Readers Letters: Scottish Government to blame on jags delays

Team members at NHS Scotland's Edinburgh International Conference Centre vaccination hub

But they are forgetting that Scotland (ie Nicola Sturgeon) was in charge of its own response and handling of the virus. The NHS in Scotland is totally devolved to the Scottish parliament and all policy and spending decisions are made in Scotland, plus, decisions about lockdown were made by the First Minister. Boris Johnson had no control over Scotland’s actions and so cannot be blamed for any consequences here, where infection rates and deaths are every bit as bad as England. Scottish deaths are the responsibility of Scotland, not England. And the lagging behind of vaccination numbers in Scotland speaks for itself.

Rosemary Walker, Winton Loan, Edinburgh

Vulnerable failed

Contrary to Gill Turner’s claim (Letters, February 3), Scotland is performing poorly compared to the other three nations of the UK. Yesterday the figures reported by the BBC were: England 19 per cent, Wales, 18 per cent, Northern Ireland 16 per cent and Scotland 14 per cent.

Furthermore , there appears to he not only a serious shortage of vaccine doses in Scotland, but the way they are being distributed is illogical. The development of the centralised hubs, which are focusing on the 70-74 cohort, is at the expense of general practices, which are dealing with the 75-79 cohort. The latter group, who being older are more at risk, are not receiving the priority they should. GPs are receiving far fewer doses of vaccine than they have eligible patients and so are having to select patients for vaccination at random, which means that a lot of vulnerable people are having to wait and are disappointed.

The scientific evidence indicates that Scotland should not be vaccinating 70-year-olds in the hubs while 79-year-olds are still waiting for their GPs to receive sufficient vaccine.

Barry Hughes, Comiston Drive, Edinburgh

Dissent disallowed

Having read Gill Turner’s comments regarding my letter of February 2, I did have to chuckle. It would appear she was correct regarding the First Minister and Mike Russell, they did indeed make representation to the EU regarding the Northern Ireland issue. Perhaps the reason it was missed is because it was whispered, rather than proclaimed, in order to not ruffle the feathers of our “waiting family” in the EU. But her first point that “there was no threat to our vaccines, which are not coming through Northern Ireland”, is incorrect. UK supplies in the future may well come via this route, and so the outrage of all who protested was completely justified – as part of these supplies would indeed be intended for Scotland.

But this was not what made me chuckle.Most of the content of the letter highlighted the thoughts of one of the most high-profile members of the SNP, Jim Sillars, and his take on the machinations of the party leadership and its use of its powers, not one point of which was tackled by Ms Turner – but that was no surprise, as that would mean facing up to the appalling way this party runs its affairs, and by proxy the running of the Scottish Government. But this is the way of the SNP diehards: stand in line, do not question the leadership, something which has cost Joanna Cherry her position on the front bench at Westminster.

In yesterday’s Perspective, Laura Waddell says: “The SNP, once compact, prided itself on a tight ship”. I read this to mean: toe the leadership line or pay the price.

Democracy is founded on free speech, even that which is deemed by some to oppose another’s views. It is through discourse and the ability to accept other points of view that we lay the foundations for good governance. As is there for all to see, this is not how the SNP administration works, as was so eloquently explained by Mr Sillars.

David Millar, West High Street, Lauder

Future is now?

I did a double take when I turned the page in Wednesday's Scotsman and was greeted by the pictures of a State-controlled, Russia style Glasgow. I thought, "Has it really come to this already? Surely we have a few more years' grace." Then, to my relief, I read that it was all about a Hollywood film set in Glasgow, Tetris.

However, fiction can turn into truth. Was this a sneak preview of the future, with State control and no accountability for the politicians in power or tolerance by them of opposing views? By coincidence, my wife has just finished reading CJ Sansom's book, Dominion .

One of the characters in the book, who just happens to be Scottish, has some telling lines: “Whenever a party tells you national identity matters more than anything else in politics, that nationalism can sort out all the other problems, then watch out, because you’re on a road that can end with fascism.”

