Scotland on Sunday letters: A Scottish Song for Europe?

If the SNP/Greens want the Eurovision Song Contest to come to Scotland they must insist on a separate Scottish entry.

Can I suggest the following selection of songs reflecting modern Scotland from which to choose our entry?

The Glower of Scotland (tribute to the First Minister); Just A Wee Deoch an' Boris; The Simple Crofter's Jig; (Not) Over the Sea to Sky; The Bonnie, Bonnie Non-investment Banks o' Loch Lomond.

Any one of these candidates would produce a memorable impression of our socially just, sustainable, open and inclusive nation for our erstwhile and hoped-for European partners. And hopefully more than nil points.

Sam Ryder, representing the UK, onstage at the final of the Eurovision Song contest 2022 held in May this year in Turin. (Photo by Marco Bertorello/Getty Images)

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven

Glossing over

I would need an article to fully respond to Ronald Cameron's views on climate change but will confine myself to electric cars (Letters, June 19). Why should rich EV owners get taxpayers' grants to pay for their "virtue signalling"? Scotland has 3 million vehicles but there are 1.4 billion petrol/diesel vehicles in the world. Every month ships loaded with second-hand low quality, polluting vehicles leave ports in Europe, Japan and the US for sale in poorer nations.

A typical EV driver will have to drive 92,000 miles to reach emissions parity with the petrol-powered equivalent. Taxpayers are being forced to pay for an EV infrastructure which they will never use. Ninety per cent of the world's cobalt was most likely extracted in the Congo in unsafe mines. That's never mentioned in the glossy EV brochures.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow

Dark clouds

Ronald Cameron is clearly the proud and enthusiastic owner of an EV. With its euphemistic boast of "zero direct emissions during operations”, low recharging costs and superior acceleration this is surely a classic win-win situation.

But, like many apparently “green” innovations, all is not as it seems. This apparently ethical choice leaves a grievous trail of environmental degradation and human suffering. Much of the lithium needed for battery manufacture is sourced from the brine deserts of South America where the rural inhabitants endure serious associated health issues, a drastically reduced water table and contaminated water supplies which are threatening not only their livelihoods but are also having negative impacts across the entire ecological network.

Then there's the other essential EV raw material cobalt which comes almost exclusively from the Congo where child labour, dangerours underpaid working conditions, serious health risks and high CO2 emissions from processing combine to cast yet another dark cloud over the green EV revolution.

I wonder if Mr Cameron is fully aware of these issues and that the CO2 debt for the manufacture of the battery alone in his lovely EV is equivalent to that of eight years of emissions from a conventional vehicle?

Neil J Bryce, Kelso

Don’t believe the hype

You report claims that glyphosate "could be harmful to people, animals...” and is “probably carcinogenic” (Scotland on Sunday, June 19). However, there is no certainty that this herbicide is harmful in the way implied. Nor has it been proved to be carcinogenic. Ignorance of the effects of glyphosate is being hyped to conclude that it is dangerous. This is not science.

Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh

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