Is this really the best use of FM’s time?

£25 STAR LETTER

I can understand why the other parties are fed up with Nicola Sturgeon being given hours of live coverage every day but it’s right that we are kept informed with the latest figures and advice.

My problem with the First Minister’s briefings is that she seems to be the only person trusted to do them. Between preparing for them and doing them, she must spend two or three hours every day on what is basically a press conference.

Is there really not one other minister capable of leading these briefings to give the First Minister time to do something more useful? It doesn’t say much for her cabinet.

Fiona Waterson, Edinburgh

Time for a champ

The number of politicians from different parties willing to put their differences aside and join together to call for a Patients’ Commissioner was impressive but the parents describing how they have struggled to get answers after losing their children have been heartbreaking. No one could read them and not think it’s time to do things better.

J Seaton, by email

Drink responsibly

Scots are delighted to be able to socialise more, with pubs and restaurants opening up again. But it’s a pity there are still restrictions on our gyms. Particularly when I read (Sunday Post, July 19) that alcohol consumption was a factor in nearly 90,000 ambulance call-outs between 2016 and 2020. That’s a staggering total.

Our NHS staff have worked very hard to fight the Covid-19 virus. So, to everyone out drinking, please think of others and act responsibly to avoid adding to the NHS’s workload.

Sheila Richards, Melrose

That’s the spirit

What joy, when I turned to page 23 of my Sunday Post ( July 19) and spied a special bottle of my favourite whisky. At £3,500, though, I couldn’t afford to pay all that money for the 1996 Macallan but one can always dream!

Isabelle Harding, via email

Mask concerns

A note on the current mandatory mask situation. I have noticed an increasing number of people ignoring social distancing measures because they think wearing a mask makes them immune to infection, when it does not.

Worse, people have a tendency to shout because the mask makes it harder to hear. So now we have a situation where people are spraying droplets more because they are shouting to be heard.

Also, many others simply put them on but leave their nose exposed, perhaps because their nose doesn’t fit inside the mask, which seems to me to be defeat the purpose entirely.

Jimmy Mitchell, Falkirk

Thank you

What a nice surprise that you recommended The But ‘n’ Ben (Scotland The Best, P.S. magazine. July 19). It’s lovely to know we’re remembered.

Norma Maclean, Auchmithie