I NOTED today that Canada has overtaken UK in the vaccination proportions. This despite a dismal start where they could not source any product. Even though Canada has managed this and has a much lower infection rate than the UK, it is on the amber list.

I looked into this because my daughter wants to come over, partly on business and partly to see her ageing parents, and she asked me to look into some of the rules. I found so many inconsistencies one wonders who is responsible for this shambles? How can citizens from a country like Canada which has kept deaths down to a third compared to UK and is vaccinating at a faster rate than us be restricted? If my daughter comes here she has to isolate for 10 days even though she has been double vaccinated because she has not been vaccinated in UK.

It really is about time somebody with power reviewed these rules and used a bit of common sense.

Jim McAdam, Maidens.

STOP FLEECING THE MOTORIST

WITH regards to Dr Gerald Edwards (Letters, July 21) and his response to your recent front-page lead story ("Scotland’s ‘pothole plague’ spreads fivefold under SNP", The Herald, July 21), pothole spotting became a national pastime post-2008 when austerity (remember that word) kicked in across all of Britain’s local councils.

If he takes a journey along the Tory heartlands of West Berkshire, South Buckinghamshire, East Sussex and Kent, he’ll find that the roads there are not much better than they are in Central Scotland – but they didn’t have to endure one of the worst winters for more than a decade.

I would like to finish by referring to a previous letter, on vehicle taxation: it is time to stop fleecing motorists. They pay more than their share and end up with axle-busting, tyre-destroying holes in the road.

Francis Deigman, Erskine.

LAYING WASTE TO OUR HOME

I WONDER why Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson needed to emulate the poet John Gillespie Magee and "slip the surly bonds of Earth" and dance in the skies above? Was it merely to look down on this beautiful planet? They might have stayed on Earth and gloried in its quiet beauty. Maybe that option, flight, will one day be taken from us by our own actions.

Sitting under the trees in a spring and summer wood has always meant being covered by the shade of the canopy of leaves above but this year I am alarmed to see the leaves on the trees are starting to droop, turn brown, for lack of rainfall. Hedges too are suffering.

In winter I wander under bare trees admiring the fractals created by their branches, from twig to trunk – bold geometry against the winter skies. I am left wondering if seeing fractals, not leaves, will be what remains to us after we have mismanaged our home planet? John Gillespie Magee might have written that he "danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings", but how much laughter will be left when we have laid waste to our only home?

Thelma Edwards, Kelso

WE CAN'T RELY SOLELY ON WIND

YOU provide a large package on green energy adjacent to ScottishPower’s proud advert as a "totally green" producer of electricity (The Herald, July 23). Readers should know that when I read this advert, Scotland was importing 600MW from England because wind output was negligible, the balance of Scotland’s demand being met by Hunterston and Torness nuclear power stations. Even across the whole UK wind was supplying less than one per cent of Britain’s electrical energy needs. The demand was being met from gas, nuclear, nuclear imports from France and surprisingly, even coal. This is not an exceptional occurrence either. The negligible contribution from wind and has been replicated many times over the past months.

Wind can make a contribution and when it blows it is a truly green source, but what this tells is an age-old truth, "don’t have all your eggs in one basket". I leave readers to contemplate what happens when Hunterston and Torness are decommissioned.

Norman McNab, Killearn.

VIRUS RISK WITH COP26

THE numerous COP26 attendees will no doubt have a full and frank exchange of viruses during their chat about the weather. Let us hope that they do not leave too many of them behind in Glasgow.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinross.

ALL CHANGE FOR PRESSURE GROUP

I SEE that Greenpeace wants our oil workers to “transition”, which momentarily conjures up an interesting picture. Forget saving the planet, who is going to save the English language from campaign groups?

John Dunlop, Ayr.

CHEQUERED HISTORY

SIMON Paterson (Letters, July 23) is certainly correct to say that Sir Percy Sillitoe installed the chequered bands worn by police, but he did not invent them. Check out the Fort George Museum and you will see examples of the black and white checked caps worn by the Lovat Scouts during the Boer War, black and white long having been the colours (are they colours?) of the Frasers of Lovat which are still worn to this day by the Lovat shinty club.

My late father, who was raised on Lovat territory, was in contact several times with Sir Percy, having been tasked with teaching his secretary to drive, so the origins of the pattern were known to him. The old man was also awarded a Chief Constable's commendation for bravery for tackling and stopping a runaway galloping horse in the city centre, a skill which in turn might today have commended him to Indiana Jones.

George F Campbell, Glasgow.