Readers' Letters: Scottish Government clueless when it come to Education

This is at odds with widening access and accepting students with lower grades, while a good many with better grades (and hence ability to learn?) are denied places so go elsewhere, usually in England. That they are even denied access to a Scottish university if they actually want to pay is surely mad. Their money is as good as that of an English/Welsh/Irish student and they are more likely to put that education to good use within Scotland.

Until I see evidence to the contrary, I really have to believe that this Scottish Government has no clue, far less future plans, for education here. Didn’t a recent first minister want to be judged by that metric?

Ken Currie, Edinburgh

Cull colleges

Sir Peter Mathieson, the Principal of Edinburgh University, has said he cannot rule out compulsory redundancies (your report, 19 April). He admitted “there were inefficiencies about the way we deliver things”.

That looks like an understatement with a staff of 18,500 which has grown like Topsy. It is certain there will need to be redundancies to go towards the planned cuts of £140 million. It is obvious that academics and their unions, who are opposing compulsory redundancies at Edinburgh and Dundee universities, no longer live in the real world – if indeed they ever did. The staff at these universities have been pampered for too long, with too large salaries and a cosy lifestyle as the money rolled in from Scottish taxpayers and foreign students.

In the real world the changes in National Insurance means companies are laying off staff, so why do university staff think they are special and want Scottish taxpayers to bail them out? There are now just too many universities in Scotland for the number of students, it’s time for a cull. The university gravy train has hit the buffers.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Wisdom of age?

My newspapers tell me oldies don’t change their voting habits. That is statistics for you – I floated from right to left and then to self-government. Why? Because as I age, I see more and more clearly that Scotland is a country, my country, and until we have our own government, we are at the mercy of a foreign government whose main care is for England. Scunthorpe steelworks is being funded to survive but Grangemouth refinery is left to make do with what the Scottish Government scrapes together for them.

No one likes the thought of nuclear leaks, so park the nuclear submarines in Scotland.

It happens again and again. It’s time for old Scots to encourage the young to run their own country.

Elizabeth Scott, Edinburgh

Double standards

The UK Government is taking massive costly action to save the partly Chinese owned steelworks in Scunthorpe and I have to say well done for doing so. However, it is shocking to see that they could not, or did not want to, save the Chinese partly owned oil refinery at Grangemouth, an important facility in Scotland, leaving hundreds unemployed.

Ravenscraig was the largest steel strip mill in Western Europe and the UK Government left it to flounder in 1992, leaving hundreds unemployed. Forgive me for being somewhat facetious, is it only me that sees the English facility being saved while the important Scottish facility has been left to close, like Ravenscraig.

Our MP, Brian Leishman, has fought hard to save Grangemouth, probably making himself unpopular with his colleagues in London. Had Grangemouth been located in England, I have no doubt that it would have been saved like Scunthorpe.

Michael Fraser, Tullibody, Clackmannanshire

Not so special

Colin McAllister is right that Donald Trump will only have one friend left in Benjamin Netanyahu (Letters, 19 July). This after Marco Rubio’s ultimatum to Ukraine and Russia to either accept a ceasefire or the US will “move on”, as it has “other priorities”. No more US aid and no prospect of peace means Russia has free rein to press on with the war for as long as it takes to defeat Ukraine and advance further into Europe. Trump is “not a fan” of President Zelensky but both still apparently want to do a mineral deal. Perhaps Zelensky sees it as a sign of tacit support, but Trump has “a very good relationship” with Putin. Now, however, Trump is “very frustrated” with Putin’s intransigence and the new Cold War looks set to become frigid. In short, an emboldened Putin has humiliated Trump. Rubio is preparing an embarrassing diplomatic retreat under the guise of more pressing priorities, but in reality Trump has failed in his first diplomatic task, to achieve peace in Ukraine “within weeks”.

Pandering to a bully by another bully with ulterior motives rarely achieves anything. Trump’s learning there’s more to diplomacy than humiliating one side and lauding the other. Europe needs to ignore him and do a trade deal with China. The UK, reliant on US trade since Brexit, needs to deal with the “fools” and “horrible people” in the US administration, Trump’s words on Ukrainian and Russian leaders thwarting his Nobel Peace Prize chances. How long the special relationship will last is anyone’s guess.

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

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