Readers' Letters: Politicians should be excited about helping Scotland, not football

Stephen Flynn MP has already changed his X aka Twitter bio to read “GOING TO THE WORLD CUP” and posted 11 tweets about football over a 15-hour period. At a time when it’s been announced that he has the second lowest voting record among Scottish MPs since the general election, maybe he should be concentrating more on the job he was elected to do and less on his hobby (“SNP Westminster leader has voted second fewest times of all Scottish MPs”, 18 November).

Who can forget when John Swinney announced in June 2024 that “football has a marvellous way of bringing people together” and that he would be attending the opening match of the Euro 2024 tournament. Of course, it was not enough that he attended on behalf of the Scottish Parliament. The Sports Minister and the Culture Secretary both had to get in on the act. Stephen Flynn also attended, in a personal capacity.

The World Cup is to be held from 11 June-19 July next year. The Scottish Parliamentary recess has yet to be agreed as it will not be announced until after the Scottish election in May. This year, the summer recess in Holyrood was from 28 June until the end of August. In Westminster the summer recess starts on 16 July 2026. I wonder how empty the benches in both parliaments will be once the tournament begins.

At a time politicians are constantly talking of the cost-of-living crisis in the UK, if you want to go to the World Cup, do it in your own time and don’t expect the taxpayer to fund it under the pretence that you’re engaging in “culture and sport, sports diplomacy and Scottish-[enter name of host country] relations”, as was done by many during Euro 2024. We don’t believe you and we know you’re only there as the football is on.

Jane Lax, Aberlour, Moray

Time for subs

Scotland has won a big prize by getting to the World Cup finals and we are all excited (your report, 19 November). However, down to earth in Scotland, we have an SNP government still fighting against women's rights, still searching for a genuine reason for independence, still trying to foist climate change costs upon us and not looking after jobs in the oil and gas sector, still against drivers, still financially against almost everyone not on benefits and still encouraging migrants to come here even though we really cannot afford it.

Only our football team is bringing us joy, certainly not our politicians. Will the SNP “reward” them with higher taxation or force them to domicile in England instead? Time for a change at Holyrood.

Will the SNP “reward” them with higher taxation or force them to domicile in England instead? Time for a change at Holyrood.

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Pro-Scotland

Stan Grodynski’s letter protesting Scotland’s neglect by the BBC could not have been published on a more unsuitable day (19 November). I had just been watching News at One before reading his letter. Scotland’s World Cup team’s victory over Denmark was the top item on the news with fairly extensive coverage, as was the case the previous evening on the Ten O’Clock news immediately after the game.

Leaving the BBC behind, it made a welcome contrast to hear the Scots football players cheered to the echo at Hampden while their rugby-playing countrymen were booed off at Murrayfield on Sunday.

Bill Greenoc, Netherlee, East Renfrewshire

SRU on it?

Euphoria at Hampden! Boos at Murrayfield! The contrast could not be starker. But both our football and rugby sides will now feature at forthcoming world cups, football fans simply glad to be there, rugby fans apprehensive. Both will face the same challenge of progressing beyond the pool/group stage. Undoubtedly, the journey will also be a rollercoaster of emotions for both.

The significance of the Murrayfield loss is potentially more damaging. World-ranking points were at stake. If we had beaten Argentina, and if Argentina lose to England this coming weekend, we would have moved up to sixth in the world, thereby gaining a top seed ranking in the World Cup draw. This would have greatly improved our chances of progression beyond the pool stage.

Sunday’s second-half Murrayfield-implosion was not pretty viewing. Scotland squandered a match-winning lead by surrendering five unanswered tries. This is not without precedent: Scotland has scored six points while conceding 80 in the last 20-25 minutes of the five previous games played against world-ranked opposition (New Zealand, France, Argentina, Fiji, Wales).

Managing a full 80 minutes is crucial in the modern game. Sadly, it’s a missing ingredient from ours. Lack of depth at the top level and a relatively weak bench have been cited as contributing factors.

This points to a long-standing weakness in the Scottish game. Quite simply, not enough people play rugby. Currently ranked eighth in the world, Scotland is only 15th in terms of the size of the adult registered playing base – we continue to punch above our weight! To become a regular top six nation, however, more, much more needs done to strengthen and develop the Scottish game and to make it more attractive to many more people. Better pathways to the top are also urgently needed! SRU, are you on it?

Ewen Peters, Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire

We see you, SNP

If people have wanted to know which government is best for them, I hope they now realise that neither the SNP in Edinburgh nor Labour in London ticks that box for them. Readers should note that, thanks to the utterly cuckoo thinking of the likes of the last Tory government and now the even more cuckoo Labour government's collective green nonsense, tax revenues from the North Sea have gone down from £10.6 billion in 2008-2009 to £0.5 billion in 2021. Labour plans to leave as much oil in the ground as they can, cheered on by the SNP.

One of the reasons given by the top man at Exxon for shutting down their part of Mossmorran is the green taxes they have to pay and the great reduction in ethane from UK North Sea endeavours. This is thanks to the SNP's initial foray into reducing our self-reliance in oil and gas at a time of heightened pressure on such resources thanks to Russia's attack on the Ukraine. This was seized on with alacrity by Ed Miliband, whose main purpose seems to be to end the UK's involvement in industry entirely.

Around 80 per cent of the world's energy comes from so-called fossil fuels and the UK is as dependent as any other country on them. Left-wing governments are showing themselves especially capable of de-industrialising the UK while flying out – in the case of the SNP, without an invitation – to Belem for COP30 to warn us not to fly anywhere. If they practised what they preach, they might be listened to, but times have changed. We hear what they say, but we also see what they do.

Peter Hopkins, Edinburgh

Net zero spell

There's a new word in the net zero lexicon: “greenlash”, the growing worldwide “green backlash” caused by the impact on farming, energy prices, car costs and access, intrusive and costly infrastructure, job losses and non-delivery – and Chinese domination.

Even Bill Gates now argues for adapting to extreme weather and focusing on improving health outcomes, not temperature reduction targets, and King Carl Gustaf of Sweden has questioned the huge European spend when we only cause 6 per cent of global warming.

But Ed Miliband still gets to weave his spell as Rasputin to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, who are seemingly ignoring and rejecting common sense advice on energy taxation and investment as they deliberate and vaccilate over next week’s crucial Budget.

My concern is, whose spell is Miliband under?

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

Inflated language

Regarding Judith Campbell’s letter, “Sport injustice” (19 November), one can condemn the West Bank settlers, and consider Israel’s action since the Hamas pogrom of 7 October 2023 excessive, disproportionate and counter-productive, but calling it a “genocide” is not only a misuse of language and of the accepted definition, it insults and diminishes the impact of the utterly unspeakable, industrialised horrors perpetrated on the six million or more victims of the genuine genocide from 1939-45. Such “inflationary” language is too prevalent nowadays.

The United Nations and International Criminal Court define “genocide” as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group: killing or causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”. There are various clarifications, but key elements are the intent and destruction of the group as such, not just individual members. To regard Israeli actions as genocide is akin to damning some of our actions in the Second World War likewise. I trust Judith Campbell has studied Israeli history and the several occasions when the Israeli governments have been on the point of finalising a two-state, peaceable solution or an agreement under the Abraham Accords (as with Saudi Arabia just before 7 October 2023) only for it to be sabotaged verbally or physically by the Palestine leadership (or Hamas) – to the amazement of, inter alia, President Clinton and Prince Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud.

John Birkett, St Andrews, Fife

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