Bills, Bills, Bills...

ThE Scottish Government seems reluctant to use its prerogative to introduce legislation for the benefit of the people of Scotland.

The one constant is the threat of legislation to impose a constitutional referendum on us, the constitution being a reserved matter.

Laws that it did contemplate, such as those introducing the named person scheme and the new Gender recognition scheme, have been so unpopular that they have been kicked into the long grass before elections.

now justice Secretary humza yousaf is seeking to preserve some elements of his much-criticised hate Crime bill by compromising on others. it has never been clear why this bill is necessary and why time and energy have been expended on it.

The acceptable elements in it are already covered by existing legislation. This is the offensive behaviour at football bill all over again, and that was a total waste of time and energy. and we are paying for it.

JILL STePHenSon, edinburgh.

Why does this Scottish Government and its secretaries continue to come up with half-baked bills of grandeur, not fit for purpose and not fit to be taken seriously? Surely a modicum of reality must come into them somewhere along the line.

The hate Crime bill now up for discussion is like a named persons act of contrition for all those that see free speech as the guiding light of democracy; honest, debatable and acceptable. humza yousaf, like john Swinney before him, makes it very difficult to take the Snp seriously, when its policies have no bearing on the given agenda — eliminating hate in this case — thus giving no credence in kind to the adverse effect this bill would cause.

as always the devil is in the detail, but i see another u-turn coming.

ARCHIe MacKInnon, Glasgow.