Readers' Letters: Universities spending too much on 'equality, diversity and inclusion' amid funding crisis

What do EDI staff do? They create and propagate “training packs”, mainly relating to race and “gender”, for university staff. Edinburgh’s, for example, has a guide to “microaggressions, microinsults and microinvalidations”. Manchester University offers all staff training in “active bystander” and “unconscious bias” behaviour. Imperial College London has a guide on “how be a white ally”, that involves acknowledging “white privilege”. What with “misgendering” and the “proper” use of pronouns, we shall require a whole new lexicon to accommodate this modern world. Perhaps we could call it “The Hurty Feelings Dictionary”.

There should, of course, be no discrimination, no aggression, no violence in universities or anywhere else. But now, apparently, there can be no debate, either. Freedom of speech is under siege from activists who would “cancel” or “deplatform” speakers with controversial views, or merely views that don’t match the current EDI prescriptions.

The western world seems to want to suppress critical enquiry (the real mission of a university) and discourse in favour of a cosy, uniform orthodoxy where we all sit around singing “kumbaya”. This is neither amusing nor trivial: it needs to be combated.

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Forget charges

I understand the reason the loss of prescription charge income (over the last 14 years) is lined up with GP practices’ financial struggles. Health boards and government have been promising to move money to primary care for years.

However, I really don't think reinstating such charges is an answer to any NHS problem (“Refusing to means-test free prescriptions as doctors face bankruptcy makes no sense”, Perspective, 16 February)

As stated, only five per cent of the population is actually charged and at a notional £10 per item, that might produce £57 million annually in Scotland. Administration costs have to be subtracted from that. That figure is just 0.3 per cent of NHS expenditure in Scotland.

In my own health board area, if this sum is distributed to health boards, it would add £3m to the budget. The coming financial year's predicted health board overspend is around £60m. Raising income tax is by far the fairest way to tackle this disparity. Health boards will continue to seek to generate savings as they have been doing each year for over 30 years!

(Dr) Philip Gaskell, Drymen, Stirling

Protect Ukraine

The UK has a moral obligation to be at the forefront of protecting Ukraine. The UK, US and Russia persuaded Ukraine to give up its stocks of tactical nuclear weapons in return for a guarantee of its sovereignty.

In its subsequent actions, Russia has shown that its word is not its bond, it cannot be trusted. It is now up to the UK and US to keep their promise to Ukraine. Both are already guilty of inaction when Russia annexed Crimea.

As for the German reluctance to help, this is not surprising given that after the Russian betrayal invasion, Germany continued to import Russian gas for longer than it should have and had to be dragged into providing military aid.

The reaction of the US and some European leaders has, sadly, shown that they have not learnt anything about the dangers of appeasement.

Paul Lewis, Edinburgh

Time to stand up

Keir Starmer is, unsurprisingly, finding it tricky to position himself as a bridge between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in any negotiations to bring peace to Ukraine. The obvious omissions in all of this are Ukraine and Europe.

Vice-President JD Vance has already ruled out Ukraine's potential membership of Nato and the EU, overruling the stated wishes of the Ukrainians themselves. As Trump has admitted, there's a whole ocean between the USA and Ukraine. Perhaps he should stick to his America First philosophy and stay out of it altogether.

Better late than never, Europe is waking up to the dangers of cosying up to Putin, as Trump is doing, and becoming actively involved in the negotiations. Here's hoping that the meeting of the EU leaders in Paris stiffens Europe's stance of standing up to both Trump and Putin and, together with the Ukrainians themselves, brings a lasting and fair peace.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Time is now

Donald Trump coming to power put special relations between the UK and the USA at risk. The countries’ views on many challenging issues differ as never before. There is disagreement on the amount of financial and military aid to Ukraine, while implementation of a 25 per cent tariff on all steel and aluminium imports will definitely hurt the economy of the UK as one of the key suppliers of steel products to the US. These have led to tensions and uncertainty about the future of the UK on the global stage.

Britain’s vulnerability is not just a problem, it is also a great opportunity for Scotland to bring up the issue of its independence again. Due to First Minister John Swinney, a great believer in Scotland’s sovereignty, the country got new perspectives. A year ago he claimed the region could win independence and exit the UK within five years. So, maybe the time to at least start paving the way for the referendum has already come? Vast oil and gas resources off the coast of our country will help us obtain sustainable economic growth and prosperity, separation from the rest of the UK will let us concentrate on the development and promotion of entirely Scottish business. We’ll be able to define the areas of cooperation with the European states, and maybe someday we’ll decide to join the EU – but this time on our own terms.

Iain Brocklebank, Shawlands, Glasgow

Energy errors

It appears Stan Grodynski (Letters, 18 February) is unaware that it is SNP decisions that halted the progress he desires on the projects listed in his letter. For example, the economics of the Acorn project is based on SSE obtaining permission to build a 900MW gas-fired power station at Peterhead, hence, until the Edinburgh based SNP provide the go-ahead for the plant, there is no financial sense in building a carbon capture unit In the North East.

Again, he is incorrect in blaming Westminster for the desecration of the Flow Country, especially when it was the SNP who overrode the advice of their own expert in giving planning permission to a foreign company to build a wind farm adjacent to a Unesco World Heritage site!

Rural Scots will be baffled by his reference to rail infrastructure since, If you live in Furness, Ullapool, Braemar, Lochgilphead, Kelso or Kirkcudbright there is no chance of ever seeing a ScotRail service.

The major mistake made by Mr Grodynski is the failure to note that 80 per cent of Scottish energy is provided by gas at 6p/unit. The SNP plan a ban on this energy source and replacement with renewable electricity at 25p/unit. Do the maths on a bill for 15,000 units a year and then explain the claim of cheap, green, clean energy from wind, sun or tide!

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway

Target UK need

On principle, surely, we should not be taking taxes from the less well-off in the UK and giving it to some of the wealthy in a yearly lump sum blank payment. Yet that is exactly what we have done under various UK governments for decades. So, even as a far-from-rich pensioner, I had a fair amount of sympathy for Labour's raid on winter fuel payment for some elderly people, including me, as I have always felt payments like these should be targeted at the needy.

However, what irritates the hell out of me is when extra taxes are collected from whatever source and we learn later sent to “countries needing help to fight climate change”, which is what happened to £11 billion Ed Miliband earmarked for his pet eco projects. Who could have complained had it gone straight to the NHS – or even defence in such a dangerous world?

Then the idiocy of all the hand-outs overseas strikes home. Charity should indeed begin at home.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Crowded land

Before Labour were elected in May 2024 the Conservatives had been in power for 14 years, but under their watch immigration both legal and illegal escalated out of control.

A recent study of current immigration policies suggests that by 2035 a quarter of the UK's population will be migrants, placing immense pressure on housing, the welfare system, public services, the NHS and the economy. The Office for National Statistics projected a population increase of five million by 2032 and 10m by 2047, with the increase being driven by immigration and the children of migrants.

The Labour government must immediately withdraw from the European Court on Human Rights since this has prevented the UK deporting immigrants who have no right to remain and illegal immigrants, many of whom had criminal records.

Clark Cross

Linlithgow, West Lothian

Obituaries

If you would like to submit an obituary (800-1000 words preferred, with jpeg image), contact [email protected]