Unspeakable truths are being hidden

£25 STAR LETTER

It is almost unthinkable that patients were discharged from hospitals into care homes after testing positive for Covid-19 but it is also shocking that we need The Sunday Post to tell us.

The First Minister and the Health Secretary have been in front of the cameras every single day for four months and were asked about what went on in our care homes many times. And they didn’t say word.

They stick out a million meaningless statistics but all their talk about openness is just that, talk. They tell us exactly what they want to tell us and not a single word more.

John Inglis, Edinburgh

News for dummies

I never really believe it when people talk about dumbing down – my granddaughters and their pals are a lot smarter and sharper than I ever was – but could someone tell BBC Scotland we’re still capable of understanding words of more than one syllable?

I was watching the Scottish news at nine and they spent a full 10 minutes explaining what inflation was for the hard of thinking, with wee cartoons of expanding balloons just in case we didn’t get it. It was toe-curling, like a news bulletin from Sesame Street. Please just give us the facts, we can handle it.

B Mitchell, by email

Laughter in a glass

I was fascinated by Gyles Brandreth’s reference to his father’s “dribble glass”. My grandfather was a great practical joker and had an even better glass joke. He filled a wine glass with blackcurrant jelly and allowed it to set. At a family gathering he handed it to my aunt as a glass of “port wine”. Her face, as she struggled to drink it, was a picture!

Mary Cook, by email

Questions to ask

The Editor wrote his letter saying how the First Minister will get by over the Alex Salmond saga but, to me, it is editors and reporters that have to ask what the First Minister told Mr Salmond about the case that was against him and why it took six meetings and why there were no recordings or tapes about the meetings?

Loran Stewart, by email

Badges of honour

I read your great story about the Artists Rifles. I have collected

British Army cap badges for over 40 years, around 400 now, mostly Scottish, and anything else I thought had an interesting history.

In 1978, I purchased an Artists Rifles badge for £2.50, worth a lot more now, from a colleague. It belonged to his wife’s uncle, named James Birch, who had served in the Regiment in the First World War, then transferred to the Royal Flying Corps as many cavalry officers did.

They kept their original uniforms and cap badges, until the RAF was formed in 1918.

Mr Birch served in the Second World War, reaching the rank of squadron leader, but was mainly employed in admin being considered too old to fly operationally. I would love to know what trade he followed in civvy street.

Thomas Proudfoot, by email