ONCE again Boris Johnson calls into question his fitness to serve as Prime Minister. He makes a joke about one of the most contentious and divisive industrial disputes in modern times in this country, the miners’ strike 1984-85 ("Johnson slammed for praising Thatcher’s coal mine closures", The Herald, August 6).

The miners, badly led, were comprehensively defeated and it resulted in eventually bringing an end in Britain to deep-coal mining. These are the facts simply stated. However, the social costs of the strike and its failure were enormous. There are those who believe that the miners, their families, and their communities merited better treatment. It led to large pockets of unemployment in many areas of the country and to profound negative consequences for many mining communities.

That is certainly not for a Prime Minister to make jokes about. If his "levelling-up" programme ever gains any momentum, I believe that there are certain communities where visits by him would be greeted now with something less than acclamation.

Ian W Thomson, Lenzie.

THERE IS NO EXCUSE

WHILST I agree that the Prime Minister’s remarks were crass and insensitive, I should point out to the critics now making political capital from another of his gaffs that more mines were closed during Harold Wilson’s premiership than that of Margaret Thatcher. The approximate figures are 290 under Wilson and 160 under Thatcher.

This is no excuse for Boris Johnson’s remarks, however, and it is high time he put his brain in gear before making any more offensive gestures, tongue in cheek or otherwise.

Christopher H Jones, Giffnock.

* ANENT what looks to be a PR-manufactured stooshie about Boris Johnson declining an invitation to meet at Bute House with Nicola Sturgeon to discuss planning a common approach to recovery post-Covid (“PM turns down Sturgeon’s invite to Bute House for Covid recovery talks”, The Herald, August 4), in the not too-distant past didn’t Ms Sturgeon decline an invitation from Mr Johnson to meet at Downing Street with him and the other First Ministers of the devolved nations to discuss planning a common approach to dealing with Covid? In neither case did the world stop going round.

Alan Fitzpatrick, Dunlop.

UNIONISTS' TIRED OLD NOSTRUMS

THE evidence of your Letters Page on Thursday (August 5) was that, in the event of another referendum, the unionist side has no new arguments to put forward, only the usual tired old nostrums. Just the other day a letter was published repeating the misrepresentations of North Sea oil we heard in the 70s. I though I had gone back in time.

Peter Russell speaks of a “new Act of Union” to “catch the imagination of the majority on Scotland”. Mr Russell, though, forgets a new agreement on the Union would require consensus and Westminster and the other nations seem to be going in different directions.

Westminster’s direction is to replace the four nations of the UK, relegated as “regions”, replaced by “Great Britain”. The First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, shares Mr Russell’s concerns, proposing rather than another all-embracing Union of a sovereign House of Commons, something much closer to a confederation. Clearly there is little common ground between Westminster’s actions and the cognate proposals of Mr Drakeford and Mr Russell.

How to resolve this? What would the authorisation be? Jill Stephenson suggests that independence requires more than 50%+1, even though that would have been enough, had the vote been a little closer, to authorise the UK leaving the EU. Why should Scotland be different?

Even more remarkably Duncan Sooman seems to blame Scotland for Brexit on the basis that only (nearly) four out of 10 voted Leave, while 62% voted Remain, but 53.4% in England voted Leave. I would have said the latter bear more responsibility.

Lastly, Bill Brown is right that Scotland could retain “the separate identity of a nation but enjoy the very many advantages of being part of a commonwealth of nations in the form of a political union”. Perhaps, however, Alan Little got it nearer right when he made the point in his documentary series on the 2014 vote that the many advantages of the Union (for example, selling to the Empire) had to a great extent disappeared.

Perhaps the Union side could take inspiration from the late Leonard Cohen’s song – “And let's sing another song, boys, This one has grown old and bitter”

Alasdair Galloway, Dumbarton.

TIME FOR SWINNEY TO GO

IF it were not so serious it would be laughable that we have a Cabinet Secretary for Recovery called John Swinney who we are told had “misspoken” just a day after the relaxation of Covid rules when he advised that “vertical drinking” would not be allowed in pubs (“SNP forced to clarify ‘vertical drinking’ rules after Swinney causes confusion”, The Herald, August 5).

We were further enlightened by Mr Swinney that enforcing mask-wearing in night clubs might be “quite tricky” and could be “quite a challenge”; you don’t say. As a result the Government had to rapidly wheel out Jason Leitch to clear up Mr Swinney’s mess. You couldn’t make it up.

