Hypocrisy from the FM
NOT so very long ago Nicola Sturgeon was feigning what can only be seen now as faux outrage, that her Government was “not being consulted” and “was being ignored” and “disrespected by the UK Government”, yet Ms Sturgeon walks out of a four nations call to appear on TV in her own daily briefing show in order to trot out further statistics of infections and deaths, a task that could easily be delivered by a health official (“Sturgeon defends
leaving officials to take fournations Covid meeting as she does TV”, The Herald, February 23.
BBC Scotland is too feart to stop her.
Not so very long ago Ms Sturgeon also asked the Scottish electorate to “judge me on education” yet used her BBC daily briefing last week to ask the Scottish electorate to “judge me on my handling of the pandemic”, clearly trying to shift the focus from our failing education system on to a firmer footing of the pandemic, where she feels her local popularity against the posh Tory bogeyman will fool the fickle voter.
How much longer will the people who keep Ms Sturgeon in power turn and look the other way, while she waffles on being “open and honest” and having “adult conversations” while treating the Scottish electorate as fools?
Allan Thompson,
Bearsden.
THE UK governments have at last outlined their roadmaps out of lockdown, “based on data not dates”. Whilst this gives some real hope for an end to the restrictions, the “data” is once more purely about the NHS and the disease (which, for clarity, I totally agree should be important in the decision making), but it takes no account of the misery and consequences of lockdown, such as the potential other deaths (for example, suicides, late diagnoses/treatments of other serious illnesses and more), the effects on people’s mental and physical health, the huge damage to the economy and losses of jobs and businesses, the eye-watering costs of furlough / lockdown (and how they will be repaid) etc etc.
These are also very important for millions of people in the UK and will have a huge impact in life after lockdown if they continue unabated. However, they are given zero value in the roadmap and so, we could have a situation where relatively minor changes in the cases and/or deaths will extend the lockdown, even though such delays will cause huge further costs and tragic economic and personal consequences. They therefore also need real consideration – and grown-up discussion – in the weeks and months ahead (and proper and fair reporting by the media), if the decisions made are proportionate to all of the risks and misery being suffered.
Andy Scott,
South Queensferry.
SO perhaps the end of April for the lifting of some restrictions – with the election
being a week or so later. Members of the public aren’t totally stupid, First Minister. Hopefully those in the hospitality and travel industry, hairdressers and the like don’t have short memories when casting their vote.
Mhairi Blair,
Greenock.
Is a secular society bad?
MICHAEL Kent’s last paragraph on the Hate Crime Bill and secularism (Letters, February 23) is very revealing. “Another step in the drive to” a secular society suggest a deliberate organised project by un-named agents. Who does he believe is orchestrating it? His “to make Scotland a secular society whether we want it or not” pre-supposes that a secular society is a bad thing being
forced on the majority against their will.
The reality is that Scotland already is a de facto secular society, it’s just that the Establishment won’t accept it. Christianity and the Church of Scotland are the traditional bastions of religion in Scotland yet the 2011 Census revealed 54 per cent of the population selfidentified as “Christian”, a figure that had dropped by one per cent per annum since the previous census. Current Church of Scotland membership is six per cent of the population and getting less by the day. In Scotland since 2006 more Humanist weddings have taken place than under any organised religion.
In a way, as an agnostic, I envy the faith of those who believe in whatever floats their boat or ark but there was a time when those with faith in the religion believed that the world was flat and the sun revolved round the Earth. There was a time when Christianity burned witches and heretics. We live in an age where some who metaphorically kick with the left foot hate those who kick with the right and vice versa, a phenomenon not confined to Christianity.
So is a secular society a bad thing? Well, it is as long as it contains institutionalised discrimination and distribution of wealth based on a social order with as much relevance to the current or future generations as does traditional religion. Why are the lives of those born today essentially predetermined by events that happened centuries ago? Maybe Holyrood could rise from their collective glutei maximi and do something about real rather than theoretical problems.
David J Crawford,
Glasgow.