Readers' Letters: Sometimes there’s too much bad news to bury

While the First Minister and her acolytes focus their attentions on a further divisive, destructive independence referendum, the rest of us must wallow in the bog of incompetence of this SNP administration. Rarely has a news day demonstrated this incompetence and disingenuous behaviour. Yesterday’s newscast was extraordinary.

We have the ex SNP Minister Ash Regan MSP saying the First Minister was “well aware” of her concerns over the hugely discredited Gender Recognition Reform Bill prior to her resignation.

Further, MSPs claim John Swinney “misled MSPs“ over a free gender reform vote. The UK statistics watchdog has criticised the Scottish Government over “potentially misleading” figures used to describe NHS waiting times. We have Audit Scotland advising the potential costs for a National Care Service have been significantly understated and “the potential for additional cost is significant”. We are told the new “green” ferry (when finished) will have to run on diesel for at least the first nine months of its time in service.

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What more utter incompetence and disingenuous behaviour must be demonstrated by this shameful administration before the electorate realise a change is required?

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Deputy John Swinney at the SNP Conference last month (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Deputy John Swinney at the SNP Conference last month (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Deputy John Swinney at the SNP Conference last month (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Richard Allison, Edinburgh

Self-ID threat

Tim Hopkins of the Equality Network asserts (Letters, 27 October), like Nicola Sturgeon, that the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill is simply about streamlining the process whereby those claiming to be of the opposite gender obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC).

This is far from the truth: The Bill, if passed by MSPs, would fundamentally change both the category of people that can be granted a GRC and, crucially, the conditions under which they receive it.

By removing the need for a diagnosis of Gender Dysphoria (distress or discomfort with one's birth sex) and two medical reports, as well as drastically reducing the time a person must “live in” the opposite gender before applying for a GRC from two years to three months, and lowering the qualifying age from 18 to 16 years, the Scottish Government is removing safeguards built into the present UK-wide Gender Recognition Act (2004) which protect not only women and girls but also those wishing to “transition”.

It is clear, from Hansard records at the time the GRA 2004 was passed in the UK Parliament, that it was only meant to apply to a tiny minority of the population (those suffering from Gender Dysphoria to the extent that they felt the need to change their bodies as much as possible to the opposite sex). Sturgeon does not seem to grasp the fact that by opening up this process to anyone by allowing “self identification” and a simple declaration that the applicant merely “intends” to remain in their “acquired gender” for life, she is creating a system (almost impossible to police) that makes it much easier for predatory men to receive a GRC and gain access to women's and girls' spaces such as changing rooms, dormitories and women's refuges. These changes would further erode women's fundamental rights to safety, privacy and dignity.

Any MSP voting for these new measures will be ignoring the 2017 European Court of Human Rights ruling in the Garcon and Nicot v. France case. Here the judges held that there was no breach of human rights in requiring a diagnosis of Gender Dysphoria before a change of gender is granted. This was to ensure that the person's desire to change gender did not arise from any other condition and also that the person did not “unadvisedly” change their gender.

Cate MacDonald, Falkirk

Imploding SNP

There will be more than a touch of irony involved if what brings the First Minister and her party down in the end is not the undoubted paucity of their economic case for breaking up the UK; nor the lack of focus on what matters; nor the seeming compulsion to grandstand expensively overseas on any pretext; nor, indeed, the incompetency of her administration.

But it may be none of these in the end. The mini-rebellion against the gender recognition reform bill was unprecedented for the normally Stalinist-like SNP. The First Minister and others in her administration, in their quest for what they see as right, leave the impression they are on the side of what many regard as a militant movement that will endanger the safety of all women and girls. It may not sway the hardliners, nothing will, but there is a soft and more thinking centre to the “break-up the UK” movement.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Pure hypocrites

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Nicola Sturgeon intends to go to Sharm El Sheikh where the latest COP meeting will soon be held, despite not being a head of government.

