Readers' letters: Nobody knows what a new tram line will end up costing

By comparison, the estimated cost range from £2 billion to £2.9bn got a mere glancing note. But, let’s call it £3bn for all it matters to the SNP (though that extra £1bn is enough to fund a hospital or two, maybe 200 youth clubs or enough new prison cells to house all SNP councillors in luxury).

Given that the trams, as they are today, cost at least twice their original budget for half the distance, is it not appropriate to ask who has stuck their finger in the air this time, to arrive at an estimate of such staggering flexibility…on behalf of the good taxpayers of Scotland?

Nobody knows the true cost of Edinburgh’s trams, for it’s not just about construction and purchase, it’s also about disruption to the businesses that are on the route.

Gordon Y Watson, Edinburgh

Staff in danger

The Institute of Customer Service is right to warn that abuse and violence have become a “grim part of the working day” for frontline staff (your report, 4 April).

On Scotland’s railways and ferries, our members know that reality all too well.

RMT recently brought our Action Against Assaults campaign to the Scottish Parliament, where our members spoke powerfully about the daily risks staff now face.

They describe a serious deterioration in behaviour in recent years, with rail workers facing increasing risk of assault, harassment and abuse just for doing their jobs.

Many incidents are now going unreported because staff “don’t see the point” – a direct consequence of a lack of decent funding to the British Transport Police and no meaningful follow-ups from employers.

The proposed Crime and Policing Bill is, as your report highlights, a missed opportunity. Creating a specific offence for assaulting retail workers while excluding transport staff leaves thousands of key workers without equal protection.

With the upcoming elections in Scotland, there is a chance to do things differently. We need to make assault on a public transport worker a specific criminal offence, alongside proper funding for the British Transport Police and an end to unsafe lone working.

If politicians are serious about protecting workers and passengers alike, then the next Scottish Government must bring forward clear, enforceable legislation that protects transport workers.

Eddie Dempsey, RMT general secretary, London

Don’t go, Charles

The government has requested that the King attend the United States’ 250th celebrations and he has agreed. He should not attend because it would validate Trump’s vile leadership.

The 47th president of the United States has brought the world to a crisis point by launching an illegal, unprovoked, cruel, and vicious war against an ancient Persian civilisation – one which predates that of America by thousands of years – and threatened to “bomb it into the Stone Age” and totally destroy it and its people.

Even if a ceasefire holds things will never be the same again. And the war is only the latest in a catalogue of Trump’s wayward decisions.

No one will ever trust Trump again; the reputation of the United States has been trashed; the world economy will take years to recover; the future of Nato is a risk, as is Ukraine. And Trump finished one of his recent rants against Iran by mentioning yet again the need to “take” Greenland.

The King is an impossible predicament, not least because his love of Arabic culture and Islamic art and architecture, and as patron of the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies he will be appalled at the destruction caused by Trump’s and Netanyahu’s military.

I am in agreement with Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey when he said as early as March 6: “At a time when Trump has launched an illegal war that is devastating the Middle East and pushing up energy bills for British families, it’s clear this visit should not go ahead.”

Since then Professor Jeffrey Sachs, a leading economist and adviser to numerous countries as well as the UN has described Trump simply as “a madman”. I am in agreement too with veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby who called the visit an embarrassment and urged its cancellation because of the numerous times Trump has insulted and belittled the UK and her military.

William Loneskie, Lauder, Scottish Borders

Immature victory

Watching Trumpty Dumpty and the Iranians both claiming “victory” in one of the most pointless wars of all time reminds me of primary school where team game squabbles were “settled” with both sides walking off at the bell singing “We won! We won!” to the tune of Amazing Grace as loudly and shrilly as possible.

At least we had a valid excuse for behaving like nine-year-olds.

Mark Boyle, Johnstone, Renfrewshire

Trump vindicated

Donald Trump has achieved a huge political success despite the “doom mongers”. Iran was not interested in negotiations over opening the Strait of Hormuz until President Trump spelled out exactly what lay ahead and it worked.

Who really thinks the liberal governments here or in Europe could have achieved anything like this with “negotiations” that carried utterly no weight?

Iran was holding the entire world hostage until President Trump upped the ante. Iran has indeed lost most of its military capability but retains the ability to fool left-leaning politicians who do not want the right to succeed. That cover has been exposed. Keir Starmer, Zack Polanski, Ed Davey and John Swinney were against the President’s tactics. They are all much diminished now. Keir Starmer is about to be the first to be deposed. Who will be next?

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Below par

As FIFA peace medal recipient Donald Trump declared “a whole civilisation will die tonight”, with thousands of innocent civilians already perished or made homeless as a result of his unhinged and bellicose actions, the good people at Scottish Golf felt it an appropriate moment to email me with a tasty spring fairways offer at Trump International Links, Aberdeenshire.

As Trump would say, why let genocide get in the way of a good deal?

D Mitchell, Doune, Stirling

Wrong priority

Russell Findlay, in an interview on Radio Scotland, said he would look to cut waste in NHS Scotland. When asked how, he commented on the number of staff doing administrative roles across the 15 health boards in Scotland. The interviewer commented on how this would cause people to lose their jobs. Quite rightly, Mr Findlay said the NHS is not there to provide employment but to treat people.

As of December 2025, the public sector in Scotland employed approximately 601,600 people, accounting for 22.6 per cent of total employment. The NHS accounts for 190,300 of this figure. Local government accounts for a staggering 261,000 headcount.

This is everything that is wrong with Scotland and until the nation wakes up and realises that we need to have a burgeoning economy and a private sector that is providing jobs, too much money is just being recycled. The NHS administrator gets paid and she pays her own taxes but who funds the balance? Who do these public-sector workers think pays their salaries, pays for their “free” childcare, the “free” further education they received, their “free” bus pass once they reach 60? I joined my local authority after many years in the private sector and it was clear to me that many employed there failed to see the connection between their pay and the local supermarket workers, the hairdresser and the window cleaner.

We cannot as a nation afford to keep people in a job just because they’re paid by the state, ie funded by the taxpayer.

Jane Lax, Aberlour, Moray

Fewer universities

After the Second World War Scotland had four universities. By 1960 when I was first involved it still had four. Today it has 19!

Applying the ‘curve of normal distribution of intelligence’ required for a good degree (and ignoring all the many ifs and buts and other feeble excuses) our population today needs only seven universities, assuming 15,000 students at each one. Given that the Open University and others offer degree-level courses in most worthwhile subjects and are suitable for remote or part-time students it’s clear we have far too many centres of higher learning. This conclusion supports the recent reports arguing for many more technical or commercial colleges for those more likely to benefit from such facilities than they probably would from a purely academic or other very high level education. Courses for horses, please.

Tim Flinn, Edinburgh

Captive audience

Kate Nevens of the Scottish Greens and a hopeful for the May election, says she wants to see a “Scotland with no prisons”. Good luck with that. I certainly would not like to be in Scotland when the occupants of our prisons are released and are freely roaming our streets.

Having listened to Ms Nevens and some of her Geen colleagues spout on various matters, I would prefer to see a Scotland with no Greens.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

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