Scotsman Letters: Cautious politicians don’t make great leaders

Nicola Sturgeon said people should continue to wear face coverings in shops and on public transport (Picture: Fraser Bremner-Pool/Getty Images)

Once again we have a “Let’s wait and see” approach from Nicola Sturgeon regarding face masks. History tells us that such an approach is not a character trait of any great leader.

Despite having the lowest population density and wearing masks longer, than any other country in the UK, Scotland has the highest infection rate. As for the health service’s problems, is this a result of another “eye off the ball” moment by the SNP Government or does Scotland simply have the most unhealthy population in the UK?Sturgeon stood on a “strong leadership” ticket at the last Scottish Parliament Elections but she is incapable of making any bold decisions. As Ruth Davidson said, her pandemic approach has been one of Channel UK+1. With none of the nodding donkeys who sit behind her ever challenging her approach, no doubt desperate to retain their jobs and fat pension, we are left with this inept Government.The silent majority need to roar again at the council elections and expose the SNP for what they are: a party more interested in retaining power than listening to criticism. They have had 15 years to improve things but have failed the Scottish people on all counts.

George Primrose, Glasgow

Cover the bases

With the removal next week of most legal restrictions relating to Covid, why is there “business anger” at the continued use of face masks? How will this put Scotland’s economic recovery into “reverse gear” (your report, 16 March)? It makes little to no difference.

I regularly see people without a mask and they are rarely challenged. The Scottish Licensed Trade Association calls the move to keep masks “hugely unfair”, but in pubs I’ve visited over the last few weeks, customers often forget, or choose not, to put on a mask when going to the bar or to use the toilets and staff say nothing. In some cases, the staff behind the bar aren’t wearing masks either, so the only impact on their business I can see is when their staff go off ill with Covid.

To a lot of people, the jury is out on whether or not masks are effective in reducing transmission, but if the Royal College of Physicians and other health advisers welcome the delay in lifting this restriction, there has to be some sense to it, even if we’re back to taking the pressure off the NHS.

I fail to see how removing the requirement to wear a mask will “promote consumer confidence”? In this current Omicron phase, with increasing hospitalisations, I for one would be more confident in a gathering where masks were required than one in which no-one was wearing one.

Kathryn Sharp, Edinburgh

Face divide

Murdo Fraser nails the mindset of Nicola Sturgeon and, for that matter, on that of her followers (Perspective, 16 March). A perfect example of this came on the BBC Good Morning Scotland radio programme on the question of whether or not to wear a face covering. Someone texted in claiming that there was a distinct political divide between those who favoured wearing and those who wanted to throw caution to the wind and ditch their masks.

No prizes for guessing who the texter considers are more responsible and correct in their approach. The bad boys are, of course, the Unionists.

There is, of course, an elephant in the room. Covid is exploding all over Scotland but not in the rest of the UK. Here in Ross-shire it is rife in the east and spreading fast in the west. For the first time since the pandemic began there are two cases no more than 100 yards from my doorstep. It doesn't seem that being different north of the Border is working, does it?

Stuart Stephen, Poolewe, Ross-shire

All or nothing

Far from preventing it, face masks have probably caused the present Covid spike as they are constantly handled by their wearers, particularly when taken on and off. The effect is the same as exposing a used handkerchief, which is exactly what they have become. They should either be on all the time, or off all the time.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinnesswood, Perth & Kinross

Choice words

Oh dear. Creationist and anti-gay SNP politician John Mason is at it again. Two years ago his wisdom proposed that rather than obeying government lockdown regulations, church-goers should “take risks, and trust in Jesus”. Rightly he was told by Heath Secretary Jeane Freeman that he was, “neither an exception nor exceptional”.

Now we hear his belief that the damaging horror of soon to be banned so-called LGBT conversion therapy would be better addressed by LGBT people simply making stronger willed choices, such as they might in resisting chocolate.

