Low-key launch

Being old enough to remember the enormous sense of excitement and pride (even in England) which accompanied the launch of the Queens from Clydebank, back in the 1930s, I was expecting similar celebrations when the new Queen entered the Forth as our largest, most expensive ship ever built in Scotland, this Monday past.

One appreciates the need for low tide if the ship is to miss the bridge, but why was a midnight tide chosen with such poor publicity for the ship’s entry to the Forth? Where were the crowds lining the river banks in welcome and tooting tugs alerting the festival city to the passing? BBC News on Tuesday evening lingered on Nicola Sturgeon’s now irrelevant views on referendums and Theresa May’s sad bargains with the DUP, but gave no mention of Scotland’s successful manufacture.

No wonder that our heavy industry is in decline!

COLIN EVANS Netherby Road, Edinburgh