Readers' Letters: Swinney's position on assisted dying is perplexing

Scotsman readers will have their own views on assisted dying. This is understandable. What is perplexing is that John Swinney and many others who voted for the Gender Recognition Reform legislation would be against allowing assisted dying.

They proposed changes in the law that would allow 16-year-olds, with limited life experience and in the throes of adolescent uncertainty, to choose potentially irreversible life changing surgery and long-term medication. This to safeguard their wellbeing and mental health. The Scottish Government even funded groups that sought to make this process easier and proposed legislation to outlaw “conversion therapy”, restricting the ability of parents and others to ensure that the young person fully understood the implication of their choice and being “persuaded out of it”.

If that was reasonable to Swinney and others, then logic would suggest that, for example, a 70-year-old with a lifetime of experience should be able to decide when their own circumstances and wellbeing are unbearable and choose to opt out of their limited remaining years. The law should allow those who still have their full faculties to make that choice and assume that they will not be “persuaded into it”.

First Minister John Swinney has come out against the Assisted Dying Bill (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell)

To this end, perhaps the present “advance directive” and “Lasting Power of Attorney” could be extended to include the circumstances in which they would choose assisted dying so that should they lose their cognitive ability their wishes would be respected.

Mark Openshaw, Aberdeen

Better future

If the cause of Scottish independence is as much of a busted flush (“tired old, washed up priority of taking Scotland out of the UK”) as unionist correspondent Jill Stephenson maintains (Letters, 10 May), why does she continue to bombard letters pages with tediously negative outpourings decrying it? In other words, if the argument is won, why keep making it?

It is not so long ago that what is now Ireland was being told it could not possibly stand on its own two feet and survive economically. As we all know, Ireland now has a thriving economy and with our extensive natural and renewable resources there is no reason whatsoever why Scotland could not emulate this! Ms Stephenson refers to child poverty and the NHS as being problem areas in Scotland. There is no doubt the NHS, largely due to years of Westminster underfunding, is struggling. Despite this, NHS Scotland comfortably holds its own in comparison with NHS England and Wales. As recently as March it was announced that the NHS in England was facing a £6.6 billion shortfall while chief executive Sir Jim Mackey expressed concern over “staff being desensitised to poor care such as elderly people facing long waits on trolleys in A&E departments”. As far as child poverty is concerned there is obviously much still to be done but (as I am sure Ms Stephenson is aware ) the rate of poverty is lower here than in the rest of the UK due to the Scottish Child Payment.

The Union is broken and the rightwards drift and strong support for Reform in England alarming. Jill Stephenson is ignoring reality if she thinks Nigel Farage is unlikely to be the next UK Prime Minister. The only way forward for Scotland and the only way to guarantee a better future for our grandchildren is independence – the sooner the better!

Alan Woodcock, Dundee

Devil in detail

As the dust begins to settle following the UK’s apparent “landmark” trade deal with India, the devil is, as always in such matters, in the detail.

The UK Government estimates that annual economic output will be a stunning 0.1 per cent higher by 2040 than it would have been without the India trade deal. In contrast, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) noted in spring 2023 that Brexit’s impact in the long run reduces our overall output by around 4 per cent compared with what we would have had we remained in the EU.

The amount gained by the “landmark” India deal is therefore one-fortieth of the amount lost due to Brexit.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has described the Indian trade deal as a “pragmatic” approach to global trade. Such an approach would however involve the UK Government restoring frictionless trade with the UK’s largest trading partner, the European Union.

If the UK Government were looking to deliver a “pragmatic” approach on the economic front, Sir Keir would be looking to get the UK back into the European single market as soon as possible.

This would be far more productive than trying to deliver trade deals with far-off countries and deliver immensely higher economic benefits than the paltry 0.1 per cent generated by the India trade deal.

Alex Orr, Edinburgh

Shameful acts

I write as a member of Friends of Israel but not of their present Prime Minister. Benjamin Netanyahu seems to treat all Palestinians as sub-human beings rather as Hitler treated the Jews. He should hang his head in shame. His predecessor came close to establishing a Palestinian state next door. He should return to that endeavour.

David Steel, Selkirk, Scottish Borders

Hot takes

I know Andrew Gray doesn’t believe that climate warming is real, but he cannot be allowed to get away with inventing his own facts. The maximum temperatures he quotes (Letters, 9 May) are nonsense.

In fact, the progressively maximum temperatures recorded in the UK from 1900-2025 are 36.6C in 1911, 37.1C in 1990, 38.5C in 2003, 38.7C in 2019 and 40.3C in 2022.

The most worrying feature of this pattern is that the curve is exponential, trending very sharply upwards in the last 35 years. It bodes extremely badly for the whole of mankind.

Barry Hughes, Edinburgh

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