Time for an end to ‘theatrical’ speeches

Sir, – When will you, Ian Blackford, ever cease making a fool of yourself and Scotland. As an ex-banker, you know perfectly well the situation that Scotland would have been in, outside of the UK, had the 2014 referendum been a Yes vote .

Happily for the people of Scotland, we knew better than you and your self-satisfied bunch of SNP so-called politicians, more interested in self-promotion than taking care of Scotland through the devolved powers at Holyrood.

Please explain to me how precisely Scotland would have defended itself in matters of finance and resource during the Covid period were it not a part of the UK?

Derek Farmer. Knightsward Farm, Anstruther.

“I understand people’s anxieties, but there is no doubt in my mind that schools are safe and that education is a priority”

- Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

“Having a short break so that we can agree the right mitigations in schools to make them Covidsecure, make sure that staff and teams are vaccinated and that we can get a properly supported testing regime in schools to make them as safe as possible”

- NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman.

“It is important that we get young people into schools again, but we have to have remote learning for a short period of time” - Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster.

“It’s the Tier 4 restrictions, it’s obeying them. It is thinking about breaking essentially every possible route of transmission we possibly can. Those are the things that are absolutely necessary”

- Professor Sir Mark Walport of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.

“It was quite scary. With every illness I’ve had, there has always been a sense that medicine and time would eventually ride to the rescue. But with Covid-19 you have to lie there, on your own, knowing that medicine is not on its way” - Jeremy Clarkson had a frightening experience fighting coronavirus over Christmas. “I’m not telling anyone else what to do, but there is a risk when you are vocal about these things and don’t practise as you preach, then ... what you are saying won’t be taken seriously” - Environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg says she holds no grudges against people who fly, in an interview with The Sunday Times magazine to mark her 18th birthday.