Letters: It is now vital that our Government goes its own way

Between March 12 and 16, the hospital death rates were doubling every two-to three days. On March 16, Boris Johnson gave a speech which advised people to socially distance and not go to pubs and restaurants. Schools remained open. Although a section of the community took this advice, public transport was still very crowded, people were still going out, and on the following weekend, we saw thousands of people flocking to beauty spots across the country. Obviously the message that Mr Johnson had given was not understood and did not have the intended effect and transmission was still occurring to a great extent.

Finally, on March 23, the present lockdown was announced. If this had been done a week previously, as in Germany, Austria and other places, our death and infection rates would be up to a quarter of those at present. With a doubling rate of three days, simple mathematics shows that in a week, the infections will quadruple. If the present lockdown had been announced a week earlier, a lot of our present problems would not be as great. There would be less need for PPE, intensive care beds and mortuaries. The lockdown would not be required as long as the virus would not have infected as much of the community. The economy would perhaps be less affected.

A few weeks ago Professor Jason Leitch was talking about achieving herd immunity in an interview on BBC Scotland. Today (April 21) it has been reported that the WHO estimates only two to three per cent of the population is infected. It has also been suggested that having had Covid-19 does not guarantee immunity. This should hopefully stop any suggestion that we should allow successive waves of infection until we build up herd immunity.

The Scottish Government needs to organise testing in the community and contact tracing so that we can ease the lockdown and keep the virus under control. The suggestion that this could start off in the more easily-isolated areas of the country seems a good idea. The Scottish Government should not be waiting for a divided, leaderless UK Government Cabinet to make a decision.

Rob Evans, Dundee DD2.

IT is vital that the Scottish Government follows the advice from Neil Mackay. Health issues are devolved to the Scottish Government and if Nicola Sturgeon is unable to draw up regulations appropriate for the conditions which pertain in Scotland then that does call into question how Scotland could operate as an independent country. The Scottish Government must show that it is capable of governing the country in a distinct and appropriate manner.

The regulations in all four home countries appear to have been cut and pasted from the same source. As an initial response that was quite acceptable, especially if the source document has originally come from the World Health Organisation or the regulations imposed in another European country. However, now that the regulations have been in force for a month the four home countries need to develop their own regulations. The lower population density in Scotland presents both opportunities and challenges. The easy option is to follow Boris Johnson and then claim a big boy did it and ran away.

Sandy Gemmill, Edinburgh EH3.

NEIL Mackay has deemed Boris Johnson’s approach to the coronavirus pandemic as a “disaster” and has urged Nicola Sturgeon to “break away”. Ms Sturgeon has been at pains to stay more or less aligned to the Westminster approach, so far, which is to her credit, but deviation can only be sensible if the course ahead is definite.

All politicians will make mistakes over this new and uncharted coronavirus outbreak, it is inevitable, and sadly lives are always subject to such political judgments. At this stage no one can be sure about most of the answers but what is terribly obvious is that this whole episode has exposed the fragilities of Scottish independence. Just look at the oil price situation for example, hence Ms Sturgeon’s desire not to be out on a limb for fear of it breaking, and rightly so. It will not please some nationalists but we are definitely better together at this point in time and our First Minister seems to be aware of this fact.

Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow G77.

IT is almost impossible to try to make sense of Neil Mackay’s article in a non-political perspective. First, no one can at this stage know what the result of the UK Government strategy will be. His criticism based on personalities is hardly factual. The main thrust of his argument that the Scottish Government should take a different approach is confusing, as there has been nothing to stop it doing so up to now; presumably it believes the UK’s approach to be correct. Mr Mackay now needs to inform us in detail what detailed steps we should take in Scotland that are different.

Colin McKay, Newton Stewart.

THE UK Government has been on the receiving end of criticism from people and organisations across the political spectrum for its handling of some of the UK manifestations of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In particular, when the decision was announced in the last week or so in March, that the country would enter a period of lockdown which brought the economic life of the country to a juddering halt, there was comment that this action should have been taken seven, 14 or even more days earlier, and perhaps it should have. However, I wonder if the decision to postpone the onset of lockdown was made for very pragmatic reasons.

Scroll back six or seven weeks or so, and we were being regaled on an almost daily basis in both print and broadcast media of lengthy queues of people with trolleys waiting for supermarkets to open, and some time later, leaving these emporiums with trolleys stacked high with toilet rolls, kitchen paper, rice, pasta, part-baked bread rolls and other non-perishable goods, stripping the shelves bare in the process.

Despite repeated pleas from civic, political and religious leaders, and the supermarket chains themselves, this activity continued for many days. (Cue pictures of baffled pensioners with shopping lists, and distraught NHS employees staring at these empty shelves.)

I would imagine that, when introducing a new policy, particularly one which imposes considerable new restrictions, ministers and their advisors would consider what would be the likelihood of the target population co-operating with these new impositions, and if improbable, what scale of resources and expenditure would be required to compel and maintain their compliance.

Given the response to the appeal for shoppers to revert to the pattern of purchasing that they had found perfectly adequate in the last week of January, the Government probably felt that it would have little chance of persuading the general population to accept much more drastic restrictions, at least until it had been persistently exposed to the carnage taking place in Italy and Spain. Even then, there were a significant number of so-called Covidiots who seemed intent on defying any attempt to curb their liberty.

Christopher W Ide, Waterfoot.

THE language of war and battles to fight the coronavirus must stop.

Language is a powerful tool. It can be used to both praise and demonise but either way it has an effect of on people, their wellbeing, their mental health. However, just as important as the adverse or positive effect that language can have on us as individuals, words are also capable of shaping the public narrative; to convince us what to think. Using war language to fight a health crisis is not helpful for at least three main reasons.

The first is that it undermines legitimate challenge which, when it is absent, encourages systemic negligence to run rampantly unchecked.

Secondly, it lulls us to uncritically accept the inevitability of thousands upon thousands of deaths, especially enabling the expendability of the costly, most vulnerable people in our society.

Thirdly, war language demands sacrifice and a culture of silence. This expectation is unnecessary, unwanted, and unhelpful; it is anti-democratic and smacks of political expediency.

All of these impacts are worrying and serves only as power and compliance tools for our political governors. Frontliners are workers, consistently undervalued ones, granted, but they are not warriors and they deserve the best protection. In light of this, more, many more questions need to be asked and answered.

Why were we not prepared for this? Why are so many people dying compared to countries like Germany? Why are so many people dying in our care homes? Why are we demanding that our friends and family work on the frontline without full and proper protection for themselves and their patients? Why is there no urgency or recognition of the need to test and track?

Finally, in this modern Scotland, is it too much to ask to be treated like adults and receive honest answers in this bumbling, post-truth political world?

Councillor Brian McGinley (Labour), Ayr.

I AM one of those people who go out every Thursday at 8pm to say thank you to all those dedicated people who are putting their lives and those of their families at risk to save others. I am, however, disappointed that the only references made regarding the Police Service are of issuing fines and heavy-handed tactics in dealing with the public in these difficult times.

Their job is difficult enough and there is always a fine balance between discretion and enforcement. So on Thursday I will be including the police in my tribute to the emergency services.

Neil Stewart, Balfron.

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