Relax quarantine for our neighbours – Letters

A 14-day self-isolation period for all would be bad, says a reader

Should Priti Patel relax coming restrictions? (Picture: PA Video/PA Wire)

Under Home Secretary Priti Patel’s new quarantine regulations, from 8 June all visitors to the UK, apart from a few stipulated exceptions including visitors from Ireland, will be required to self-isolate for 14 days.

Perhaps for politically ideological reasons this includes UK residents returning from countries, such as many of our European neighbours, where Covid-19 infection rates have been a fraction of the overall UK rate. In fact, throughout Europe, where countries have experienced lower infection rates than the UK, it would seem more logical for those countries to impose quarantine regulations on visitors from the UK rather than vice versa, so ‘reciprocation’ (as already evidenced by the reaction of France) will probably result in UK citizens being, perhaps unnecessarily, subjected to equivalent quarantine regulations on entering those countries.

Of course, even as lockdown measures are eased in Scotland there will be few ‘visitors’ to our country as long as these austere regulations, potentially of severe detriment to Scotland’s economy, remain.

However, there may be options that the Scottish Government can explore. If an exception can be made for Ireland, then exceptions could also be made for Norway, Denmark and all countries experiencing infection rates significantly lower than those of the UK.

Although in practice it may be simplest to extend such exceptions to all EU\EEA countries. Should the UK Government not be prepared to extend exceptions under its new regulations and if it is also not prepared to enable exemption for visitors arriving at Scottish ports, perhaps the Scottish Government should pursue bilateral arrangements with other countries that would still facilitate notification of local addresses during visits ,but without compulsion to self-isolate.

In other words, there would be no enforcement, by Police Scotland in accordance with, if necessary, suitably revised Scottish law.

Stan Grodynski, Gosford Road, Longniddry

Big gamble

Douglas Ross MP’s last opportunist ploy – physically clearing a path for Boris Johnson through the Tory party Conference scrum – worked, and he was rewarded by a Junior Ministry at the Scottish Office. His resignation this week, in protest at the Cummings scandal, may be a gamble that voters will reward his ‘integrity’ by re-electing him to his Aberdeenshire seat at the next general election. This seems unlikely, as the tide of support for the SNP is rising by the week.

Boris Johnson may well be re-elected by English voters, who are welcome to him, but we have other, more exciting prospects in Scotland, not least securing re-admission to the EU.

David Roche, Conachar Court, Perth

Fife and death

The currently available coronavirus data for Fife is extremely alarming. Based on officially released figures on 20 May the case fatality rate (CFR) in Fife was 21.4! (number of deaths: 177, divided by confirmed cases: 826)

This is an extremely high CFR, exceeding the highest worldwide rate of 16.3 in Belgium. It also exceeds the rate of 15.0 for Scotland and the rate of 14.2 for the United Kingdom.

There are two possible explanations for why this CFR is comparatively so high in Fife.

Perhaps Fife has a disproportionally high number of deaths, which seems to imply a failure of the NHS to save the lives of those who have contracted the virus. I see absolutely no reason to believe this is the case.

The other, more plausible explanation, is that the number of confirmed cases is being seriously under reported. Dividing the same number of deaths by a greater number of confirmed cases will result in a lower Case Fatality Rate.

From everything we know about the appallingly low levels of testing in Scotland, we have to assume that the same, if not worse, is also happening in Fife. Taking into account that the ‘test, trace and isolate’ scheme is being piloted in Fife, it is imperative that the number of tests in Fife is substantially increased.

Our five Fife MSPs must free themselves from their constituency silos and their political party silos and collectively exert pressure on the Scottish Government to significantly increase the level of testing in Fife.

Stavros Michaelides, Chance Inn, Cupar, Fife

Tired of reasons

So Health Secretary Jeane Freeman, got her figures for care home discharges wrong because she had been working around the clock and was “a bit tired”!

This is surprising, given that this is the same person who used to work 376 days per year – in addition to running her own consultancy. Perhaps she is really just used to making figures up to suit?

