Readers' letters: Has Nicola Sturgeon forgotten she has constituents?

I’d imagine she'll likely focus on her campaigning successes while ignoring her multiple governmental failures. Doubtless Sturgeon will gloss over her inability to cut NHS waiting times, to reverse declining teacher pupil ratios, and to narrow the attainment gap in our schools. Dualing the A9 and the ferries fiasco won’t warrant a mention. She’ll definitely talk about her independence crusade, though perhaps be less willing to highlight her failure to deliver even a referendum.

However, her seemingly overlooked constituents mustn’t mind: after many hours each week writing about herself and an exhausting hour at Charleston talking about herself, she could pop along to nearby Glyndebourne, the black tie country house opera venue where tickets costs up to £235. Or a wee London mini-break?

Martin Redfern, Melrose, Scottish Borders

Day the music died

One by one almost every cherished bit of culture and joy is being snuffed out – now it’s the turn of Edinburgh’s Jazz Bar.

Ultimately it’s our fault as customers for preferring solitary social media platforms for our entertainment, but it goes deeper; only three kids were chosen to play brass in my son’s class this year.

Other countries pour resources into music and culture at all levels, recognising the nurturing and wellbeing it offers to all. But in Trussed-up Britain we know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Bruce Whitehead, South Queensferry, Edinburgh

Victims blamed

Adair Anderson (Letters, 11 April) falls into the classic error of blaming cyclists for what he calls “accidents” rather than collisions.

It is true that not all cyclists wear high-vis clothing. And no doubt some cyclists will “come up the inside” of lorries, as he puts it. But the data from Police Scotland shows that the majority of collisions are the fault of the driver and that in many collisions the cyclists are wearing high-vis clothing and helmets.

Cyclists are being seriously injured and killed on our roads and in the vast majority of cases through no fault of their own. There is a wealth of evidence to show the multiple actions needed which were set out in the Cycling Scotland article (Scotsman, 9 April). Attention should not be diverted from this by seeking to blame the victim.

Colin Hamilton, Edinburgh

Moral turpitude

Henry McLeish’s article (Scotsman, 11 April) as ever, gets to the nub of the problem.

The moral turpitude from which this country is at present suffering, commenced with the Boris Johnston’s Brexit campaign, when truth and judgement, were all secondary to his plan to become eventually Prime Minister, not for the country’s sake, or with a plan for it, but purely for egoistic reasons. It seems to me, as well as to Henry McLeish, that as long as all the boxes are ticked, there is freedom from honour in subsequent action.

The appeal to cheap patriotism, is an action opposed to putting the real needs of the country first, and the government has now become imbued with this philosophy. How can we be rescued from this turpitude? I do not know, but do not feel the Tories have the stuffing for it.

H A N McKenzie, Edinburgh

Own goal

Rangers FC have accused Dundee FC directors of “negligence and unprofessionalism” but surely this charge could be just as aptly levelled at the directors of the SFA and SPFL.

Dundee FC may claim unusually adverse weather conditions but the fact that the club has had to call off five home fixtures this season while their near neighbours have continued to play their home matches tells us that these conditions were not extreme and that postponements were avoidable. It appears negligent and unprofessional that the SFA/SPFL allowed Dundee to compete in Scotland’s premier football league with a pitch that most junior football clubs would consider sub-standard.

The directors of Dundee FC have been allowed to gamble on not investing in the upgrade of the pitch and the SFA/SPFL did not impose a sanction after the first call-off against Aberdeen FC which would have resulted in a subsequent call-off requiring Dundee to play the delayed fixture as an “away game” or on their neighbour’s pitch.

The decision to allow Dundee a third opportunity to play its match at home against Rangers is mind-blowing and a betrayal by SFA/SPFL directors of Scottish fans and all concerned with the image of Scottish football.

The SFA/SPFL should have advised Dundee after the call-off of the match with Aberdeen that any future call-off would result not only in a substantial fine but the award of the match points to the opposing team. Such a strong response would have encouraged Dundee to take immediate steps to improve ground drainage or to seek an alternative ground on which to play its home matches.

It is still not too late for the directors and management of the SFA and SPFL to stand up and do their jobs responsibly and professionally in order to ensure that there is not a third call-off of this fixture, and possibly more call-offs before the end of the season.

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian

Dundee drenched

Yet another football match postponed at Dundee FC, due to it's notorious pitch. Looks like they will have to change the club anthem – may I suggest Singing in the Rain.

William Ballantine, Bo'ness, West Lothian

Picture imperfect

I am trying to find out if a Labour administration will scrap the photo ID requirement at polling stations. If so, they shall win my vote.

Unfortunately their website is hopeless; more concerned with harvesting personal data for fundraising mailshots than inviting policy questions. This doesn't augur well for my hopes of them scrapping photo ID any time soon.

Barry Tighe, Woodford Green, Waltham Forest

Wasting police time

Of the 7,000 Hate Crime Act complaints received the by the police (Scotsman, 11 April), only three per cent were worthy of recording as the vast bulk were anonymous politically motivated complaints stirred up by bad faith actors and sections of the media. This was confirmed by the Chair of the Scottish Police Federation who told Radio Scotland on Wednesday that “this legislation is being misued by the public, they are not contacting the police because they genuinely feel they are victims of hate crime but because they are making political or personal protest points against the SNP government”. He added: “Hopefully these figures will be shocking enough to change the behaviour of the public who are intent on misusing or weaponising this legislation”.

The situation is not helped by the moral cowardice shown by Anas Sarwar and Alex Cole Hamilton, who failed to speak out despite their parties voting in favour of the Act.

Despite this waste of police time, the level of reported crime has fallen dramatically by almost 50 per cent since the SNP took office and contrary to some reports police numbers have only decreased by 11 full-time posts since June 2022 but with an increase of 366 officers compared to 2007.

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh

Doctors’ silence

After six months of carnage and the horrific scenes of the total destruction of Gaza, I believed I had made the mental adjustment we all subconsciously make to adjust and coexist with situations where we are powerless – until now, when I find myself enraged with fury, tearfulness and despair.

An American trauma surgeon from North Carolina, Dr Mark Pearlmutter, has posted an image of himself and a patient on X. The patient had been chief of orthopaedic surgery at a hospital in Gaza and he refused to abandon a patient on whom he was operating when Israeli soldiers burst into the operating theatre. They shot him in the knees, scattering fragments of bone; his trainees then operated on him and he was arrested two days later and held for 45 days in an Israeli prison with no medical care and a box of juice on alternate days. His right eye burst after a rifle butt was pushed into the socket. He was then dumped at the border with no food or water and crawled for two miles to a road before he found help.

The new leader of Fine Gael, Simon Harris, spoke for the majority of us when he said the Irish people were repulsed by the actions of Netanyahu and his government. As the daughter, grandaughter, great niece and niece of seven surgeons who grew up knowing how seriously they took the Hippocratic Oath I cannot understand the failure of the professional bodies representing doctors and nurses in Britain and America to speak out against this tragedy.

Marjorie Ellis Thiompson, Edinburgh

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