Readers' letters: Think big and replace the 'Star of Caledonia' with a massive wind turbine

My suggestion would be for a 250 metre high wind turbine in saltire colours with a blue tower and four white rotating blades. The turbine could be surrounded by a circle of 80 metre electricity pylons and the whole sculpture could be adorned with some nice intermittent flashing fairy lights.

I think this would be a fitting welcome to Scotland for visitors and would prepare them for what they are going to encounter as they head north into all the regions.

Rather than representing “Scottish brainpower”, I think this sculpture would be a fitting legacy to the unfathomable stupidity of Scottish Government ministers and their wanton destruction of Scotland’s once famed landscapes and scenery.

Detailed drawings are available if required.

W Douglas, Hawick, Scottish Borders

Picture imperfect

The Glasgow Nile Street/Bath Street mural featured in yesterday’s edition is not a good representation of people’s attitude to current events. I suspect that an image representing powerlessness and despair would be a more accurate representation.

Richard Perry, Burntisland, Fife

Grangemouth cash

With the UK Government having failed to honour its promises of funding for the Acorn CCS Project and for the Edinburgh University Exascale supercomputer, what hope is there that the £200 million investment will actually be delivered and if it is, will it be sufficient to develop a significant and viable industry at Grangemouth.

Ian Moir, in his letter of 19 February, makes some interesting comments regarding different aspects of energy generation in Scotland. Contrary to what he claims, the Acorn Project is not dependent on the building of a new gas-fired power station so the Scottish Government is not directly responsible for the former not proceeding. There is a “collaboration agreement” with SSE on the basis of both projects going ahead, but in essence these are independent projects.

The pricing of electricity in Scotland is scandalous, both for the public and for businesses, and provides a strong argument for ending the iniquities of the current UK Government-imposed pricing system, which is particularly nonsensical for customers here.

If the electricity price was no longer tied to the international gas price and “zonal pricing” was introduced then, as industry experts have assessed, Scotland would enjoy the cheapest electricity prices in Europe. Furthermore, with a long-term strategic development plan Grangemouth could be at the heart of a thriving industrial complex – but this would require some joined-up thinking and commitment from the UK Government, and that has been sadly lacking for decades.

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian

Goodwill to all

For once, I have found myself agreeing with part of what Susan Dalgety wrote on trans issues (Scotsman, 22 February). She is right that Anas Sarwar clearly knew what the Gender Recognition Reform Bill did when he and his colleagues voted for it in 2022. For good reasons, all the parties in the Scottish Parliament supported the bill, with the exception of the Tories. Had it not been blocked by UK Government fiat, the bill would have brought Scotland into line with many of the countries surrounding us in Europe. Those countries successfully have a simpler system for trans people’s identity to be recognised, while preserving rights and protections on grounds of both sex and gender identity. In the UK, those protections are well enshrined in the (reserved) Equality Act 2010 – developed and passed by Labour of course.

I don’t know whether Ms Dalgety is correct to suggest that the Labour leadership’s sudden change of position on this relates to seeking to take potential votes from Reform. It was welcome, though, to see the floor of the Scottish Labour conference somewhat disagree with Mr Sarwar’s apparent new position on these issues, and reaffirm support for fairness for trans people.

With goodwill, it is perfectly possible to accommodate everyone, including trans people. Unfortunately, in some quarters that goodwill seems to be absent, with increasingly strident calls for trans people to be denied any recognition, and denied protection from discrimination. I hope our political parties will continue to prioritise the facts and goodwill, over ill-will and prejudices, or potential short-term political advantage.

Tim Hopkins, Edinburgh

Private practice

The Scottish government constantly reassures us that the NHS is in safe hands and there is no requirement to use the private sector to reduce waiting lists.

Recently released figures show that, in Scotland, the number of people waiting for more than two years for a procedure at the end of last year was 10,869. In England, the number was around 100. This was mostly down to the NHS in England using the private sector for a wide range of procedures.

Neil Gray and John Swinney really need to take note of their neighbour’s efforts, however much it might pain them.

Jim Houston, Edinburgh

Healthy scepticism

Anas Sarwar announced at Labour’s Scottish conference that he is going to cut the number of health boards from 14 to three. But hang on, at the last such conference a year ago his key pledge then was to reverse the SNP’s perceived centralisation of decision making by devolving more power to local authorities such as health boards.

Furthermore, he now says that he wants to employ more doctors and nurses by getting rid of the apparent army of bureaucrats which he claims exist within each health board. His deputy stated last year that this would save an extra £20 million annually. However, with inflation on the rise again that sum will barely cover next year’s pay claim. It’s confused and ill-thought out policies like this that have turned me and many others away from Scottish Labour.

My sister in the United States told me that an insurance company took over one of her local hospitals and the first thing it did was to cut the administration posts and hand over decision-making to the clinicians.

However, this meant the doctors had less time to see patients which duly resulted in longer waits for patients to get seen. Predictably, local GPs stopped referring patients to the hospital which led to less income and more lay-offs in order to maintain profitability. Furthermore, key doctors started to leave because too much of their time was being spent on paperwork rather than seeing patients.

With collapse looming, the policy was hurriedly abandoned. Extra money then had to be spent on re-recruiting staff, often at higher wage levels than previously. The director responsible for this fiasco was sacked. Be careful what you wish for.

Robert Menzies, Falkirk

European unity

Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer are both visiting Donald Trump this week, separately, but in a welcome show of European unity. Top of the agenda for both visits, is surely the achievement of a just and fair peace in Ukraine.

Trump’s attitude to Ukraine is one of colonial contempt, for Vlodomyr Zelensky in particular, who, in turn, is admirably and courageously prepared to sacrifice his personal ambition for the greater good of a fair peace in Ukraine and membership of Nato.

The joint hope is that both Macron and Starmer will stand up to Trump, insisting that Ukraine has a central role in achieving this peace. Putin’s criminal behaviour must not be rewarde, as a deal is found for the welfare of Ukraine and, indeed, Europe itself.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Might is right

Donald Trump asserts President Zelensky has played Joe Biden “like a fiddle” to obtain US support for the war in Ukraine. To add to the pressure of the situation, Trump now wants to strike a deal in payment for the help Ukraine has received which he estimates to be worth over $300 billion. Payment-in-kind in the form of a possible majority control of Ukraine’s mineral wealth will suffice! All this while a catastrophic war continues.

In one explosive week, Trump’s transactional rhetoric has exposed tensions amongst the Europeans, left Ukraine feeling more isolated, and given new succour and encouragement to Putin and his recidivist hopes for a Greater Russia.

In this “post-peace dividend” era, it seems the essence of the “Art of the Deal” is that might alone is right! So, with around 4,000 nuclear warheads apiece, leave it to the “Big Boys” (the US and Russia) to sort this mess out and thereby re-shape the future of Ukraine and maybe Europe. Really?

Forget that Putin has driven a coach and horses through all previous agreements that protected Ukrainian sovereignty. Forget that the position we have arrived at seems wholly devoid of the values and principles which our grandfathers fought and died for in the Second World War. And forget that the “Big Boys” have abandoned any pretence of abiding by the international “rule of law”.

It’s hard to escape a growing sense of foreboding. Europe must find a new collective resolve to muscle up and strengthen its own defensive sinews – and quickly! For in the end, Ukraine may have no other security backstop to rely on.

Ewen Peters, Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire

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