Readers' Letters: Who's best suited to being next prime minister?

Next we have Sir Ed Davey. Can you really see this man as a prime minister ? He seems to think voters will like his antics of water sliding, riding a hobby horse, generally making a fool of himself and championing net zero and the privatisation of the Royal Mail. That went well, didn't it? Liberals do well despite Davey, not because of him.

Then we have Nigel Farage. He is a brilliant speaker with a popular message but in the months ahead his links to crypto billionaires, his friendship with Donald Trump, the absence of a cabinet in waiting and the inconsistencies of the costings for Reform's electoral promises may take the shine off Reform.

Then we have Sir Keir Starmer, by all accounts Britain's worst Prime Minister. I cannot believe anything he says. He was a great supporter of Jeremy Corbyn and later betrayed him. An Ipsos poll showed he is the most unpopular PM since records began in 1977 with 79 per cent dissatisfied with his performance.

That leaves Kemi Badenoch. She is a young, energetic and competent leader who has picked a good team to run the country, with Mel Stride as her Chancellor, a safe pair of hands, and someone who is familiar with high finance – quite a contrast with the present incumbent. Ms Badenoch has now settled into the job of Leader of the Opposition, and launched a detailed policy review. She has scrapped net zero and other daft polices of previous Conservative administrations and only needs a rebrand and relaunch to make the Conservatives a serious contender at the next general election.

William Loneskie, Oxton, Lauder, Berwickshire

Some success

Scottish Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth hails the latest report on Scottish Education as if it speaks of unparalleled success. “Attainment levels are at record highs in literacy and numeracy.” Technically this may be the case. But the “improvement” on previous levels is so microscopically small that – at this rate – it would take 133 years to reach the target notoriously trumpeted by former first minister Nicola Sturgeon (your report, 10 December)!

Will any serving SNP minister ever consider themselves accountable for the party's endless failures? Even Sturgeon herself, now enjoying her retirement, accepts she “didn't do enough” on education. Or better yet, rather than spending their time disproportionately on optics, actually get on with the day job and deliver on some of those “world leading” targets they are so adept at proclaiming?

Colin Hamilton, Edinburgh

Easily pleased

Nicola Sturgeon got it badly wrong, but is the SNP apologetic? Jenny Gilruth seems pleased with the “progress” her party is making. Currently, one in four primary school pupils is not literate and one in five not numerate. These figures are truly shocking after 18 years of the SNP's much-vaunted vow to close the attainment gap, and yet the SNP is still trying to spin this as a success.

The SNP would not be seeking another five years in office if it really cared about Scotland. It has utterly failed us all – and not just in education.

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Education vs arms

The Scottish Children's Services Coalition (SCSC) is campaigning for much-needed support for stressed teachers. (your report, 10 December). They recommend more teachers, specialised teachers, professional support, mental health professionals and educational psychologists, all to deal with pupils with the increasing numbers of those with additional special needs.

Welcome to the fantasy world of the SCSC. All this simply highlights the tremendous work teachers are doing in the real world of the classroom, with, at best, erratic support. We've reached the stage where the classroom support workers themselves are far too often being signed off with stress.

It's far past the stage of being an educational crisis. Now it's become a societal one. Far too many of our hard-working teachers are leaving the profession in droves, too often with no sign of replacement.

A generation ago, Tony Blair, on becoming Prime Minister, stressed that his priority for the UK was “education, education, education”. Surely it still is, but sadly not as a priority, at least financially. Unforgivably, our priority appears to be “arms, arms, arms”. There's never a shortage of money for them. The SCSC is suggesting an urgent way forward for our teachers and their irreplaceable position in society. The time is overdue to turn this fantasy into a reality. The alternative doesn't bear thinking about.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Oil or nothing

So, another year, another election and another SNP slogan. I still remember how Winnie Ewing went to Shetland and gave a speech to a bunch of bemused locals about the merits of independence, as her party asserted. She concluded with the ringing SNP slogan, "Remember – it's Scotland's oil!"

A Shetlander then stood up and said gently to her. “Winnie, it's no' Scotland's oil. It's Shetland's oil!"

Despite there being literally billions of barrels of oil remaining in the UK sector of the North Sea, much of it in Scottish waters, Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP created a presumption against exploration and extraction and in favour of unreliable, expensive and environmentally-destructive Chinese-built wind turbines. Now, good old John Swinney has come up with a new slogan for the SNP to inspire their ovine followers.

"It's Scotland's energy!"

Aye, John! It's Scotland's energy. Never there when you need it.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Historic point

Your correspondent Charles Lowson is not quite correct in his claim that the creation of a Jewish state in the Transjordan/Palestine Protectorate was by “international agreement” (Letters, 10 December). Ninety per cent of the Arab countries surrounding the Protectorate voted against this settlement, but this vote was ignored. The agreement was driven through by the powerful Jewish lobby in Europe and the United States, particularly the wealthy Baron Rothschild and his coterie in France.

Perhaps the Arab voices should have been listened to: but if the Jews were not to be welcomed in their historic homeland, where else could they have gone?

Brian Donaldson, Stirling

Farage mirage

Canny Scots were wise not to be swayed by Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration rhetoric or his misleadingly simplistic claims of Brexit benefits, as besides a broken UK economy, a cost-of-living crisis and struggling public services, Brexit has resulted in the loss of “control” of the UK’s borders.

Of course, the primary beneficiaries of Brexit are those who sought to avoid greater scrutiny (as long as the UK remained within the EU) of their financial dealings and they are the same wealthy people who are now backing Reform UK.

Hopefully those who could not see through the smoke and mirrors conjured-up by the Make Union Great illusionist ahead of Brexit will not be “mugged” again and instead, if in doubt, they will at the next Holyrood election trust in the considered judgment of their fellow Scots to enable the realisation of a fresh vision of the future rather than believe in another fake Farage mirage.

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian

Who’s degenerate?

Donald Trump has the unbelievable cheek to criticise Europe for not controlling its borders. What does he think the Ukrainians are doing at this very moment? The people of Ukraine have probably suffered more than any others in Eastern Europe from the depredations of Mongols, Tatars and Turks. What was left of countries like Serbia, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Lithuania and those of the former Yugoslavia were gobbled up by the Austrian Habsburg Empire, Russia, and Prussia.

They were able to do this because their countries were largely untouched by centuries of wars and they had the resources to just move in and take what land they wanted.

Western Europe, which had been shielded and protected from these titanic struggles in the east, just went about its normal business of piracy, slave trading and stealing land from peaceful peoples, as in India, or from Bronze Age and Stone Age peoples, as in the Americas and Australia.

Before accusing anyone else of being degenerate Donald Trump should look at himself and his own country fouling up not only this planet with toxic waste, but outer space as well. The average American now has an IQ 2.5 points lower than previously because of the lead pollution they have been pumping into the atmosphere.

H Belda, Edinburgh

Stumped

Your Sport briefs headline, “Wood is ruled out of Ashes” (10 December), makes me believe they must be coal.

Robin Sutherland, Edinburgh

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