Scotland on Sunday readers' letters: Debate has been shaped by toxic identity politics

I can’t help but notice the irony about the recent Gender Recognition Certificate changes.

This is a debate that has been shaped by toxic identity politics and where we now are should come as no surprise to those against the changes, including those writing for this publication. It was inevitable that they would be supplanted in the oppression hierarchy they helped create by another group with greater claims of vulnerability. Ditto for academics.

The recent cancellation of the film “Adult Human Female” at Edinburgh University was met with outrage from some lecturers, but they need to take some blame for the underlying circumstances of this situation.

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Students have for years now been too insulated from “uncomfortable” ideas on courses of questionable value. It is no wonder then that such an atmosphere of excessive coddling leads to them feeling so entitled and having such low thresholds for offence that they are this quick to shut down opposing thought.

The Gender Reform Bill has divided opinion across ScotlandThe Gender Reform Bill has divided opinion across Scotland
The Gender Reform Bill has divided opinion across Scotland

Essentially, for the opponents of the gender reforms, the identitarian dragon that they have nurtured is now turning round to breathe its fire on them.

Sarah Hunterston, Edinburgh

Clapped out

During the cold spell we recently had, the 41 buses to Cramond were freezing due to lack of heating, one day when I boarded there was ice inside the top deck windows. They are old clapped-out buses from other routes which now have lovely warm buses, whilst the ones we have are not fit for purpose, most of them have no heating in them.

We pay Edinburgh council tax in Cramond the same as people in Trinity, Morningside, East Craigs and Silverknowes and are treated like second-class citizens with a second-class bus service. We, the people of Cramond, are entitled to have some new buses, after all we are contributing to the running of them.

Fred Mobeck, Edinburgh

Nuclear reaction

Japan is to reverse its nuclear reactor phase-out. The ban was introduced after an underwater earthquake resulted in a tsunami wave which flooded the reactors and killed 15,500 in Japan in 2011. Not one death has occurred because of radiation.

Japan now intends to maximise the use of existing nuclear reactors by restarting as many as possible, prolonging the life of old reactors and then developing next-generation reactors to replace them. This will give Japan energy security and a carbon-free baseload energy.

This news will upset the anti-nuclear brigade. What will upset them more is that more countries will follow suit. France has 56 reactors and thus is less reliant on fossil fuels. The UK should now build these carbon-free reactors as fast as possible instead of relying on unreliable wind which over the last 12 months only provided 28.3 per cent of our electricity.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow

White elephants

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is quite correct to say that the SNP are spending more money than ever on NHS Scotland but the reality is the extra money is going on paying expensive agency nurses and any recruitment is being eroded by nursing staff leaving faster than they can be replaced.

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The truth of the matter is that NHS Scotland is grossly underfunded and more funds need to be pumped into the NHS to improve the service and working conditions of the medical staff. We are getting the NHS service on the cheap by comparison to other countries having to pay much more in medical insurance plans for a “limited” free service on demand.

Nicola Sturgeon has to recognise and accept that the only way to start solving the chronic problems facing NHS Scotland is to provide more funding and stop wasting taxpayers money on countless white elephant projects.

Dennis Forbes Grattan, Bucksburn, Aberdeen

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