Readers Letters: Who says we get the leaders we vote for?

We are about to get Andy Burnham as our prime minister as there is no other candidate. We already have John Swinney as our First Minister because there was no other candidate.

The problems facing the population both nationally and in Scotland are huge yet we are getting leaders parachuted into positions of power without due diligence. It isn't working in Scotland, despite SNP spin, and it is unlikely to work in Westminster either. One thing is certain. Taxes will rise both north and south of the Border while services continue their decline.

Left-wing politics demonstrably do not work. How long can it be before we swing back to the Right, even in Scotland?

Andy Burnham will soon be UK prime minister, despite not being an MP when the Labour Party became the new UK government at the last general election (Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Tactless and weird

It was unfortunate the England football team was defeated in the semi-final of the World Cup by the Argentine team, although it was clear the better team won, something admitted by most pundits.

Watching the game, however, I was surprised to see many England supporters wearing medieval crusader outfits, with the St George's Cross emblazoned on their tunics. I have observed similar outfits at England cricket matches.

Now, maybe I'm missing something here, but as a former medieval historian, I understood that the First Crusade (1095-1099) was an attempt by the nations of Western Europe to free Jerusalem from the control of the Seljuk Turkish Empire. This was achieved after the siege of Jerusalem in 1099, and resulted in the wholesale slaughter of Jews and Muslims, who happened to be living there at the time.

This new order in the Middle East lasted nearly 100 years until Saladin took back the city, which then prompted further crusades and so forth.

These crusaders were bloodthirsty fanatics, and through many of the ensuing centuries, this nasty conflict continued.

What English supporters of football and cricket imagine they are doing, by identifying with this historical era and its combatants, is a matter which escapes me, and also suggests that these fans have literally no concept of what they are trying to say, by wearing these crusader outfits. Tactless in the modern day, certainly, but also bewildering in its weirdness and naivety.

What it has to do with supporting an England team is another mystery.

Brian Bannatyne-Scott, Edinburgh

Desperate Douglas

Douglas Alexander’s sad political opportunism with the words “to be pro-Scottish you don’t have to be anti-English”, inferring those who support independence are actually anti-English, simply exposed a desperate man in a desperate party. Having said that, I do admit to having a personal bias against those who are conceited and arrogant and seek to put others down, irrespective of whether they are Scottish, English or any other nationality.

Perhaps if UK football commentators and news reporters had demonstrated more humility and had still not been trying to claim Jude Bellingham was the best player of the tournament, even after the loss to Argentina, more Scots might have become disposed to supporting England against countries other than Scotland in the next major tournament.

Brian Barbour (Letters, 16 July) goes further in railing against intolerance, calling for constructive debate while hypocritically accusing those on the left of politics (not the “far left”) of not respecting people of the “Jewish” faith. This appears to be another desperate comment as while I have read much criticism of the Israeli government regime, with some comments expressing anti-Zionism, I have not read or heard any Scottish politicians making anti-Jewish statements.

Constructive debate cannot be achieved as long as hypocrisy prevails.

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian

App-alling

NHS patients in England have had access to their NHS app since 2019. This allows them to book NHS appointments and view comprehensive details of their medical records. The Scottish NHS app, MyCare.scot, took three years, cost £17.6 million and only has prescription and vaccine details.

We now learn that, in the past two years, nearly 40 staff have left the department leading the development of the Scottish app over the last two years.

It's astonishing that we didn't adopt the English app when offered, because it wouldn't look good “adopting and English solution”.

Jim Houston, Edinburgh

Blame firebugs

“A wildfire broke out.” No it didn't. A fire needs fuel, oxygen and a source of ignition. In the current storm of wildfires raging across Europe from the Cairngorms to Andalusia that source of ignition was human intervention and in many, probably most, cases arson.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez stated that the fire that devastated Fontainebleau Forest south of Paris was caused by arsonists. One man arrested admitted starting a fire in the forest with petrol and a lighter. In Spain ten people have been arrested on suspicion of arson and another 38 are under investigation. In Acomb, Yorkshire, two teenage girls were arrested for causing £30,000 worth of damage by setting a crop field alight. North Yorkshire police state that six other fires there have been started deliberately.

Three years ago the regional president of Asturias, northern Spain, said of the 91 wildfires in his region, “it is a terror attack; it is co-ordinated action”.

And yet when video of wildfires is shown on BBC news or described in the media it is always linked directly to climate change. But grass doesn't catch fire at 40C on its own. Are we seeing eco-terrorism in action?

William Loneskie, Oxton, Lauder, Berwickshire

Gaia news

Only a numpty would insist we have the same climate this century as we did in the last, but more controversial is the cause of global warming. The planet has been far hotter and endured far higher CO2 in the past and yet life goes on.

The late Dr James Lovelock claimed the earth, as with the human body, is a homeostatic organism constantly striving to maintain an equable temperature. As such it has no interest in protecting human life and we shall get the punishment for our neglect we deserve.

The increasing heat illustrates homeostasis very neatly. As polar and land ice melts, so the salty sea becomes increasingly diluted. For north west Europe this means the Atlantic Conveyor circulation of warm surface water from the equator and the return south of cold water below the surface, powered by the salty differential, will slow and even cease. Result? Global warming will slow and cease as north west Europe winters become like north Canadian ones. Scotland will freeze and depopulate rapidly.

Happily, the effect of this will be to increase the snowfall and icecaps at the North Pole, That means less dilution of/an increase of saltiness in, the Atlantic Conveyor.

Over the centuries our descendants will note a gradual restoration of more moderate conditions as a vicious cycle reverts to a virtuous one. Scotland can be repopulated. Other areas of the world will also experience Gaia in action and face their issues. Possibly one day all fossil fuels will have been used up and our survivors will have a clean start.

Of course, all the above could be circumvented by leaving fossil fuels alone. That would be sensible. But no one ever accused us of being that.

Tim Flinn, Edinburgh

Up the pole

With great amusement I read about the First Minister's latest pathetic anti-UK gesture, namely guidance on flag flying. We will be flying flags for the EU, Transgender Remembrance Day and other excuses not to fly the Union Jack. Pathetic, or just standard behaviour from the SNP?

Ken Currie, Edinburgh

Invest in ASN

Recent statistics indicating 12,402 pupils have missed at least half of the school year – enough to fill almost 400 classrooms – should concern us all. While we support mainstream education wherever appropriate, it can only succeed if schools have the staff and specialist support to make inclusion for those with additional support needs (ASN) meaningful.

More than two out of five (43 per cent) of Scotland's pupils are now identified as having an additional support need, with numbers more than doubling over the past decade. Yet the number of specialist ASN teachers has fallen.

Additionally, as the number of those with ASN experiencing greater complexity of need increases, special school provision may be required, yet the number of such schools has declined.

The link between unmet additional support needs and poor attendance is clear. Too many families are waiting for support while schools struggle with shortages of specialist teachers, classroom assistants, educational psychologists and mental health professionals. Identifying children with ASN is only the first step. They must receive the timely support needed to attend school, achieve their potential and avoid poorer educational and mental health outcomes.

Scotland urgently needs greater investment to deliver genuinely inclusive education. Without it, we risk failing not only children with ASN and their families, but every pupil and teacher in Scotland's classrooms.

Scottish Children’s Services Coalition, (Patrick Gannon, Falkland House School; Lynn Black, LOVE Care; Kenny Graham, Spark of Genius; Niall Kelly, Young Foundations), Edinburgh

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