1 day Ago By Scotsman Letters
With the ruling with regard to the “definition of a woman” – which has cost the taxpayers half a million pounds and counting – I could not believe the resonance of a quote I read in the obituary of Mario Vargas Llosa, novelist, politician, actor and Nobel Laureate, in which he was quoted as saying “people who believe they have a plan to lead everyone to a utopia on earth – whether religious or political – are fanatics”. What a wonderful description of the SNP, their wish to destroy the UK, their gender ideology and their lies in the white paper of 2014, all either dystopian or ideologically bereft of thoughts to the consequences of their actions. This case as regards the definition of a woman should condemn once and for all the legacy of Nicola Sturgeon.
The final epitaph on her wasted time in power. David Millar, Lauder, Scottish Borders Common sense The stunning loss by the Scottish Government at the Supreme Court was widely predicted by most “commonsense” Scots. This begs the question of just how representative Holyrood really is for ordinary citizens.
Backing a tiny minority's rights over those of over half the population was never going to work. Mr Swinney has just awarded the MSPs who voted for this flawed legislation a big pay rise. Who pays for the inevitable court cases from women harshly treated by this folly that will surely follow? Gerald Edwards, Glasgow Degree of fear It has never been a harder time for universities .
The policy of making them free for Scottish students but without adequate compensatory public funding is now putting them in the same category as the University of Fraserburgh, the only Scottish university to ever close (in 1617 when its principal died, though its buildings came in handy as a refuge for Aberdeen during the bubonic plague). But even rich universities that charge expensive fees are not immune from bad politics, as shown by Donald Trump's malevolent removal of research money (much of it medical) from Harvard because it won't do what he wants. Even Margaret.
Thatcher, who hammered the universities financially, didn't tell them what to teach and how to comport themselves. There is a well-known quote that university politics are so vicious because the stakes are so low. Not true any more! Hugh Pennington, Aberdeen Steel losses Forced to step in to save the remnant of the UK’s once-proud industry of virgin steel making, the Government now faces the prospect of 25 per cent tariffs being applied to UK steel imports.
Thank you, Donald J Trump . Perfect timing. Truly, ours is a very special relationship.
The people of Scunthorpe salute you! The blast furnaces at risk, Bess & Anne, were established in 1938 and 1954 respectively and run at a daily loss of £700,000, according to the present owners. And there appears to be no immediate prospect of another buyer from the private sector, courtesy, in large part, of the UK having the highest industrial energy prices in Europe, and Trump-induced investor uncertainty. These furnaces are old, with a limited productive life.
They will cost billions to replace. When they expire, virgin steelmaking at Scunthorpe will pass into history much as Ravenscraig did. The hope is to transition to arc-furnace steelmaking, as is happening at Port Talbot in Wales, which is more carbon friendly.
The cost of transition, however, is high and unknown and would leave the UK wholly dependent on virgin-steel imports. Meantime, if fully nationalised, the operating costs of Scunthorpe would most likely be met from taxes, while capital costs would be met from borrowing, thereby placing the Chancellor’s “fiscal rule” under even greater pressure than it already is. The current UK tax take is the highest in the post-war period.
The prospect of it rising further is clearly a worry for hard-pressed UK taxpayers. There is also a real fear that despite best efforts, Scunthorpe simply cannot be saved: a lose-lose outcome and tragedy for all concerned – and yet another example of the all too familiar British malaise of good taxpayers’ money following bad. Better joined-up thinking and strategic planning is needed at all levels! Ewen Peters, Newton Mearns, Glasgow Fair exchange In his response to my letter of 11 April , Jim Finlayson continues to persist in misunderstanding that my position in 2014 and now is not about the appropriateness of Westminster policies on Scotland ( Letters, 16 April ).
Rather, it is about the inappropriateness of the proposed fixed exchange rate regime for an independent Scotland, given Scotland’s historical balance of payments position, made by proponents of independence. Given this, the other points raised by Mr Finlayson are either irrelevant or inappropriate. Nonetheless, I will seek to address them here.
