Readers' Letters: Which world leaders are asking Scottish Government for advice?

David Cameron’s reproof to the SNP about observing protocols for engaging with foreign governments has elicited a variety of responses from Humza Yousaf’s administration. Perhaps the most bizarre is the claim made at Holyrood by Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero Mairi McAllan that: “More often than not, world leaders are approaching the Scottish Government asking for our advice on how we have managed to lead the way so successfully on a number of fronts.”

Mairi McAllan, Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Just Transition, said 'world leaders' want to learn from Scotland (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

This raises two questions. First, which “world leaders” have requested advice from the Yousaf regime? Ms McAllan did not vouchsafe names, nor yet, secondly, the issues about whose Scottish excellence they wished to consult.

Perhaps they asked about how to conduct a census, or to produce ferries to timetable and cost, or to close the schools’ attainment gap. Perhaps they looked for guidance on how to see patients in A&E departments in timely fashion, or to reduce the rate of drug deaths, or to introduce a deposit return scheme.

The Scotsman’s Scottish nationalist correspondents may be able to obtain from Ms McAllan the names of the “world leaders” who have sought advice from the SNP-Green administration and a list of the subjects about which they made their enquiry.

If not, we shall be left to conclude that her claim must be filed under: “Things that never happened.”

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

There’s no fuel...

It is staggering to learn that 70,000-plus people went to Dubai for the climate conference. Most of these would surely have been pretty much as our own First Minister was, merely one of the many uninvited autograph and selfie hunters always attracted to these events; that is, when he managed to fight off the world leaders clamouring to meet him and seek advice, at least according to one of his large retinue, Mairi McAllan.

On a more serious and less delusional note, how can this number be tolerated? This conference could have been easily, and perhaps more efficiently and effectively, conducted electronically.

I note the final report on COP28 and the amended wording and that the original suicidal race to stop and phase out fossil fuels, which will only harm the poorest among us, has been eased. Maybe the FM got his way with that, and they all fell into line. They were equivocal about making any bold statements of more self-harm. Are they beginning to see sense? Setting a remotely doable and sensible timetable for getting rid of fossil fuels – an event which everyone knows must come – would be an excellent first step.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Tax error

It’s time the Scottish Government realised that their actions on tax and spending are having a detrimental effect on our growth prospects.

You need growth in economic terms to drive up profits, thereby people’s earnings rise and tax paid follows. More tax paid means more to spend on the NHS, Social security, Education etc.

Increasing taxes will dampen economic activity, with higher earners deciding to mitigate their tax paid by either working less, which means less economic output and therefore less tax in the future, or they will use all available other measures, such as investing more in savings schemes where they receive a tax break such as Pensions and/or Venture capital trusts. The net result is the inevitable decline in the tax pool as more people decide to move down south for a better personal outcome.

We could have chosen a different path, lower the taxes – especially at the top rate – and encourage more of the wealthy to come here, set up businesses, help us drive economic growth... but as we don’t have any competent economically literate politicians in charge it’s never going to happen, more the pity.

Jeff Lewis, Craigleith, Edinburgh

No brainer

If I am to believe what I have read in The Scotsman (15 December) that a proposed tax hike for higher earners would raise only £41 million, yet this vote-chasing freeze on council tax will cost £300m, then it shows the SNP have lost the plot. It's a no brainer – or perhaps that is the problem!

Elizabeth Towns, Edinburgh

Unbalanced

Reading that the country’s finances seem to be getting worse rather than better since devolution, should not consideration be given to returning to administration by the Secretary of State for Scotland instead of this headlong rush to independence.

The fact that the Scottish Government appears unable to balance the books does not bode well as to the position if it were in full control of an independent country.

C Lowson, Fareham, Hants

Pull passes

I don't think there need be any debate about whether young people should have their free bus passes revoked for unruly behaviour (your report, 14 December).

Of course they should as it's the only sanction which is likely to be applied to those who make bus journeys uncomfortable for drivers and law-abiding members of the public. Society in general is seeing an increasing lack of respect and decency towards others, so why should taxpayers help to fund a lifestyle where the norms of good behaviour are being ignored?

Bob MacDougall, Kippen, Stirlingshire

Friendly bombs?

Former CND Chair Marjorie Ellis Thompson may have scored a legalistic point over the ownership of a nuclear arsenal formerly based in Ukraine (Letters, 14 December).

However, there are also some flaws in her own argument when she expresses the wish to “remove Trident/Dreadnought from the Clyde and send them to Portsmouth”.

If there were to be a retaliatory strike on the UK in some future conflict, does she really image that colossal nuclear blast waves and radioactive fallout would respect those “Fàilte gu Alba” border signs?

And of course, in her reply Ms Ellis Thompson is silent on the consequences of disarmament upon Scotland’s economy.

She also fails to explain the bizarre logic behind her apparent contentment to tamely leave atomic weapons in the hands of the world’s unelected despots.

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

OverCOPulation

COP28 ran from 30 November-12 December 2023. During these 12 days the world population increased by 2.6 million and now stands at 8 billion. At the time of the first COP in 1995 the world population was 5.74 billion, so it has increased by 39 per cent. Why has this obvious source of escalating greenhouse gases never been raised during the 28 years of COP meetings?

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Join ceasefire call

You report on the dreadful conditions at the Al-Awda Hospital in Gaza (13 December). No wonder 150 countries are calling for an immediate ceasefire. To Britain's shame we are not one of them. Israel is using the most modern and sophisticated weapons against Gaza, reducing it to rubble, placing it under siege with no running water, no electricity and almost no food or medical supplies. The British Red Cross has warned that Gaza “is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe”.

Eighteen thousand people, mostly women and children, have been killed in the tiny enclave of Gaza and thousands more maimed by Israel's indiscriminate bombing. Twenty-one hospitals have been damaged. According to the Norwegian Refugee Council “across the Gaza Strip almost the entire population has been displaced. Nearly two in three homes are now damaged or destroyed.”

Israel stated a week ago that it has received the 200th cargo plane carrying military equipment from the United States since 7 October. Ten thousand tons, they said. I doubt if Gaza had received a few hundred tons of food in that period.

Despite numerous UN resolutions calling for a two-state solution Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, asked in a TV interview if Palestinians could have their own state, said bluntly: “Absolutely not.”

Does that mean that she wants Israel to expand from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea, getting rid of the Palestinians once and for all?

William Loneskie, Oxton, Lauder, Berwickshire

Any bright ideas?

I was sorry to read in your 13 December Editorial, “Survey results show need to ditch populists”, that The Scotsman has added its voice to the clamour criticising Rishi Sunak: “Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak's populists are running around in circles trying to find a way to send a few hundred asylum seekers to Rwanda at a cost of nearly £300 million because they think it will deter migrants from crossing the channel.”

Is there anyone in the UK, Europe, Australia and other countries who does have a perfect solution to this problem? I haven't read or heard one. I have heard other UK political leaders claiming that their party would "hold talks" with the leaders of the countries most asylum countries come from, but I think that would be as effective as sending a letter up the chimney to Santa. If anyone has a sensible, workable solution to the migrant problem, let's hear it. Until then, let's not shout down every suggestion the UK Government makes. Even if it costs £300m. How does that sum compare with the cost of keeping asylum seekers here for years?

Lovina Roe, Perth

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