Readers' Letters: Suella Braverman right to crack down on protests

The media furore surrounding Suella Braverman is difficult to understand or accept.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman at the State Opening of Parliament this week (Picture: Hannah McKay - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

The great silent majority in the UK has become sick and tired of placard-waving mobs taking to our city streets to “protest” about anything that takes their fancy, be it Black Lives Matter, Just Stop Oil, or the latest trend, “Support for Palestine”. Do the people participating in such protests really believe that their actions make any difference to what is happening in the wider world? The evidence suggests not.

In a parliamentary democracy, the accepted way to deliver opinion on national and international issues is through constituency MPs, not by taking to the streets, as may happen in dictatorships, to inform politicians and those in charge of public services of collective opinion of the need for actions.

Our society desperately needs to grow up and cease its knee-jerk reactions to world events.

Derek Farmer, Anstruther, Fife

Skewed priorities

I am sure that many people will have been shocked to discover that Humza Yousaf's government, whose sole function is to deal with matters affecting Scotland, has given £500,000 for the relief of Gazan refugees, when there is a Government at Westminster whose job it is to dispense aid. This is a disgrace. The Holyrood administration spends money given to them for a specific purpose, then spend on something that isn’t their business. Then they moan they don't have enough!

We find that the SNP have plenty of money for pet schemes like baby boxes, or ferries that don’t sail, free prescriptions and limiting the number of university places for Scottish school-leavers. However, they never have enough for things that matter, like the A9. How many people have to die on that road to make it matter?

They spend millions, yes, millions, on “special advisers” to plan for independence that we voted down, yet they are now planning to send their First Minister to Dubai for COP28. Is he going to walk there? Not on your life! Nor will the cast of dozens who will be flying with him. Yes. Flying. What will they do there, except try to mingle with people who will have been invited, unlike him and his cohort?Humza Yousaf and his "government" is an embarrassment and he can't even see it!

Peter Hopkins, Edinburgh

Utter contempt

The Scottish Government’s default position in dealing with the UK Government has long been to be as awkward and uncooperative as possible. Yet when it comes to the UK Covid inquiry the SNP’s leadership have recklessly dug a deep political hole for themselves by choosing a similar approach. Claiming all the while that they are fully cooperating with the inquiry merely serves to dig themselves deeper into the mire when all the facts show otherwise.

In his answers at this week’s FMQs, Humza Yousaf shamefully reimagined what he and his deputy had said to the Scottish Parliament the previous week. Both had dismissed concerns about a failure to respond properly to the UK Covid inquiry by saying the WhatsApp messages had only been asked for a few weeks previously. They both chose not to clarify exactly which sub-set of messages they were referring to. Only in the wake of accusations of misleading Parliament did the First Minister choose to put a different spin on what he had been referring to. Subsequently he dismissed any suggestion he should refer himself for an independent review of whether he has breached the Ministerial Code in these exchanges.

Humza Yousaf also lent heavily on a many-times-repeated statistic of how 14,000 messages had now been passed to the Covid inquiry without any indication as to whether a far larger number – perhaps ten times more – have been selectively deleted by various members of his Government.Once again, the SNP leadership treats the Scottish Parliament and the checks and balances of our democracy with utter contempt.

Keith Howell, West Linton, Scottish Borders

Housing profits

Days after Edinburgh Council declares a housing emergency amidst record homelessness statistics nationally, we hear that the FTSE 100 is boosted by more than 50 points “...buoyed in part by the housing sector”. Is someone going to connect the dots between these two events or can we at least acknowledge that the “house building” sector is not in the business of providing housing for those in most need? I suggest that would be a start.

Mike Bruce, Edinburgh

Not our business

The devolved Holyrood administration has no responsibility for foreign affairs as all international matters, with associated policy and consequential costs, are wholly made and met by Westminster. So why does Humza Yousaf's official social media output appear dominated by the Middle East crisis?

I can only assume he believes our public services function flawlessly under his party's management. That in Scotland, there's no one on an NHS waiting list, we have no educational attainment gap, zero drug deaths, never a late bus or cancelled train, and we live in a country devoid of potholes. Until this is the case, how about Humza Yousaf lets Westminster carry out the responsibilities unambiguously assigned to it under the Scotland Act – and he focuses on the wholly domestic job for which we pay him?

Martin Redfern, Melrose, Roxburghshire

Winds of war?

Certain people often claim renewable energy is the equal to fossil fuel, or even superior. Well, have these people never noticed that Western military powers have launched massive attacks on oil-rich countries like Iraq, Libya and Syria? Would we have attacked if their main export was dates?

The World Bank has commissioned the Global Wind Atlas showing the wind energy potential of all countries. Outside of the Western military alliance several countries have a large wind potential, including Argentina, Chile and several African countries. Are we going to see a Western invasion of these? Don't hold your breath.

Geoff Moore, Alness, Highland

Healthy glow

There is much concern about the safety of cyclists. Although cycle lanes are being installed in towns, cyclists are continually at risk as they compete with motorists for space on the roads. Motorists say they just don't see cyclists. I am sure that most motorists have experienced a near miss situation when a cyclist appears as if from nowhere. Many cyclists wear dark clothing. and even on a bright day they merge into the background and don't realise that motorists do not see them.

A simple, cheap and effective way for cyclists to be more visible is to wear Hi Viz- a jacket, waistcoat, bodyband or Hi Vis helmet.

Adult cyclists should take responsibility for their safety and make sure they are visible to other road users by wearing Hi Vis at all times, day and night, in town and countryside.

Chris Seiler, Colinton, Edinburgh

Not tickety boo

I see that the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is not allocating a 50 per cent share of tickets to Aberdeen for the upcoming League Cup Final against Rangers. This means provincial clubs have even less chance of winning a trophy against the Old Firm in what is virtually a home game for them. All cup semi-finals are also played at Hampden, which again favours the Old Firm.

Ticket allocation in all Cup Finals should be 50/50 in the first instance. If one club cannot sell their allocation they would return unsold tickets for offer to the other club. That would be the fair way of allocating tickets. The current method favours the Old Firm – as if they don't have enough of a financial advantage in the first place.

Jack Watt, St Ola, Orkney

More or Ness

Your article about Nessie and Steuart Campbell's letter (10 November) mention the various reports about the monster from 1933 and thereafter. Interestingly enough, although there were various reports in 1933, they came from members of the public who were in the vicinity of the loch who were not necessarily qualified to comment on what they had seen with anything other than a layman's terminology. It was a man called Arthur Grant, who was a final year student veterinary surgeon at the Royal (Dick) Vet, who gave a description of what he beheld in the headlight beam of his motorbike as he was riding back home to Glen Urquhart along the north side of the loch at 1.30am on 6 January 1934.

My late father was a veterinary student at the Dick and, entering the College one morning shortly after this, he saw Mr Grant with a group of qualified vets who were laughing at him. He appealed to my father, saying, ”You'll believe me, won't you?” Grant explained he had seen a large creature, which appeared grey on the light of his headlamp, crossing the road and slipping into the loch. In a newspaper report, he said the “total length of the animal would be from 15-20ft. It was of a greyish colour and appeared to have a skin like a whale”. He added: “I have never seen anything in my life like the animal I saw. It looked like a hybrid.”

The report suggested that, as the east end of the loch was near the Firth, “it would be an easy matter for the creature to make its escape into Inverness Firth”. The vets, however, mocked Grant, saying he had seen a cow. Grant replied that if he didn't know what a cow looked like, he had no business being a vet.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

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