Readers' letters: Europe's Ryder Cup triumph is a victory for sportsmanship

The American crowd were an absolute disgrace, the nadir being the summoning of state police, to restore some decorum and order. The unbelievable hatred took its inevitable toll on the European team, who played magnificently through the first two days.

It would have been a travesty if the American team had won, as they very nearly did. The entire European team, without exception looked an exhausted shadow of themselves in Sunday’s singles.

As very much the underdogs, before the contest, they did themselves proud and, in winning, they gained a victory for sportsmanship.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Pray for them

Thoughts and prayers with Nigel Farage and his supporters following their team’s defeat in the Ryder Cup.

George Shanks, Edinburgh

Ironic flags

The plethora of St George’s Cross flags in England, and St Andrew’s Crosses in Scotland, by those who, in many cases, are using it to send an anti-immigration message, is more than a little ironic.

St George, an early Christian martyr, was born in modern-day Turkey. His mother, St Polychronia, is believed to have come from Palestine, while his father, St Gerontios, is believed to have come from modern-day Syria. St Andrew was born in Galilee in modern-day Israel.

It is clearly more than a little bizarre that those flying the flags of Scotland and England to make an anti-immigration point are flying the flags of saints who, I am sure, should they be around today, they would not be welcoming with open arms.

Alex Orr, Edinburgh

Better protests?

It is commendable that the “Scotland Demands Better" campaign (with 200 organisations) formed by the Poverty Alliance will lead to a march and rally in Edinburgh on 25 October.

Chris Birt and Peter Kelly (Scotsman, 26 September) argue this campaign is non-political though, gosh, it sounds very much like it. They talk of helping those left behind, warm affordable homes, decent public services, having a job to pay bills, adequate social security, being able to set up a business, an economy which can flourish etc. This sounds very much like a group of disaffected Labour supporters in despair at this strikingly unsuccessful UK Government that, far from opposing Reform’s proposals, is seemingly politically mesmerised by their success; with Yvette Cooper outlawing Palestine Action and Shabana Mahmood embracing digital ID cards.

The Poverty Alliance displays knowledge but little understanding of the recent Britain First March in London. Apparently we witnessed a display of darkness, rage and angry people; a poisonous movement draped in flags etc. The public didn’t.180,000 marched and 24 were arrested. The last pro-Palestine march had 890 arrests. Therein lies Sir Keir’s problem.

Scotland has long had a very different attitude to immigration and will offer a very real alternative come May. Portraying every English protest as racist, however, is naive, simplistic and self-defeating.

John V Lloyd, Inverkeithing, Fife

Nothing to fear

One of your contributors wrote that the introduction of a UK ID digital card “… is an outrageous attack on our privacy and freedom” (Letters, 29 September). They are entitled to this opinion but it would be very useful for the uninformed (like myself) if they could spell out exactly why this is such an attack.

ID cards are compulsory in 15 EU countries and voluntary in another 11 so maybe your correspondent would like to educate the greater population of Europe on the perils of identity? I can see distinct advantages and few, if any, downsides. Sainbury’s, Amazon, Lothian Buses and probably dozens of other institutions seem to know lots about me through some form of identity. It tends to facilitate many activities. Why should I fear another ID card?

Ken Currie, Edinburgh

Identity charade

Prior to my wedding the hotel proprietor wondered if sticky toffee pudding was a bit rich as a dessert for the wedding meal. what with the nerves on the day.

However, my then fiancéee was adamant that she was having sticky toffee pudding for her dessert at her wedding and it won't surprise readers to know she won that argument and I, not her, had the nerves.

So regardless of what you call it – Brit Card or anything else – trying to force an identity, whether it be First Minister or my wife, just won’t work if the individual doesn’t want it to work.

That, however, is not the only problem. In order to get this digital identity you need a smartphone. Are the government going to be paying for me to get a smartphone and paying the bills towards it? No, I thought not. So what about folk that don’t have a smartphone, who are not into this digital world?

Do you think someone thinking of employing someone illegally will be asking for a digital ID or will it actually stop the boats? Of course it won’t. It is simply about government control and infringement of civil liberties that folk fought two world wars and other conflicts to retain, isn’t it?

Peter Ovenstone, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire

No deterrent

Keir Starmer must live in a different country from me, because in the country I live in, employers face enormous fines for employing people who have not got the right to work here. Quite how ID cards will trump that, I am as unclear, as Lisa Nandy is. ID cards will make no difference at all to discouraging the employment of illegals. I would have expected a highly-qualified lawyer like Keir Starmer to know that.

Illegal immigrants do not quake in their boots about working in the black economy. Indeed, they expect to do so. Cash in hand is what they want. Penalties are accepted as par for the course.

What Starmer’s plan will do is cost billions to implement, create non-jobs for thousands to administer it and create a big, fat juicy target for all the Russian and teenage scammers to hack at a cost of yet more billions to the UK economy. Expect any such system to crash and do precisely nothing. It does emphasise that the Labour government is an expensive waste of space, however.

The next government will consign the scheme to the bin, where it richly deserves to be.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Women’s rights

Nicola Sturgeon has a cheek claiming that the “far right” (whoever they are) are not “defenders of women” (Scotsman, 29 September). It should be a source of embarrassment to her that the self-styled left have determinedly run a campaign to damage women’s rights. The Democrats in the US are a prime example of this. In Scotland, we had the shaming spectacle of Anas Sarwar whipping his MSPs to support Ms Sturgeon’s own ill-conceived gender bill, with Alex Cole-Hamilton a cheerleader for its proponents. It is leftist establishments, across the UK that have cancelled and persecuted those wishing to protect women’s dignity, privacy and safety from potentially predatory men.

The coven of those signing a letter associating those who genuinely defend women’s rights with the “far right” bogeyman has an agenda that smears the former while demonising the latter. Their motive is purely political and nothing to do with protecting women’s rights.

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Wrong solution

Lynda Mitchell (Letters, 29 September) is correct to claim that energy costs in Scotland are too high but her solution – subsidising bills to those on low incomes – is wrong. What is required is for Holyrood to match the energy bills in France, Germany and Spain by introducing a 50 per cent cut to electricity costs.

Check the data. In 2020 a unit of gas was 6.0p and in 2025 has only risen to 6.3p – less than the rise in inflation. However, over the same time period electricity costs have increased from 16.0p/unit to around 25.6p/unit – a rise of about 70 per cent. The bad news for Scottish consumers is that the AR7 70 per cent Increase in strike price ( from £73 per MWhour to £113 per MWhour ) will add about 5p/unit to electricity bills, taking the price to over 31p/unit. If gas prices are lower in 2025 than in 2020 (taking inflation into account) then why have electricity prices spiralled out of control if the claims made by politicians on the cost of energy from wind are correct ?

The simple solution to the problems set out by Lynda Mitchell is to apply a 50 per cent cut to the strike price for wind output!

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway

New age

We rightly celebrate those of us who reach the “ripe old age” of 100 years. Another round-number age has become increasingly common in my own lifetime, but tends to be ignored or even scorned by many, apart from some of us numerophiles: eighty-three and one-third years, or 1,000 months. Maybe a new tradition should now be established?

John Birkett, St Andrews, Fife

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