Readers' Letters: Nicola Sturgeon needs to read the room and keep quiet

But perhaps her most amusing and audacious attempt to remain relevant is her view that she was “seen as a polarising figure”. However, she concludes that “I think it turns out I was wrong about this”.

May I be so bold as to wholly disagree with her comments, and indeed, as well as being polarising, she was divisive, and perhaps drunk on power when in office. Her time has come and gone, and despite her continuing efforts to leave some sort of positive legacy, she will fail, as she did with so many policies when she held office and caused untold damage to Scotland.

Richard Allison, Edinburgh

So wrong

Former Scottish Health Secretary Michael Matheson thinks he was harshly treated over £11,000 which was run up on his Government iPad (your report, 31 January). It seems Mr Matheson still can't see anything wrong with his work’s property being used by his family for personal use… not only did he try to pay for its use with taxpayers’ money, his family must have known his passwords to access said property – or did he give them the password to access it?.

He doesn't seem to get it. He let unauthorised people access government property, then attempted to bill Joe Public for its use. He's lucky he just got suspended and lost his post,

J Moore, Glasgow

Banks fail OAPs

It was with both disbelief and sadness that I note that a further 136 bank closures are coming (your report, 29 January). We all know the phrase, “Ill-gotten gains” but to increase profit margins by dismissing staff and installing increasingly complicated machines to disburse cash to their rightful owners is both shockingly unkind and totally uncaring. Yes, we live in a modern age, but if you go into any modern bank you will see client after client struggling to get their own money from some clever-dick machine, and often, only with the help of some member of staff. The elderly are probably the most puzzled!

The ethos is all wrong! Banks should be organised for the benefit of the people who use them, not for the “invisible” shareholders!

It will be only a matter of time until some sort of simplified national bank system will have to be launched by the government whereby smiling and chatty human beings once again take in and give out money to their clients in High Street situations.

Archibald A. Lawrie, Kingskettle, Fife

Bank of irony

I see Lloyds Bank blames customers moving away from banking in person for the decision to close more branches.

Hardly surprising when if you go into a branch of Bank of Scotland to open an account you will be turned away and told to make contact in a different way. This applies to both business and personal accounts.

I discovered this myself when recently in a branch. As I spent most of my working life trying to get people to open accounts with Bank of Scotland I found this a trifle ironic. Ian Lewis, Edinburgh

Chilling savings

As highlighted by Hugo van Woerden (Letters, 31 January), the Westminster committee scrutinising the so-called Assisted Dying’ Bill is hardly, if at all, interested in hearing evidence that might hinder progress of the law through Parliament.

Sadly, this shouldn’t come as any great surprise. Although its advocates dress their arguments in elevated moral finery, the Bill deserves to be seen alongside a growing list of measures – the axing of winter fuel payments, increases to student tuition fees in England and Wales, and the extension of inheritance tax to farmers – by which Keir Starmer’s government hopes to restore public finances.

Euthanasia is seen as part of the medium to long-term solution to the cost of social care; and where money is concerned, ministers’ unflinching resolve will brook no argument.

James Bruce, Berwick, Northumberland

Blame Tories

I wish to take issue with Scottish Labour net zero spokesperson Sarah Boyack, as quoted in your report on the “disastrous handling of the DRS scandal by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Greens” (29 January).

Not a peep from Ms Boyack that the whole scheme was torpedoed by the then Tory government, who sabotaged it by invoking the Internal Market Act (IMA). Why these critics think that it is the sole responsibility of the SNP and Greens to keep our streets free of rubbish is beyond me. I vehemently propose that all the legal costs for the upcoming court case of Biffa versus the Scottish Government be paid by the Conservative Party.

H Belda, Edinburgh

Awful judgment

The Scotsman reports (31 January) on the astonishing decision by Lord Ericht to find in favour of NGOs, ruling that permission for the vital Jackdaw and Rosebank fields be scrapped. What right do eco-alarmists and unelected judges have to stop the production of oil and gas upon which modern life depends? From marine gas oil for the container ships on which our island nation relies, through gearbox oil for wind machines, to the countless plastics made from oil and gas, the world needs oil and gas for the foreseeable future.

Tessa Khan, the lawyer fronting the anti-gas and oil NGO called Uplift, claims the storm of 24 January shows we are in for “colossal damage” if we don't decarbonise.

As I argued in my letter last month, that is just not true. Storms have always been with us, as has climate change. Alas, Ms Khan has an ally in government – Energy Secretary Ed Miliband. Mr Miliband, whose outlook is similar to the Just Stop Oil maniacs, will probably support Lord Ericht's decision, harming the UK's international economic confidence, but delighting Britain's foes.

As I write, our 50 gas-fired power stations – which Labour has scheduled for closure in just six years’ time – are producing 54 per cent of GB's electricity, with wind power at 8 per cent and solar, 4 per cent. No amount of batteries can power Britain when the wind stops and it is gloomy or dark.

William Loneskie, Oxton, Lauder, Berwickshire

Drop in ocean

In The Scotsman article on failing to meet reduction targets for car use it stated that domestic transport accounts for 28 per cent of Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions. Since Scotland and the UK total emissions are approximately 1 per cent globally, that makes Scotland’s output 28 per cent of 1 per cent globally, not quite life-threatening when you consider the volume of cars etc in, for example, the USA and China.

Another point, when did we start measuring our traffic targets in kilometres? I thought we measured our road distances in miles.

Charles Sinclair, Kirkcaldy, Fife

Seeing green

About one in 12 of all Scottish men and one in 200 women are affected by colour blindness, usually of the red-green variety. Despite this very little has been done to make life easier for them; in fact the recent proliferation of unisex toilet cubicles indicating availability by red-green signage instead of “engaged” or “vacant”, has made matters worse. Hospitals have signs saying follow the green or red line to a department, and it is impossible to make sense of graphs which distinguish trends by lines of different colours.

These are just a few examples of difficulties faced by the colour blind. In a small attempt to counter this thoughtless discrimination I have forwarded a petition to the Petitions Committee of the Scottish Parliament asking the Scottish Government to make the design and signage for publicly owned buildings accessible for people with colour blindness. If anyone wishes to support this petition it is available online at: https://petitions.parliament.scot/petitions/PE2138

Ian McKee, Edinburgh

Stay home

The “discovery” of planet HD 20794 d is a salutary reminder of just how tiny and, dare I say it, insignificant, human beings are in the universal scheme of things (your report, 29 January). Not only is fragile planet Earth not the centre of the universe, it is not even at the centre of our solar system. Yet, we all too easily slip into a mindset as if we were the centre of things.

Planet Earth, hovering at the doomsday of eight seconds to midnight on the extermination chart, threatens, due almost totally to human destructiveness, to be totally uninhabitable sooner rather than later. The last thing we humans should contemplate is somehow to transfer our self-destructive instincts by seeking to colonise other planets, and even exoplanets.

Hopefully in our solar system or beyond, there may be creatures, outstripping human genius, without our self-destructive flaws. We humans can’t be as good as it gets.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

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