For example, comparing Greek interest rates today with those in the UK today is inappropriate since the correct comparison is obviously with rates during the Greek crisis, with the rate in the UK at 0.5 per cent compared to 12 per cent in Greece! The point I made about the potential depreciation of an independent Scotland’s currency in 2014 is entirely consistent with its balance of payments position and I stand by that. At least the UK has had an external adjustment mechanism post Brexit to adjust UK competitiveness.
In terms of Norway and Ireland, it is noteworthy that both have appropriate exchange rate regimes for their macroeconomic policy mix. Specifically, Norway, outside the euro area, has a floating exchange rate regime, which ensures its competitiveness can be optimised. Ireland has satisfied the criteria to be a member of the euro area.
As I have consistently argued, an independent Scotland, like Norway, would need a flexible exchange rate system to cope with its external balance, unless it wanted to use the internal adjustment of brutal austerity that the residents of Greece had to endure. As things stand, and unlike Ireland, an independent Scotland would be decades away from satisfying the conditions required to be a member of the euro zone. (Prof) Ronald MacDonald, Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow Thank the UK Jim Finlayson contrasts “the fortunes of small independent nations like Ireland” with that of the UK, remarking that they have survived and prospered “without requiring the wisdom of the UK Government to guide them”.
He forgets the UK Government helped bail out Ireland during the banking crisis with billions in loans. “The wisdom of the UK Government” certainly saved the fortunes of a small, independent nation. Rodney Pinder, Kelso, Scottish Borders Renewed hope Hardly a month goes by without a letter from William Loneskie about high electricity generation costs caused by net zero policies.
The latest ( 15 April ) cites “expert” David Turver, a self proclaimed “believer in freedom and democracy” who favours the far right Reform Party’s policy to “scrap net stupid zero”, as Chairman Richard Tice puts it. As Mr Loneskie points out, Reform remain the only major party to take this view. I wonder why? I would rather listen to the respected independent Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR), not averse to challenging Government economic policy, which established that the “levelised” cost of generating electricity through renewables is cheaper than gas.
This takes account of higher costs due to distances in wind power for electricity generation. The OBR concludes that “if the past is a reasonable guide to the future, that will make the comparison increasingly favourable to renewables, where costs have fallen repeatedly faster than predicted”. If former prime minister Liz Truss had listened to and heeded the OBR prior to her mini-Budget she could have avoided crashing the economy.
I suggest Mr Loneskie does the same rather than listen to a lone “expert” and the populist Reform Party with nationalist pro-Trump sympathies. Neil Anderson, Edinburgh Quiet and peace? The Quiet Revival, the Bible Society's report on the health, or otherwise, of the Christian faith and of faith itself, is highlighted in Murdo Fraser's thoughtful and positive article ( Perspective, 16 April ). Though its findings are based on England, they apply to Scotland too.
Church attendance statistics, mentioned in Mr Fraser's article, do not tell the whole story, and can be misleading. There are far more people who explore faith in a deeply spiritual way who never darken the doors of a church. The Church hasn't a monopoly on the figure of Jesus, nor indeed has the Christian Faith.
He is revered as a prophet, as a Jew himself, in Judaism, and also by Muslims, and his reach extends to universal proportions. No more is this realised than at Easter itself. At a time of deep uncertainty in our world today, not least in the Holy Land, it's hardly surprising we should turn to the whole question of faith, personified on the powerful message of the cross, which identifies with the severe suffering of a broken world.
It's painfully significant that it was the religion of the day, under the label of Scribes and Pharisees, that condemned Jesus to the cross. Perhaps, in our day, religion under the label of the Church is condemning him to that fate now. The Quiet Revival now is that he will not be silenced.
Ian Petrie, Edinburgh Write to The Scotsman We welcome your thoughts – NO letters submitted elsewhere, please. Write to [email protected] including name, address and phone number – we won't print full details. Keep letters under 300 words, with no attachments, and avoid 'Letters to the Editor/Readers’ Letters' or similar in your subject line – be specific.
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