Readers' Letters: What's going on with illegal use of e-scooters?

Exactly two years ago my Freedom of Information request about the number of e-scooters Police Scotland had confiscated was rejected on the grounds it would cost £600. I suspect the real reason was that they did not have a clue or that they would be embarrassed by the truth. Peter Hopkins makes the sensible suggestion that cyclists and e-cyclists should have a number plate and all e-scooters be impounded. Agreed.

Police Scotland, under the SNP government, now has far fewer officers on our streets than when it was established in 2013. E-scooters and e-bikes are blighting communities with anti-social behaviour and both are increasingly linked to serious crime, including drug supply, robbery and violence.

Perhaps Chief Constable Jo Farrell could reassure the public and provide a monthly update on the number of e-scooters and illegal e-bikes confiscated.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Inquiry needed

Stuart Smith (Letters, 1 June) appears to conflate questions about Nicola Sturgeon's conduct with his overwhelming belief in Scottish Independence. Help!

Long before anyone knew of Peter Murrell's crime, SNP insiders wanted to know what had become of the ringfenced funds to be kept safe for the next Independence referendum. From that point on, it is impossible to believe Nicola Sturgeon made no enquiries of her husband, in the face of resignations from executive members who resigned when their enquiries were shut down. When they dared to persist they were vilified and ostracised.

Any political leader who cannot be bothered or who does not dare to keep an eye on party finances is not fit to manage the affairs of our country.

There must be an inquiry.

Alison Fullarton, Ayton, Berwickshire

Football freedom

Scottish World Cup folklore is littered with tales of fans who travelled abroad with the team and liked the place so much they never came back.

I wonder if John Swinney hopes that happens to him.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

No conspiracy

The Murrell affair has seriously impaired the reputation of the SNP – it has caused damage which is severe, long-lasting and perhaps even permanent. So, it is perhaps unsurprising that people have speculated as to whether pressure might have been brought to bear upon the authorities to ensure that the trial only took place after the election. This is one element which an inquiry should look at, if one is indeed convened.

However, there is a contrasting narrative. Perhaps the SNP is so dumb, if I might be allowed to use such a pejorative term, that they didn’t even realise what a hammer blow the fraud would deliver to the party – so that the long, unexplained delay which has occurred before legal proceedings commenced is simply happenstance, rather than corruption.

It is telling how the two first ministers have tackled the problem. John Swinney has adopted the “Move along now, nothing to see here” denial strategy, with his brusque, wooden “No comment” approach, whereas Nicola Sturgeon, unwilling to accept any responsibility for failing to ensure the financial affairs of the party were adequately monitored, has decided to go for distraction. It seems it is all the fault of the Patriarchy, ascribing the faults of the male to the innocent female, that has caused her plight and she has transmuted her persona from the lady with the iron grip to that of the downtrodden victim, pilloried in public for a crime she didn’t commit.

We shall see which tactic, if either, is more successful in due course, for there is no doubt that this saga will run and run, because it makes it clear the SNP is incapable of governing itself, let alone a country.

Barry Hughes, Edinburgh

On a roll

My eyesight isn’t great and I might fail to see the motor home or the new library but I’m pretty sure I’d spot 108 toilet rolls. Just saying,

Jim Neary, Buncrana, County Donegal, Republic of Ireland

Caffeine dream

Nicola Sturgeon tells us she spent very little time in her kitchen and wasn't au fait with the various different pieces of equipment therein.

Strange, when you remember that when she appeared on Desert Island Discs in 2015 she chose for her luxury item, “a coffee machine”.

Jim Houston, Edinburgh

Sort Sheriffhall

Well said Edinburgh and Lothians East Tory MSP Miles Briggs for demanding the new Transport Secretary, Stephen Flynn, make the Sheriffhall upgrade a number one priority! It is the mother of all bottlenecks. More often than not, when I come down the A68 on the Dalkeith bypass I can see traffic queueing on the A720 as the traffic lights at Sheriffhall turn red.

Not only is this a source of frustration for drivers and a loss of time for hauliers, it's a cause of pollution from tailpipe emissions and brake dust. Thanks to the Green luddites like Lorna Slater who seem to have an irrational hatred of cars, vans and lorries, the project for a flyover has been on the shelf so long it too must be gathering dust. If Ms Slater were driving a 40-tonne DAF loaded with Tesco products headed for the distribution centre at Livingston with little legal driving time left on the tachograph, and held up on a queue backing down to the A1 she would change her opinion.

Alas, I fear Mr Flynn's hands will again be tied by the Greens, who will try to blackmail the SNP for all sorts of wasteful policies.

I hope not. But as Mr Flynn is a likely candidate to replace tiresome John Swinney when Mr Swinney resigns, as he surely must after the revelations following the Murrell affair, getting the Sheriffhall project under way this year would stand Mr Flynn in good stead when the election to replace John comes.

William Loneskie, Oxton, Lauder, Berwickshire

Solidarity is key

I share Brian Forsyth's concern that homophobia may be on the rise (Letters, 2 June). But his suggestion as to why that might be is quite wrong. When we founded the Equality Network back in 1997, it was as Scotland's national LGBT equality campaign. LGBT people worked together for the repeal of Section 28, and for civil partnership, gender recognition, equality law for LGB and trans people, equal marriage for LGB and trans people, and more.

Those changes happened under Labour and SNP governments, and under David Cameron. By 2015, the UK was top of the European table of legal equality for LGBT people.

But later came Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer. The UK government blocked progress on trans equality, and appointed people with “gender critical” views to senior posts. The UK has now fallen to 22nd place in the European table, and 41st place for trans-specific laws.

Many, though not all, of those who oppose trans equality also oppose LGB equality. The solution is surely not for LGB people to throw our trans siblings under the bus, as Mr Forsyth suggests. Opponents of equality will simply come for cisgender LGB people too.

LGB and trans equalities closely align. Solidarity is the answer to protecting them both, as it always has been.

Tim Hopkins, Edinburgh

Save church

I would like to bring to a wider readership the plight of the town of Dunoon, in Argyll, currently facing the closure of the one remaining Church of Scotland in the town. As a practising Episcopalian I am well aware of the effort and finance required to maintain a Victorian church building in a time of declining interest in Christianity, but I am also aware of the importance of such a building to its members. St John's Church, in the town centre, is not merely an A-listed building much admired by visitors to the town, it is also a place where people still congregate in number to celebrate and to mourn, and the repository of their dearest memories.

I have lived close to this church building for the past 50 years, and in that time I have seen two other nearby Church of Scotland buildings either vanish – a result of vandalism and fire-raising when the building was closed down – or be sold online, sight unseen, as happened to the iconic High Kirk on the prominent site overlooking the pier. What sort of witness does the organisation imagine they stand for when all they offer is a small church in a neighbouring village or a “Pizza Church” in a church hall? Is a pizza what someone wants when they face the death of a loved one?

A recent post on the CoS Facebook page announced: “The Church of Scotland is better prepared than ever to care for its many buildings.” Does that mean they are ever more prepared to appoint ambitious clergy who are willing to facilitate the closure of their charge and move on to the next one? Or indulge in short-lived “young church” projects in unimpressive buildings, regardless of the fact that in smaller towns most of the young people leave home as soon as they leave school?

Ignorance would appear to afflict too many of the decision-makers in this centralised organisation. Perhaps it is time to listen to the people who care.

Christine McIntosh, Dunoon, Argyll

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