Scotland on Sunday letters: Boris needs to face up to the reality of energy crisis

Boris Johnston has said that Britain's electricity will be entirely powered by green sources by 2035.

Fossil fuels still account for most of the electricity generated in the UK. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Green levies were added to energy bills without the public being properly warned. These are over £10 billion a year. The unreliability of wind and solar electricity means the national grid needs to be stabilised adding another £2 billion a year on our energy bills. No wonder there is fuel poverty and business failures.

Over the last 143 days, on average, wind turbines and solar supplied 18.5 per cent of our electricity whereas fossil fuels, 43.6 per cent, powered the country. Boris needs to stop blowing hot air and come down from his green ivory tower and face reality before the lights go out.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow

Only an excuse

It's easy to find energy companies that claim to supply 100 per cent renewable electricity. But now these companies are using rising gas prices as an excuse for raising their prices. You'd be forgiven for thinking that they've been lying all along.

Geoff Moore, Alness, Highland

Face off

I found it almost refreshing on Monday this week to discover that Facebook was offline for a few hours as I spent time in the garden instead. After years of Facebook participation I now have to spend more and more time trawling through the garbage to find the odd gem of interest. It would be a good idea for Facebook to go offline on a regular daily basis and let us got on with more useful things to do.

Dennis Forbes Grattan, Bucksburn, Aberdeen

Power play

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the SNP overstepped its power. Some lawyers have called the language they used in their decision “unprecedented”.

They identified four sections of the UN Convention on Children’s Rights and two of the European Charter that are incompatible with Holyrood’s legal powers. Such was the language, even non-legal minds must ask: why did anyone bother in the first place? Could not Scottish taxes and attention be better spent elsewhere? Perhaps on our ferries, tackling drug deaths, mouldering and unfinished hospitals, the list is endless.

The decision does not bode well for the SNP’s plans for a legal break-up-the-UK referendum without explicit Westminster consent. An illegal referendum would not be recognised by anyone, anywhere on the planet, with the possible exception of parts of Catalonia.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Childish move

If Scotland were ever to become an independent country it would require a government with the gravitas to understand the breadth of the challenges that would need to be met.

This was a childish move on the part of the SNP. The outcome everyone predicted that would occur did, namely that the SNP had exceeded its authority resulting in the claim that more powers were needed to gain them when the judgement went against it. What has the SNP actually achieved? Is the NHS really safer in its hands? Has education come on by leaps and bounds? Has it even provided such basics as safe hospitals? This latest move by the SNP demonstrates yet again it is out of its depth. Scotland requires actions, not words.

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

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