He continues: "And of course nationalists always have to have an enemy, the English or the French or the Jews, there always has tae be some other bugger that's caused all the problems."

Some might say the book, published in 2012, was written with the aid of a crystal ball.

Fraser MacGregor, Liberton Drive, Edinburgh

Wrong message

I have been irritated recently by the inclusion of the nationalist strapline “We are Scotland” in the Scottish Government’s public health announcements re Covid-19. Should this irritation be widely shared, the purpose of these announcements will be undermined. I have no doubt the strapline has been inserted by SNP politicians against the advice of civil servants, and is grossly irresponsible. This is further evidence that Nicola Sturgeon’s supposed good performance in dealing with the pandemic is more PR than substance.

(Dr) Nick Williams, Inverurie Street, Auchenblae, Aberdeenshire

Sensible approach

Yesterday’s letter from John B Gorrie brought back memories of building a new patrol boat for fisheries protection in the 1980s. Ferguson Ailsa featured then, as they revised the existing design to provide for an automated engine room. Even though I was nominally responsible, the successful build depended on the sensible inherited approach and the excellent people who did the real work.

The team consisted of the Marine Superintendent, his Engineering colleague and people from the enforcement, finance and legal sides. They devised the tender that went out to the six firms (three Scottish, three English) capable of building the vessel. They then evaluated the bids. The two superintendents and I went to all the yards in case they had any representations to make before the award. The commission went to the lowest bid, which came from Lowestoft, and the superintendents went down every fortnight to check on progress. We also had the insurance of a performance bond in case of the yard's failure and need to complete elsewhere. That the vessel arrived ahead of time and below budget is testimony to an excellent yard and a great Scottish Office team. That there was no "commissioning sickness" and that the Minister of State was able to show it off in the Thames, rounded out a happy story.

I am only sorry that dependence on outsourcing the expertise to a consultant indicates the absence of something like our successful team internally. It may also explain the problems stemming from shifting specifications.

LV McEwan, Oswald Road, Edinburgh

We will thrive

D Mitchell (Letters, February 4) should be cheered to learn that the London School of Economics report only covered the impact of trading costs. It did not consider post-independence Scottish government economic priorities or inward investment opportunities. Also, Richard Murphy of Taxresearch UK said it was based on absurd assumptions.

As Scotland is one of England’s largest export markets, no one has ever explained why London would want to erect trade barriers with only Scotland, and many of Scotland’s exports to England such as services, water, gas, electricity and oil are not overly affected by physical borders.

Edinburgh has already missed out on the thousands of financial sector jobs that have moved from London to Dublin in order to trade in the EU. Through membership of the EU, independent Ireland has dramatically reduced its trade dependence on the UK, diversifying into Europe and in the process its national income per head has overtaken the UK’s. In January, Ireland’s shipments with France doubled while those with Britain halved. In the last year numerous new ferry routes from several Irish ports have been established with different counties on the continent. Meanwhile, Scottish ports have suffered a chronic lack of investment over decades by private equity port owners in new technologies, infrastructure and facilities as well as from the privatisation of the port authority role. Independence in Europe would accelerate such investment.

Fraser Grant, Warrender Park Road, Edinburgh

Help poor lands

While having sympathy for those in the EU ill-served by their administration in ordering vaccine supplies, it is still the case that the EU are wealthy enough to deal with the problem. However, there are countries that are too poor to afford sufficient vaccines. While it is a politically advantageous gesture to offer excess vaccines to the EU, it would be a greater humanitarian gesture to aid poorer countries such as Palestine and Africa.

Paul Lewis, Guardwell Crescent, Edinburgh

A hole in one

I would like to congratulate Martyn McLaughlin on Wednesday’s article on the financing of Donald Trump's Scottish investments. Factually based, well researched and well written. Excellent journalism.

George Shanks, Orwell Place, Edinburgh

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Readers Letters: Scottish Government to blame on jags delays

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