The COP meetings are intended to be a call to arms over “climate change” and they are expected to reach agreements on reductions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. This makes it all the stranger that Ms Sturgeon wants to go there as I am absolutely certain that she will fly there in a fossil-fuelled jet, like all the other leaders. Leaders will stay in air-conditioned villas, using fossil fuels to power the AC and they will attend in hosts of fossil-fuel-powered vehicles. They will also all have lots of back-up staff, Nicola Sturgeon included.

But don't worry. They will all leave after telling us all not to use fossil fuels in order to save the planet and Ms Sturgeon will be sure to make that very point to the rest of us very loudly.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Threat to NHS

Derek Farmer writes on the Scottish NHS, a public service he values (Letters, 1 November). But he does not outline the huge pressure it is under from Westminster policies and seems to think we will always have a public NHS here. Unfortunately the Conservative government have ridden over the Scotland Act – legislating and spending in devolved areas, including Health. They are ignoring Holyrood and Scottish devolution and constantly cutting our budget anyway. Already contracts are being given here to private companies in the same way as rapid privatisation took place down south. Brexit has been very harmful for the Scottish NHS as doctors, nurses and many much-needed workers have left the hostile UK.

Climate change action by the world, including Scotland, is essential for the wellbeing of our health service. The World Health Organisation warns that without immediate action there may be as many as 250,000 additional deaths due to climate change per year between 2030-2050 alone.

Unless Scotland gains independence, the NHS is likely to be privatised and sold off under the Westminster Conservative government who remain in power despite no general election. Independence would let us protect public services and deal with pressing issues such as climate change responsibly back in the EU or in EFTA.

Pol Yates, Edinburgh

Blame game

Contrary to Derek Farmer’s view, many of the factors influencing the UK wide NHS crisis are outwith the control of the Scottish Government, not least UK inflation costs due to flawed energy policies and Brexit that resulted in EU staff leaving and has exacerbated ongoing recruitment problems. Also, many GPs and consultants have taken early retirement due to the way UK taxation regulations impacted on the highest earners in the NHS pension scheme.

Inflation and staffing issues have severely impacted on care homes, which is the main cause of bed blocking, and A & E waiting times, which are worse in England and Wales. Scotland has invested in nurse training by keeping nursing bursaries, funding additional places and maintaining free tuition, which has resulted in nursing student numbers increasing by 8 per cent in Scotland while falling by 3 per cent in England.

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NHS Scotland regularly outperforms England and Wales, due to the fact that we have many more GPs, hospital beds, nurses and midwives per 100,000 population. In Labour-run Wales the NHS has been described as being like a third world county but, the Labour First Minister robustly identifies the resource limitations of the devolution settlement and has called out the culpability of Tory governments in Westminster for the present state of the NHS in Wales.

The constraints of devolution mean that while the Scottish Government’s budget is decimated by UK inflation it doesn’t have the power to alter its annual budget once introduced. Meanwhile, I note that Scotland’s North Sea has raised an additional £8 billion for the London Treasury in the first nine months of this year.

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh

Speaking ill

The manner in which our politicians speak to each other needs to be addressed, as it is now verging on the rancorous. These people are our leaders who, unwittingly, set a standard of behaviour that is mirrored in so many levels of our society. We have prided ourselves in being a tolerant and broad-minded nation, but when one political leader says that they detest another political group and everything they stand for, what kind of example is being set? Do our leaders not understand that this way of addressing someone who has differing views permeates and, in some cases, becomes amplified as it passes through their supporters? Is the intention to be inciteful, for this is what it is verging on?

Barack Obama got it right in the US mid-term elections when he said that, if our rhetoric about each other gets so mean that we start demonising one another, it creates a dangerous climate. He was cheered for his remarks. Mr Obama suggests that basic civility and courtesy works as a far better alternative – if only we had this kind of statesmanship in our debating.

James Edgar, Edinburgh

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