Ken Currie, Liberton Drive, Edinburgh

Peculiar polling

When the history of the spring of 2020 is written, it will – or should – show that the discipline and resolve of ordinary people has seen us through – it was the political class who broke ranks first. They just could not help themselves. Now we see the ultimate in unseemly and divisive behaviour, namely the commissioning of a poll to see who is doing better than whom (‘Poll: Majority of Scots think Nicola Sturgeon has done better job during pandemic than Boris Johnson’, Scotsman Online, yesterday).

The results are astonishing in their clarity, but are a triumph of presentation over reality. Our death rate in Scotland is higher than any other part of the UK, having been the lowest on lockdown, and with us having access to the same resources as everyone else. The death rate in care homes is twice that of England. The outbreak in Edinburgh in February went unreported and contacts were not traced. Nine hundred patients were released from hospital in to care homes, the very place where there were concentrations of people most susceptible to the virus. Our testing is still only a quarter of target. There is no tracing system in place yet.

All of these issues are to do with implementation of policy in Scotland. The UK government contribution has been written out, and yet it is they who are paying our wages, they set the strategy which we are all following, with just the smallest of differences in Scotland.

The most likely source of a viable vaccine will come from a laboratory in Oxford, surely the best value £20 million ever spent by the UK government.

All this is true and yet everyone thinks Nicola Sturgeon is doing better. Why is that?

Victor Clements, Aberfeldy, Perthshire

Dry season

Dominic Cummings claims he drove from his home in London to his parents’ home in County Durham without stopping. Did he not need to stop for fuel at least? In my experience (two children, six grandchildren), a four-year-old will have needed to use the toilet somewhere along the way.

It is bad enough to have broken his own lockdown rules without taking us all for idiots too.

Mary Douglas, Glendearg, Galashiels

Is that Elvis?

After reading reams of pages and listening to hours of comment and debate, I am no nearer knowing whether Dominic Cummings broke the lockdown rule or not. So far all I am hearing and reading is political puff, full of point-scoring, gossip, grievance and more than a touch of old score settling. We even have reports of someone seeing a person who looks like him being given credibility. I await with anticipation further reports of someone who looks like him being spotted in the company of Elvis in a flying saucer.

Either he broke the rules or not: a simple question. If he did then he should go but if he didn’t, let’s put away the torches and pitchforks and move on. There are more pressing issues than this.

Paul Lewis, Guardwell Crescent, Edinburgh

Out of proportion

The howls of rage at the relatively minor transgressions of Catherine Calderwood and Dominic Cummings are very exaggerated compared with the fatal decision of the still-unnamed officials’ authorisation of the transfer of infected hospital patients to care homes.

Politicians’ embarrassments do not really matter but the disproportionate Covid-19 death rates in care homes are shocking. They represent very serious failures of management.

Those so severely criticising the infringements of regulations by Calderwood and Cummings need to show a much better sense of proportion.

(Dr) Charles Wardrop, Viewlands Road West, Perth

Forget Swinney

Cameron Wyllie (Perspective, 22 May) indulges in wishful thinking if he reckons the Education Secretary will involve us teachers in meaningful dialogue about returning to the classroom.

Mr Wyllie is a superb cheerleader for Deputy First Minister John Swinney, carefully omitting this “good, clever and honest” politician’s woeful track record on such engagement.

The DFM has ignored calls from education professionals (and a vote in the Scottish Parliament) to scrap the controversial P1 tests.

Swinney also dismissed our concerns over the now abandoned Named Person Scheme, and he brought teachers to the brink of strike action last year after repeatedly ignoring reasoned arguments for a fair pay settlement.

Neither does John Swinney’s reluctance to publish findings of an enquiry into state education until after the Holyrood election bode well for prospects of free and frank discussions with the profession on this occasion.

Mr Wyllie exhorts us to “Forget the general state of Scottish schools before lockdown, poor international rankings in maths and science, forget the contradiction in terms that is Curriculum for Excellence.”

Sentiments warmly endorsed by Mr Swinney, one would imagine.

F Scott, Morningside Drive, Edinburgh

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