Readers Letters: War with Russia is not imminent

This is ridiculous scaremongering. A possible war with Russia is unimaginable – we have neither the firepower, the manpower or the resources to fight a war with Russia, other than to use nuclear weapons in a scenario of mutually assured destruction. Comparisons with Hitler and the Nazis, who really did desire world domination, is ludicrous and profoundly unhelpful. We know Vladimir Putin is a crazy megalomaniac but even he is not stupid enough to invite a war with the West.

I've seen a lot of references to potential war with Russia recently, justifying re-arming Europe and spending vast sums on “defence”. Our politicians and the press need to dampen down such talk, not develop it. We can't just sleepwalk into a conflagration!

Brian Bannatyne-Scott, Edinburgh

Phase in change

The amazing furore the passage of the assisted dying bill is creating would all (OK, nearly all) vanish if logic was applied: phase it in!

By making it at first available exclusively to fully compos mentis octogenarians who have a medically agreed six month’s terminal diagnosis and who have given the clear instruction that they wish, when they feel the time is right, to invite any ready, willing and able medically qualified person to offer the appropriate poison under an agreed and lawful protocol, problems are circumvented.

Then, wait a couple of years to learn lessons before opening up the process, one stage at a time, to younger applicants, but always under the above conditions. Patients deemed non compos mentis (or young enough such that suitable medically sound advances in their case may make termination redundant) should never be candidates. Nor should anyone where there is a suspicion of undue pressure from relatives or potential beneficiaries.

The foregoing should be thoughtfully phased in over a decade or two to detect and close loopholes and loose ends. I’m 88 and healthy, but don’t fancy a lingering and painful death, bed blocking and pumped full of chemicals merely to extend a life I no longer wish extended. My life: my choice. That is everyone’s human right and should always be respected under the appropriate circumstances and with due care, and respect, as above.

See you on the other side when that time comes?

Tim Flinn, Morningside, Edinburgh

Class ended

Of the 53 members of my medical school year, two have ended their lives by assisted dying, one in Tasmania and one, who had seen her husband, another member of our medical school year, suffer a long death from a horrible neurological condition, went to Switzerland. I am confident that both were fully able to access palliative care and were not coerced.

Hugh Pennington, Aberdeen

Easy targets

There was an ominous statement from the panel on the most recent Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: soon there will be a new generation of “progressive” politicians and a “generational transfer of power” from the Baby Boomer generation who, current received wisdom seems to agree, have caused many of the younger generation's problems and need to pay up.

Main methods suggested include taxation of wealth and property, ideally sooner rather than later. The problem is we're living too long and the transfer needs to happen sooner – even for those of us who paid our kids' mortgage deposits, are forced by waiting lists to go private and have never taken a state benefit in our life.

The answer may be assisted dying.

Already experts say there are too many approval stages, eligibilty restrictions and conditions left out, such as mental health, long-term disability and people feeling – or made to feel – they're a burden. All leading to inevitable “mission creep”.

For example, one day our new Gen Z/Millennial “progressive” politicians might introduce the “I'm a liability, get me out of here” OAP Assisted Dying opt-in, targeted at those who are fed up shelling out £80,000 per year to stare out of their care home bedroom window. That could go, minus increased wealth and Inheritance Tax, to their families.

One way or another we're an easy target to pay for the country's ballooning benefits and care bill. All we need to do is die quicker.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

E-scooter danger

A teenage boy in a wheelchair has been left seriously injured after being struck by an e-scooter in Dundee on Saturday 10 May (your report, 13 May).

Despite there being 48 deaths and thousands of injuries across the UK related to e-scooters since 2019 a UK Government trial using hired e-scooters is still in place. E-scooters are illegal in Scotland other than on private land with the owner's permission.

It would appear that the Scottish Government condones the use of these illegal machines since my Freedom of Information request to Police Scotland asking how many e-scooters had been confiscated was rejected, supposedly because it would cost over £600. I had not realised Police Scotland were still using pen and paper, not computers. The Chief Constable, Jo Farrell, did not respond to my letters.

