Scotsman Letters: Yousaf has no reason to jet off to Dubai climate summit

“Humza Yousaf to travel to Dubai for Cop28 climate summit” (your report, 8 November), apparently to “show Scotland is a good global citizen”. The First Minister conveniently forgets Scotland is, in spite of his party’s very best efforts, an integral part of the United Kingdom whose Ministers can and do speak for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Cop28 provides an opportunity to underline Scotland’s commitment to being a good global citizen, says First Minister Humza Yousaf (Picture: Andy Buchanana/AFP via Getty Images)

Humza Yousaf would rather go off on an expenses paid jolly than actually knuckle down to running Scotland’s daily business. By the same token Mairi McAllan can safely leave trade to the UK representatives and save herself the inconvenience of travelling to the UAE.

The SNP needs to be reminded: Scotland is a devolved nation within the UK. It is not and is never likely to be an independent one. When competent, responsible, accountable, government is ultimately restored to Holyrood, increased and welcome devolution is the likely outcome.

Scotland deserves so much better. Fourteen years of the SNP has been an unmitigated disaster in education standards, business investment and health. Then there’s the highest number of drug deaths in Europe. Alleged corruption hasn’t helped. National debt and deficit is increasing exponentially year on year, while expenditure in the billions continues to exceed income.

Humza Yousaf should be in Edinburgh attempting to put right so much that is wrong, not heading to Dubai to pretend he’s a big shot.

Doug Morrison, Cranbrook, Kent

Ecocide indeed

Labour MSP Monica Lennon’s proposed “Ecocide” legislation is intended to “scare major polluters into action” (your report, 8 November). So far so good.

Will this include targeting the astonishing 70,000 elite delegates from 190-odd nations who will fly off to Dubai at the end of this month to attend the ludicrously polluting jolly at the Conference of the Parties number 28 (COP28)?

George Herraghty, Lhanbryde, Elgin Moray

Just a phase

Dr Richard Dixon’s weekly articles are full of blame for the UK without ever mentioning what the rest of the world is doing – or rather, not doing. They are not reducing emissions, they are increasing them. Dr Dixon complains that COP agreements mention a “phase down” of coal but ignore oil and gas.

Two years ago Alok Sharma, the UK president of COP26 in Glasgow, was emotional when China, India and numerous other countries refused to “phase out” coal, agreeing only to “phase down” coal while vehemently refusing to provide a fixed date. The world's major polluters are now in the coal “phase up” mode as they build yet more coal-fired power plants to provide cheap electricity to power their economies. Does Dr Dixon really expect nations to sign up to a “phase down” of oil and gas? Many would suggest Dr Dixon's column is well past its sell-by date.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Poison tablet

There can’t be a person in Scotland who didn’t spit out their cornflakes when they read that Scottish Government Minister Michael Matheson spent £11,000 on iPad roaming charges in one week while on holiday. It is the kind of thing that little children are warned about by their parents when using the phone.

However, the difference is that Mr Matheson doesn’t have to be bailed out by his parents or his party, he gets bailed out by the taxpayer. Some poor sod in Scotland will have had to work for maybe 2-3 years to cover a bill like that, maybe more. If there is any natural justice in politics any more, he won’t be coming in to work next week.

I hope he wasn't doing something really embarrassing like watching Scottish Parliament TV 24/7 on multiple devices, or old Nicola Sturgeon speeches on some underground but expensive streaming site. Can you imagine the shame there would be in that?

Victor Clements, Aberfeldy, Perthshire

No memory?

Stan Grodynski wonders why essentially “No” voters do not want the arrangements Ireland have (Letters, 9 November).

Well we would, all other things being equal (and no taking on £30+ billion deficits etc), but the SNP voted the Kenneth Clarke option down on 29 March 2019. It was definitely on the table and we could have had this now but for the way the SNP voted. They had it in their grasp and they can’t complain now. This act will not be forgotten. “NO” voters are affected, but the way the SNP voted affected all of the UK.

