Sturgeon must stop treating us like kids
DESpITE her repeated rhetoric about having a grown-up conversation, First minister nicola Sturgeon continues to treat us like children. For weeks now, we have had daily briefings and several publications containing tantalising suggestions of easing the lockdown restrictions. But there has never been any detail on timing – that, we are always promised, will come later when the time is right. meanwhile, we should continue to follow the rules just a little bit longer. Every big announcement from miss Sturgeon is eagerly awaited but, when delivered, it merely kicks the can farther down the road with a promise of more details and another announcement in a few days’ time. By contrast, Boris Johnson announced his first measures to ease restrictions more than a week ago, in effect from the following day. miss Sturgeon then promised she would update us on her plans by the start of this week, but all we got was the same list of measures that she might possibly consider and yet another promise to tell us more next week. meanwhile, we should continue to follow the rules a little bit longer. The First minister’s journey back to normality is getting boring and going nowhere fast. If she is going to continue treating us like children, with the promise of a treat some time in the future if we behave, then I have only one thing to say to her: are we there yet?
ALAn WYLLIE, Largs, Ayrshire. aS more potential victims of coronavirus emerge, questions need to be answered urgently by nicola Sturgeon. Leaving aside claims of ‘cover-ups’, it is obvious that the track and trace system has been totally ineffective. For Scotland to successfully emerge from lockdown, the Snp government need a track and trace mechanism that actually works. miss Sturgeon needs to show
I FEaR for my country. When I think of Scotland 30 or so years ago, it was a far better place to live and raise children. There were political differences, of course, but they were of the normal Left-Right variety, as it is in most civilised and advanced countries. pre-devolution Scotland was an infinitely more tolerant place. Back then there would have been no glorification of any leader of any party, as is happening today, and there were no hate-filled marches. The calibre of the elected Snp representatives today is in general abysmal and cringingly embarrassing. There was no Holyrood draining billions nor armies of special advisers. There were no narcissistic, posing leaders – this now seems to be the norm. Rather than ‘kill nationalism stone dead’, as we were told devolution would do, exactly the opposite has occurred, as Tam Dalyell and many others forecast it would. Devolution and its aftermath has killed Scotland.
ALExAnDEr McKAY, Edinburgh. transparency, rather than hiding behind patient confidentiality, if this situation is to be resolved. Her problem is this might not be politically correct and she may have to own up to making a mistake, rather than simply suggesting that mistakes will be made – or brushing aside concerns as ‘politicised nonsense’.
GErALD EDWArDS, Glasgow.