So is Scotland to be the only country where justice is pursued?

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry.

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What about the VIP lane?

NICOLA Sturgeon's arrest, and subsequent release without charges, follows on from that of her husband, Peter Murrell, and former treasurer of the SNP, Colin Beattie.

This ongoing investigation into SNP finances has been high-profile in the media. Whether charges of any sort will eventually be pursued is obviously an unknown.

What is known, however, is that the Westminster Government’s use of the so-called VIP fast-track lane for PPE procurement during the pandemic was declared illegal by a High Court judge in January of 2022.

This VIP lane led to Tory peers and MPs recommending friends and associates as being business providers for PPE, with lack of experience being no apparent obstacle.

Some reported £12-14 billion of taxpayers’ money went into such procurement, much of which then resulted in a product which proved to be unfit for purpose.

One might ask why, in the light of the illegality as declared by High Court judge Mrs Justice O’Farrell, there have been no high-profile police arrests and subsequent interrogation of those involved in implementing the VIP lane, and those who profited from it?

A mainstream media, much of which is owned by billionaires who have provided funding for the Conservative Party, is silent.

Roger Graham, Inverkip.

Reaction was predictable

THERE is the inevitable reaction to the announcement of Sunday's arrest of Nicola Sturgeon, as there was at the previous arrests in the same inquiry.

I am not a lawyer but as I understand things, police in Scotland no longer ask people voluntarily to "help with inquiries" but if they wish to question people, they have to arrest them, which ensures that the rights, processes and safeguards for both the questioners and the questioned are assured and recorded.

So far, all three, Colin Beattie, Peter Murrell and Nicola Sturgeon have been released without charge.

David Hay, Minard.

Read more: SNP will see off Labour because it puts Scotland first

Yousaf should have acted

HUMZA Yousaf is turning a blind eye to removing Nicola Sturgeon's membership of the SNP when he should have taken it away ("Humza Yousaf refuses to suspend Nicola Sturgeon after her arrest", heraldscotland, June 12). Similarly he has ignored very valid calls for the removal of Lorna Slater from his ministerial cohort when he ought to have sacked her.

Mr Yousaf did not fix the Scottish NHS when he should have. Many of his other ministers are not performing well either. He has even run a coach and horses through the validity of the independence movement. Just what is the SNP actually in favour of apart from destroying women's rights, motorists' rights, islanders' rights and keeping failed personnel firmly on board?

Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.

Johnson move boosts Tories

BORIS Johnson's resignation is good news for the Conservative Party ("Tory Cabinet minister insists Westminster has ‘moved on from Boris drama’", The Herald, June 12).

His much-vaunted 80-seat majority was due not to his brilliance but simply because the electorate totally distrusted the plans and policies of Jeremy Corbyn. He claimed to get Brexit done but left the UK with a border down the Irish Sea, and, as a result, Northern Ireland was bound to the rules of a foreign power. He locked down Britain with draconian rules not even seen in wartime, broke the rules he had set, and lied about his behaviour.

He led the support for Ukraine, the most corrupt country in Europe, as a cheerleader for the US military industrial complex's need for continual war, resulting in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian deaths, its infrastructure destroyed, its economy bankrupt, and the world's supply chain undermined.

The idea put about by some of his acolytes that he should stand in a safe seat such as Henley-on-Thames is risible. Any Conservative association considering his candidacy should reject it out of hand. As former Chancellor George Osbourne has said: "The Conservative Party has decided to move on from Boris Johnson."

William Loneskie, Lauder.

It's all about the economy

RUTH Marr (Letters, June 12) states that “the SNP’s yellow bricks are standing strong, because voters know that the SNP will always stand strongly for Scotland” and, in that statement, she has hit the nail on the head, demonstrating, once again, that a sizeable minority (some 30+ per cent) of Scottish voters seem to selfishly care only about the dream of “independence”, whatever that means, and not about how incompetently the country has been, and continues to be, governed and, more importantly, whether or not there is a robust economic base and argument for an independent Scotland.

Hopefully, a meaningful proportion of those voters will begin to realise that the most important factor is the economy, as it is the “circle of life” which drives everything – investment, employment and public services and infrastructure – and that their dream of independence from the UK is a long way off and is, in fact, completely and utterly pointless without that sound economic argument and base, both of which are, currently, sorely lacking ... and vote accordingly.

Bob Hamilton, Motherwell.

Read more: Thank goodness for Gordon Brown

Why ferries are an issue

ANENT the ferries shambles, Iain Cope (Letters, June 12) asks why “Union-supporting correspondents don’t concentrate on reasons why Scotland should be independent”? The simple reason is that independence supporters turn a blind eye and deaf ears to what Mr Cope refers to as “boring and tedious irrelevances”.

There is no space left in the room which is full of the elephants that he and the nationalists are so bent on ignoring. That is why we continue to use the “stick” (of reality) to metaphorically beat the SNP. How many hundreds of millions of pounds of our money do they have to shamelessly squander on failed and incompetent projects, such as the ferries (although other fiascos are also available for comparison)?

Colin Allison, Blairgowrie.

Spanish lessons

I HAVE been fortunate to spend time this year in mainland Spain and the Balearics. Apart from the obvious differences from Scotland in weather (although maybe not at the moment), vegetation and architecture, there were two obvious differences that were clear.

The first was that without a Deposit Return Scheme, there were no bottles and cans littering the streets; the population happily recycle either with their domestic facility or use the many public bins which are frequently emptied and observing people on the beaches, they are very disciplined about use of the many beach bins that were emptied every evening.

The second was the apparently popular and well-used ferry system in the Mediterranean which moves people, vehicles and goods frequently and efficiently. Can we not learn from them?

A third difference which may contribute is that their regional governments seem to get on with what is important and whilst their language and culture is acknowledged and respected, they do not seem fixated with independence from Spain. Maybe that is how they find time to govern well?

Duncan Sooman, Milngavie.

Follow Germans on glass reuse

JOHN F Crawford (Letters, June 8) is entirely correct to say that the energy required to make new glass from cullet (crushed glass) is a fraction of that needed to make it from sand, silica and so on. A glass-maker from Alloa told me that the fraction was just under 9/10ths, or 89% to be exact (although admittedly some claim a lower figure of 6/10ths).

Mr Crawford also claims that glass bottles can only be refilled five times "at most". In fact, under the German Mehrweg system, multi-use bottles made of glass or thicker plastic are refilled up to 50 times before they get recycled.

Refilling glass bottles just 25 times saves 93% of the energy required to make single-use bottles. Single-use glass is the most energy-intensive form of food packaging, even when it is made from old glass.

When the Deposit Return Scheme is resurrected, it must follow the German Mehrweg system of glass re-use.

Michael Gallagher, Coupar Angus.