Homes hit by fuel poverty will pay a high price for SNP decision to ban fracking

Thank goodness for Bill Jamieson’s erudite and balanced article on fracking (“We should think again about fracking”, 11 January).

In my experience, even welleducated people understand little about fracking and Bill’s positive article should help counterbalance the misinformation which has been deliberately peddled around and has been entirely negative. How quickly Putin’s cut of gas supplies to Ukraine has been forgotten; something that sent a tremor of fear throughout Europe. The price of gas is crucial for 85 per cent of us who use it for central heating and fracking here offered a potential and reliable home-grown supply considerably cheaper than now.

The request by Paul Wheelhouse [Scottish energy minister] for public attitudes on fracking was answered by about 1 per cent of the Scottish population.

Nicola Sturgeon and her ministers repeatedly insisted that on fracking they would follow an evidence-based decision. Obviously this was a deceit.

In the end, expert advice was simply junked.

In typical “Pontius Pilate” fashion Mr Wheelhouse simply washed his hands of his responsibilities by claiming that the 1 per cent democratically represented Scottish opinion, even though virtually all of it was from special interest groups, politically insignificant in numbers and who lack any critical faculty. Those who will suffer are the 30 to 40 per cent of Scottish homes in fuel poverty who will pay the additional price when they could have had it cheaper.

If this is typical of SNP government, it’s time they were out and instead leave government to politicians who understand responsibility and who lead following expert advice, taking the public with them.

Well done Ineos to ask for a judicial decision. At the least it should expose the poverty of present government practice and lack of leadership. (PROF) TONY TREWAVAS chairman, Scientific

Alliance Scotland, North St David Street,

Edinburgh