal financial work Douglas, while the rest of us continue to struggle through the mess yourself and Liz Truss plunged us into.

Alexander Lunn, Edinburgh

Dem, not us

I was appalled by the election broadcast on behalf of the “Scottish” Liberal Democrat Party shown on TV on Wednesday evening. There was not one single mention of Scotland throughout the broadcast, but I have to say that I was not surprised to see that the lightweight Alex Cole-Hamilton had been airbrushed out. This blatant disregard for Scotland and all things Scottish extending as far as the northern branch of their own party is what we should expect of the Liberal Democrats.

What was presented on the broadcast was a life history and family portrait of the English Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey under the premise that we should believe that gives him an understanding of what it means to be a carer. I presume from what I saw that he is unaware that health and social care is devolved and that legislation, systems and standards are not the same in Scotland as those in his country.

Ni Holmes, St Andrews, Fife

Cowardly lines

Those responsible for the Edinburgh International Book Festival meekly capitulated to threats from yet another cowardly eco-group calling itself Fossil Free Books (your report, 5 June).

I say “cowardly” since they and other eco-groups never venture where the real climate problems originate, mostly in China. The majority of the wind turbines and solar panels in the UK were manufactured in China using cheap electricity produced by cheap coal from their 1,142 coal-fired plants and then shipped to the UK in diesel cargo ships. These eco-warriors use and are in contact with goods and plastics derived from fossil fuels every day, from the transport they use to food they eat.

The director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Jenny Niven, has urged the Scottish Government to fill the funding gap left by their dismissal of sponsor Baillie Gifford. Why should Scottish taxpayers fund this? Surely members of Fossil Free Books and the 800 writers who supported them should make up the shortfall?

Instead they will slink away to form another eco-group with new targets and not make one iota of difference to the world's greenhouse gasses.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Sacrifice betrayed

I read with dismay Rosie Heptonstall's letter (5 June). In it she details what “a good writer” should do. Much of what she details is true, though she omits to state that a good writer should research all sides of a particular argument so that his or her argument is balanced.

What writers should not do, nor are “morally obliged to do”, is to act as sole arbiters of any argument and by force – whether that is by pressure on the staff of the festival, writers invited to attend or threats of disruption which might affect those attending – interrupt a book festival, even close it. A festival is where the opportunity is given to real writers to present their various arguments, for people to listen and judge themselves on the rights and wrongs of an issue. This is an approach supported by many leading Scottish writers.

Fossil Free Books are no more than a narcissistic self-indulgent group of people, most interested in their self-importance.

I write this letter on the anniversary of D-Day at 11.30am. By this time on the beaches of Normandy 80 years ago, many thousands of soldiers, sailors and airmen had already been killed or suffered life-changing wounds in the cause of freedom and democracy. Fossil Free Books betray their sacrifice.

I would say, contrary, to the statement by festival chair Alan Little in The Scotsman (6 June), the festival has “caved into bullying”, and equally betrayed the sacrifice of these men. Perhaps, though, that is the way of the world these days, where the easy way out is so often chosen rather than that of principle.

John B Gorrie, Edinburgh

Dimmed energy

Paul Wilson is right regarding the issues facing Labour’s energy plans, but the 650,000 jobs quoted in his article (Perspective, 6 June) must be a typo. However, Labour is pulling the wool over people’s eyes as regards the Great British Energy Company.

GB Energy will not be a publicly owned energy generation company that will reduce our energy bills as some have claimed, but an investment company that needs at least 75 per cent of its funding to come from the private sector.

This may create a few office jobs but the claimed thousands of jobs will only be transfers from Scotland’s oil and gas sector, which will be decimated if Labour’s proposed additional windfall tax comes into fruition. While Labour waters down its green energy plans, the Scottish Government already has a £500 million Just Transition Fund to support the North East in becoming Scotland’s centre of excellence for renewable energy.

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh

Higher bills

Another piece of data that Paul Wilson could have included in his article on Keir Starmer and Net Zero is that a ban on gas means replacing 12,000 units of that energy source (6p/unit) with 12,000 units of renewable electricity at 24p/unit.

That results in annual consumer energy bills increasing by £2,160 a year, thus adding to the headache facing the prospective “Prime Minister Starmer” in 2024 and the SNP in the Holyrood election of 2026!

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, West Lothian

Hydrocarbons

Regarding The Scotsman report “Only a third of SNP supporters want more oil and gas drilling” (5 June), drilling for oil and gas is not especially damaging to the environment; it's merely another industrial activity.

Whether or not the environment subsequently suffers depends on what is done with the oil and gas produced. Both oil and gas (hydrocarbons) are essential feed stock for industries producing asphalt, lubricants, chemical reagents for plastics, solvents, textiles, refrigerants, paint, synthetic rubber, fertilisers, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and many other products we need and use every day, such as medical devices, household tools and clothing.

It's only burning hydrocarbons that damages the environment, producing the greenhouse gases that result in global warming. So let us not stop extracting them; just let's stop burning them.

Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh

Life is sheep

I have read many a story and watched plenty of films through the years on the D-Day landings about bravery and heroism which is well founded. I have read about how the landings took place and about machinery and contraptions to overcome mined beaches prior to these brave men racing off landing crafts into the unknown. However, I remember well a story told to me 40 odd years ago when I was an apprentice by an elderly tradesman I was being taught by.

I asked him about his experience that day and he told me he was on the second batch of landing crafts to land at the beach. Who was in the first batch, I asked and he replied, not who but what… sheep.

He said they were in the first crafts and when the doors were dropped a starting pistol was fired and the frightened sheep ran up the beach to possibly set off any mines. Well, he said, better to lose sheep than men. As it was, we lost no sheep because his part of the beach wasn't mined.

I’ve never read anything like that in any articles through the years. It makes you wonder who came up with these ideas and how workable they were. Have other readers been regaled with stories that are never written about

J Moore, Glasgow

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