Calculated risk?

Part that grass

Has it struck anyone else as odd that Boris Johnson sets up a press conference for his adviser Dominic Cummings to explain his actions, but when the press wish to question his other advisers, Sir Patrick Valance and Professor Chris Whitty, he prevents them from speaking? They are the key men in the UK’S Covid-19 tragedy, as they hold the answer to why the UK delayed its lockdown, now widely accepted to be the reason for the “60,000 excess deaths” (your report, 29 May), second only to the US with its much larger population. Why was their advice to the UK government so different to that in other countries? If it wasn’t, it should be made clear that Boris Johnson took a calculated political risk which has cost untold suffering and thousands of unnecessary deaths.

KIT FRASER Belhaven High Street, Dunbar

London to get back to work. People were being told, “Work from home if you can”. Could he not work from home? Or Durham? It strikes me that his job would be suitable for working from home.

Finally I am asthmatic and although not 70 yet, I’m not far off it so I am shielding. If people now ignore lockdown guidance because of Mr Cummings’s actions I might be a prisoner for longer. Or if I go out I could be seriously putting my life in jeopardy. What right does Mr Cummings have to endanger my life? And why does the Prime Minister think my life and others like mine are worth so little?

And to not even cross his mind that his actions would have repercussions! It’s like someone putting lights on during the blackout in the Second World War. Why is someone so shortsighted drawing up government policies? EILEEN MUNRO Bute Drive, Perth

Six years ago an inquiry was initiated into the Edinburgh Trams fiasco. We are still waiting for its report to be published, despite tens of millions being spent.

It is difficult, therefore, to see the proposed inquiry into the reaction of the SNP government to the coronavirus pandemic being much quicker in reaching resolutions. We should also remember that a separate inquiry surely needs to be held into the many care home deaths associated with this outbreak. Any lessons need to be learned quickly.

Inquiries can be used to kick embarrassing and distressing matters into the long grass and by the time a final report is published all the major players involved have moved on to pastures new.

ALEXANDER MCKAY New Cut Rigg, Edinburgh

Covid-19 virus, still raging out of control.

Climate modelling forecasts show that by 2050 civilisation could be devastated and not just by Covid-19. There will be extreme weather such as high temperatures, droughts, increased rainfall and landslides across the world. By 2050, sea-level rise will push average annual coastal floods higher than land now home to 300 million people. High tides could permanently rise above land occupied by over

150 million people, including 30 million in China. Without advanced coastal defence and planning, populations in these areas may face permanent flooding. At least half a million people will have died by 2050 as a result of the impact climate change will have on food production. Most of these additional deaths will be in China, India and other low-income countries in the Pacific and Asia, but the effects on food availability will also have reached into richer

countries. Tropical regions will have become increasingly uninhabitable as they turn into deserts. This will increase migration to more temperate regions putting a strain on the receiving countries and perhaps conflict.

The virus and global warming could be the end of us. Ms Mcmillan needs to find a more informed scholar.

STEUART CAMPBELL