Jonathan Davidson, Stow, Scottish Borders

Mail fail

At a key time of year for the business, for nearly two weeks Aberdour Post Office has been out of action, with no alternative within five miles, due to a failure in the Post Office computer system. Our post office is an essential local business, yet it is having to fight for action and information. It would seem area managers of the Post Office care little about a small local branch.

They should buck up.

Simon Fraser, Aberdour, Fife

Desperate times

Fraser Grant has evidently lost the plot (Letters, 9 November). He upbraids me for not, in my letter of 7 November, having done more research on the 1979 referendum. Indeed. But my letter was about the 1997 referendum only. The year 1979 was not mentioned.

Mr Grant complains about the Cunningham amendment in 1979 that required 40 per cent of the total electorate to support devolution. Perhaps he would have preferred devolution to be enacted on the support of a small minority of the electorate. That’s nationalist democracy.

Having used this excuse to disparage certain Labour politicians who did not favour devolution in 1979, as was their right in a democracy, Mr Grant falls back on the standard nationalist grievance: the “secret McCrone report” that was “concealed”. He should know that Professor Gavin McCrone is on record as saying that the “report” was a briefing note for a minister and, as such, was never intended for publication. As McCrone has said, the contents of his briefing note were, in any case, published at the time in the Observer newspaper, and so were widely known.

Desperation clearly stalks the nationalist camp if Mr Grant is reduced to misrepresentation, smear and reheated false grievance to try to make a case.

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Class issues

As a retired secondary school teacher, I found the article on attendance, violence and discipline (“School crises in attendance and violence delay reform”, 8 November) very misleading.

Poor behaviour may have been exacerbated by the pandemic but it was a problem long before that. Not long after my career began, over 50 years ago, corporal punishment ended in Scotland. It was an abhorrent, abusive procedure which could have sadistic undertones and we are well rid of it.

But nothing effective was put in its place. The system was flawed from the very top down. The educational authorities were unwilling to admit that any formal, systematic action to deal with challenging behaviour was necessary but, if it was, then it was down to individual schools. And, in turn, senior staff did not always see it as part of their remit and expected the teacher at the chalkface to take full responsibility for maintaining an orderly classroom with, all too often, little effective back-up.

All very well perhaps, for an experienced, charismatic individual with a commanding physical presence – not so good for a new recruit trying to teach one’s subject rather than having to behave like a referee in a crowd-control situation. I am unsurprised by a recent statistic showing that 30 per cent of new teachers quit within five years of their first appointment. And it’s not just unfair to the teaching staff. Pupils who want to work are constantly being distracted by low-level disruption occurring around them.

This is a problem for society as a whole – not something which can be dealt with by class teachers alone – and within schools a team approach is required so that children with challenging behaviour, together with their families, feel involved and at home in the school environment.

Helen Hughes, Edinburgh

Monster fun?

Your report (“Nessie spotter to share memories of ‘chance encounter’ at special event", 8 November) claims Hugh Gray's November 1933 picture “sparked the modern” mystery. In fact it was sparked by a report in March of that year by Mrs Mckay, who, with her husband John, was returning from Inverness, driving along the old narrow road near the seven-mile stone opposite Aldourie Castle at the very northern tip of Loch Ness, when Mrs Mckay shouted to her husband to stop and look at the “enormous black body rolling up and down”. By the time the car stopped only ripples could be seen. In fact, what she had seen was the wake of a vessel moving further down the lake, enhanced by being bounced around in the confined waters. However, it was this report that caused the Inverness Courier editor to describe the object as “a monster”.

Hugh Gray's photo shows nothing more than a blurred image of a dog swimming towards the shore with a stick in its mouth. It is a fake and Mr Gray must have known that as he put the film away in a drawer. It was only found three weeks later by his brother. Gray’s explanation for this behaviour is unconvincing.

There are no monsters in Loch Ness.

Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh

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