Mr Mason, LGBT identity is not a choice, unlike your religious beliefs.

Neil Barber, Edinburgh Secular Society

Held back

Jill Stephenson (Letters, 16 March) ignores several factors when comparing Scotland’s ferries and shipbuilding with those in Norway.

Rather than investing some of the £350 billion from Scotland’s oil into modernising our shipyards and manufacturing industries, successive UK governments, including Labour, used the money to deregulate and encourage the City of London to become the money laundering capital of the world, whereas Norway modernised its shipyards and ports and invested in renewable energy manufacturing.

Other than MoD contracts, there is virtually no shipbuilding left anywhere in the UK and it was thanks to the SNP that several hundred jobs were saved at Ferguson’s shipyard. The ferries delays are down to faults on all sides, including the previous management of Ferguson Marine pre-Scottish government ownership.

Norway’s thriving ports are owned by local authorities and even in the United States major ports are owned by a local port authority, whereas the private equity ownership of port authorities in Scotland has led to a lack of investment and a conflict of interest, as illustrated when Peel Ports leased its dry port on the Lower Clyde for shipbreaking when it also owns a shipyard in Liverpool and the same could apply to Forth Ports who own Tilbury docks in London.

The current system isn’t working for Scotland when you compare the amount of trade going through Ireland’s container ports, with 44 weekly sailings to Europe, not to mention the impact on our carbon footprint by transporting our exports to English ports.

Being outside the EU and comparisons with Norway and Denmark are further examples how Scotland is held back from fulfilling our economic potential as part of the UK.

Fraser Grant, Edinburgh

Targets galore

In reply to Dr McCormick’s letter of 16 March, on mine of 15 March, I agree that London is a target for a nuclear attack. I never wrote, or implied, that Coulport/Faslane was the only target for such an attack. It is likely that an enemy would target other sites, such as the Atomic Weapons Establishment facility in Berkshire, from where warheads move to Coulport and vice versa.

Dr McCormick omits “and control”, which is the necessary consequence of a “command structure”. As Coulport and Faslane are set up to carry out the orders of the UK government, they are part of the UK’s command and control structure, and therefore enemy targets. There are up to 16 reinforced concrete bunkers for warhead storage at Coulport, presumably to protect the warheads from any kind of attack.

Unlike fictional cat Macavity, Trident submarines are “there”, at both Coulport and Faslane. As Continuous At-Sea Deterrence means there is always at least one armed submarine on patrol, then there is one undergoing maintenance at the bases, and possibly two others there, all of which are targets.

E Campbell, Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire

Trans script

Sir Keir Starmer’s view that “trans women are women” does not resonate with the population at large at all. However many hormones get pumped into a man, he can never have a baby, which is the essence of a woman's biological role. Regardless of Labour's David Lammy suggesting that female hormones could make a trans woman grow a cervix, it is not true.That does not mean that men cannot dress up as women and have all the surgery and voice lessons that they want, but there comes a point when one has to say, “Stop!”There should be neutral lavatories for the trans community, then they will offend no one and can live their lives in whatever cosmetically enhanced way they wish. They should be treated as a third sex, as happens in Polynesia where they are valued as such. However, we should not be expected to believe that anyone has changed gender, as that is a falsehood.

SNP/Green laws on trans women demand that we believe in lies, which says all we need to know about the current Holyrood administration.

Peter Hopkins, Edinburgh

Close to chest

With the seemingly inevitable imposition of digital ID, it is imperative digital ID remains optional, that every individual retains absolute authority over who has access to any stored digital information, any stored information must be freely available to that individual and a clear and obvious option to refuse the sharing of information with any third party must be prominent with every request for that ID to be produced.

There must always be a good reason to request ID and severe penalties for any unauthorised use of personal information. Only with these caveats does the proposal make the slightest sense to the public and I would still have no interest in having one.

Hamish Hossick, Broughty Ferry, Dundee

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