The Scottish Government must immediately instruct Police Scotland to confiscate all e-scooters on our roads and pavements.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Empty rhetoric

In the 1980s, Wendy’s burger chain adopted the marketing slogan “Where’s the beef?”, suggesting that competing brands were stingy with the main component of their product. This was also used by US politicians about opponents’ policies. The slogan comes to mind whenever I read a separatist propaganda letter, such as that by Alan Hinnrichs (Letters, 15 May).

Mr Hinnrichs is long (very long) on rhetoric, but very short on substance. He dilates on the presumed threat of bogeyman Nigel Farage and foregrounds the usual self-regarding view of Scots as “civic nationalists” who are overflowing with “empathy”, unlike the dastardly English.

Somehow – and we are not vouchsafed how at all – Scotland can escape the threat of “incipient fascism” by leaving the UK. Mr Hinnrichs makes not the slightest effort even to sketch out a plan for how a separate Scotland would fare better. For all Scots’ alleged “intellectual honesty” and “moral fortitude” – for heaven’s sake, is this for real? – the “categorical moral imperative” of secession comes without an iota of evidence that Scots would be better off outside the UK. But perhaps Mr Hinnrichs is one of those nationalists who would rather live in poverty outside the UK and EU, allegedly to maintain his moral purity, than enjoy the standard of living to which we are accustomed.

Advice to Mr Hinnrichs: don’t use the word “fascism” in a context to which it is entirely unsuited. And try to find an answer, with substance, to questions about how a separate Scotland could afford the goodies it currently enjoys.

Where’s the beef?

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Perhaps a seer

Is Robert IG Scott prescient (Letters, 15 May)? He writes that the situation at Holyrood is destined to change. The SNP’s fate is set to mirror the 2024 General Election. They will sustain huge losses.

The very latest Scottish Opinion Poll from Survation on 2-5 May had the SNP on 33 per cent, Reform 19 per cent, Labour 19 per cent, Conservative 11 per cent, Lib Dems 11 per cent, Scottish Greens 5 per cent and Alba 1 per cent.

I just wonder what his motive was in writing this letter? What was his evidence?

John V Lloyd, Inverkeithing, Fife

Why the silence?

Day after day we read of atrocities being carried out by the Israelis on the Palestinians. Day after day, our government is silent. Why?

All my long days, I have felt great compassion for the Jewish people and the horror of the genocide perpetrated on them. It is difficult to understand the campaign against “antisemitism”, outraged by an ex-footballer’s social media, while there is nothing said about the wholesale slaughter of over 52,000 Palestinians. It is not antisemitic to call out the inhumanity of the Israeli government: their conduct should be universally condemned. When will enough be enough?

Heera Barton, Kingussie, Highland

Steel yourselves

When compiling lists of major faux pas made by SNP over the years, the demise of the steel industry is up there with the better-known ferry fiasco and other major cash-devouring mega-blunders. Sir Keir Starmer has challenged John Swinney to re-open two mothballed Lanarkshire steelworks. He suggested, with some sense, that Mr Swinney create a mechanism to attract contracts and get Dalzell and Clydebridge “up and running again”.

That kind of approach is not SNP-friendly. They like others to man the front line and do the graft, and then either elbow their way to the front and take the plaudits or, if things do not quite work out, take shots at them from a distance, yelling “Westminster”. All this is not helped by the Labour leadership in Scotland, who lack impetus of any kind and do not inspire – to be better than the SNP is no achievement at all.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Write to The Scotsman

We welcome your thoughts – NO letters submitted elsewhere, please. Write to [email protected] including name, address and phone number – we won't print full details. Keep letters under 300 words, with no attachments, and avoid 'Letters to the Editor/Readers’ Letters' or similar in your subject line – be specific. If referring to an article, include date, page number and heading.