Readers Letters: Did SNP withhold news of incubating problems before election?

Scottish A&Es recorded their worst four-hour wait figures on record. Now we hear that the Glen Sannox is to be mothballed (“Glen Sannox tied up in port as standby vessel”, 10 June). This cannot have been a snap decision. If the SNP knew all of this, plus all of the hidden details regarding Murrell and Indyref2 funding, then surely Scots were presented with a completely different picture during the election campaign?

If you advertise a product that is not up to scratch, it is recalled. Is the SNP really as good as its pre-election publicity claimed?

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Story continues

Allan Sutherland worries in your pages (Letters, 9 June) that the calls for a Murrell inquiry will disappear into the long grass because of the way the news cycle works, and the many distractions such as the World Cup, and other things on the mind of the Keir Starmer government. I am not so sure. Donald Trump thought the Epstein saga would go away, and it didn't.

The press has a job to do to continue investigating the issue, and The Scotsman has done well in recent reporting.

Crawford Mackie, Edinburgh

Brexit joy

Alex Orr claims (Letters, 9 June) that most people “now recognise that leaving the EU was a gross mistake”. Untrue. In fact, the UK has done better than the likes of Germany and France since Brexit. The UK has grown 13 per cent since Brexit, France has grown 12.5 per cent and Germany 6.3 per cent.

A poll for Britain UnBound found that almost 60 per cent would not give up our UK rule-making powers to gain access to the EU market. Only 27 per cent agreed they would give up sovereignty to be able to use the single market, so Mr Orr is very much wide of the mark. In fact, the poll, conducted in late May, showed that 61 per cent of men and 57 per cent of women do not want to see Brexit undone. The current actions by Keir Starmer to try to get the UK back under the Brussels heel will mean Labour will never return to power in the next generation. He is doing vast economic damage to the entire UK, and the SNP and their Green SNP chums are colluding.

Stopping oil and gas extraction is only the thin end of the wedge in their plan to weaken and undermine our country. It is unbelievable and unforgivable.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Ideas please

Reading the Letters pages of The Scotsman, it seems easy to forget we are living in a dysfunctional union, run from London for London.

Those who remain supportive of that “Union” continue to obsess on every perceived shortcoming of the SNP, or on the party’s governance (even including, since Murrell’s confirmed guilt, its past internal financial management processes subject to the scrutiny of independent auditors and with no public money involved), while ignoring the haemorrhaging state of Britain.

Surely if truly concerned about the future of the people of these islands there must be some readers who can make positive suggestions as to how life in post-Brexit Britain can be fundamentally improved for the majority of its citizens. Certainly it is always easier to criticise than come up with seriously constructive proposals, but if Independence is not the answer, what is the alternative to the constitutional status quo leading to further decline regardless of what any devolved government can achieve within a broken economic framework? From FMQs it is clear that Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay is still playing the same fiddle of simply attacking the SNP and independence as he has no policies to offer other than returning to the failed economics of Liz Truss, which is essentially the same as what Reform’s Scotland leader Malcolm Offord is offering, but with more extreme rhetoric.

Is it too much to hope that at least one of The Scotsman’s regular correspondents can do better than simply producing another version of “SNP bad”?

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian

Unfair treatment

As someone who has been a member of the SNP since 2005 I find it interesting that the unionists and federalists are somehow now concerned for SNP members who have contributed to an independence referendum. They haven't been remotely interested in listening to our views over the last 12 years but as soon as a political opportunity presents itself to try to bring down a former first minister for the crimes of her husband they are now apparently concerned.

The problem for me is, if that is how you choose to treat the only female first minister in the country, why on earth would other women who might be looking to get involved in politics even bother?

Why is bitterness towards one woman, Nicola Sturgeon, and a general hatred of the SNP and everything it stands for being allowed to poison the political discourse in this country?

Peter Ovenstone, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire

Safe power

Tim Flinn claims there are dozens of safe and relatively cheap ways of making all the electricity the planet needs (Letters, 9 June). But he doesn't list them.

After wind and solar and hydro and wave, which are all weather dependent (I once visited a Norwegian hydro which was being penalised because a dry spell meant it couldn't meet requirements), which means none of the four can be guaranteed to deliver 24/7, Mr Flinn should tell us what other kinds of generator would bring his list up to even a dozen?

Safeguarding nuclear waste is not expensive and can be done without harming humans. There has never been an Aberfan, and it does not cause climate change. Chernobyl was a Soviet design that was rejected in principle by all other countries, and no harmful effects came from Three Mile Island, so using them to demonise nuclear power seems a bit desperate; British nuclear power stations have been operated safely for 70 years, a record which speaks for itself.

Hugh Pennington, Aberdeen

Ruining relations

The article by Tom Wood, “The three causes of Henry Nowak's tragic death”, should be sent to every politician and police chief in the UK (Perspective, 9 June). He said police attending the scene of Henry’s attack arrived preconditioned. Many would suggest they arrived brainwashed by all their training which, as Tom Wood says, “only opened up the entire service to race-baiting lawyers and activists”. There are Diversity, Equality and Inclusion departments not only in the police but in every nook and cranny in the public sector, and we the taxpayers have to pay.

Time for, not only a bonfire of quangos, but a bonfire of the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion departments, which are certainly not helping race relations, but sabotaging them.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Donald’s delusion

On Sunday night, Donald Trump said of his relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu: “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He doesn’t call the shots.” The immortal words of Bruce Willis' John McClane in Die Hard to Deputy Chief of Police Dwayne T Robinson about the folly of those who believe authority and power is synonymous with control of a situation sprang to mind: “From up here it looks like you're in charge of Jack”. Equally, Trump should reflect on McClane's retort: “If you're not a part of the solution, you're a part of the problem.”

Mark Boyle, Johnstone, Renfrewshire

Save birds

I read The Scotsman article regarding the transfer of Bass Rock and the neighbouring island of Craigleith to the RSPB (10 June).

I note that even despite the many bird deaths due to avian flu in 2022, the developer of the offshore wind project which is to be built in the Firth of Forth claims seabird density in the area is “not exceptional “ and in Scottish government projections at least 4,000 birds will be killed by the 300 or so turbines in the first year alone,

As if this is an acceptable loss, they are quite willing to pay for the privilege of overcharging us for their so called green energy,

The amount of seabirds that will be killed over the lifetime of these monster wind turbines is dreadful. It is an absolute disgrace that our government grants permission for the destruction of whole colonies of beautiful birds in perpetuity so some foreign investors can make money from us. The plans should be stopped immediately, there is no amount of wildlife deaths that is acceptable, certainly not thousands in one year,

The ministers who allowed this should be ashamed,

Andrew Thorpe, Dunfermline, Fife

Feeder danger

I’d like to give a warning to all those who put out bird feeders in their gardens. I’ve done this for many years, with no problems.

However, when I went to fill them this morning I found a young starling stuck in one of my feeders, lying upside down and unable to get out. I immediately took the feeder down and laid it on the ground. The starling flew off after a few minutes, to my relief. I hope it recovers quickly.

That feeder was a cheap one, with a plastic cap which was easily moved off by the bird, so I’ve removed it from my garden. I would hate to be the cause of the death of a bird I’ve lured into my garden.

Carolyn Taylor, Broughty Ferry, Dundee

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