It is now time for Mr Swinney to recognise that he should not let his ambition overrule his ability and should quietly slip into the obscurity he so richly deserves.

Richard Allison, Edinburgh.

JUMPING THROUGH THE OLYMPIC HOOPS

I SUSPECT I may not be alone in finding the Tokyo Olympics to have been more painful than pleasurable, particularly the jingoistic TV coverage, not just on the BBC but also on ITV, Channels 4 and 5.

We have been force-fed endless missives of "medal hauls", listening to over-excited, cheerleading commentators, legions of ex-Olympians offering their insights on (and excuses for) friends/former team mates, vapid interviews with understandably overjoyed families of Team GB ‘Heroes.’

True "heroes" in my humble opinion are the dead and disabled returned – many in body bags – from UK overseas adventures of an altogether different kind. The juxtaposition – some shamefully in the same news bulletins – of much more telling, searching interviews, relatives feeling understandably betrayed by Britain’s recent retreat from Afghanistan and, it now seems, an unnecessary waste of real young heroes, is striking.

Doubtless, fervent "Union Jackery" will be topped-off by the inevitable Downing Street reception for returning heroic athletes – rather than frontline military personnel – as Boris Johnson, seeing his ratings on the slide, wrings out every last ounce of transient national pride and political capital, at least until the next Honours List announcement.

In the final analysis, we avaricious mugs playing the National Lottery are the only reason GB is punching anywhere close to its weight, as medal prospects are paid a generous £35,000-£65,000 annual stipend to entertain and inspire the nation. All this at a time when the UK Government is planning 25% cuts to Universal Credit, back to the pre-Covid rate for single claimants under 25 (a typical profile of a Team GB medal prospect) of £3,280 per year, less than 10% of the minimum Olympic athlete annual allowance.

Even Team GB Olympic Equestrian horses are treated way more generously than an unemployed single mother in Shettleston, while the Scottish Government could buy countless £1,000-£3,500 weekly residential drug rehab places for the millions spent sending eight Olympic horses – and their handlers – to Tokyo and back.

Furthermore, the cynical "let’s inspire youngsters, anyone can do it" messaging emanating from pundits and Team GB Medal winners (each medal calculated to cost an average of more than £4m) is misleading and self-serving.

Mike Wilson, Longniddry.

* TWO things strike me about the BBC Olympic coverage, namely (i) Breakfast is much better (and cheaper) with one reporter than two nattering to each other; (ii) standards are certainly slipping, as twice on Friday Dan Walker talked about Russia rather than ROC. This latter point is not trivial, since the reason behind ROC rather than Russia was the state doping issue, which we should not let slip away through familiarity.

James Watson, Dunbar.

GLASGOW, SUCH A MEAN CITY

I AM writing to bring your attention to the outrageous fines levied by Glasgow City Council with regards to bus lanes and their impact on tourism in your city.

On July 9, we arrived in Glasgow for a two-day visit. Following directions given by the hotel, we tried to get to the car park, only to find that many of the roads were either closed for roadworks or for what we later found out was filming for the new Indiana Jones movie. As a result of this, we accidentally found ourselves driving in a circle, in an unfamiliar city, trying not to get bumped by impatient drivers around us, and in a bus lane.

Because we went round in a circle, we were issued with two fines within 15 minutes of each other totalling £120.

We eventually managed to get to the car park, and enjoyed a lovely weekend, spending a small fortune as the tourists we were.

We received the two fines a week later by post and have appealed them, explaining what happened, road closures and so on, only to be told the fines of £120 will not be revoked, not even one of them.

As a result of this heavy-handed approach, with no compassion shown whatsoever, we will now be cancelling two further weekends we have booked in Glasgow, totalling more than £1,000, not to mention the money that would be spent on meals, shopping and the like.

How can you expect people to visit your city when they are treated like this?

Tourism in Glasgow will be fighting a losing battle if the council treat visitors in this way, without the slightest empathy or understanding of how difficult it is to drive around an unfamiliar city. These were genuine errors, not repeated abuse of the bus lane.

Perhaps the council would benefit from a little reminder that “People make Glasgow” .

Mrs Alison Foster, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire.

GOVERNMENT'S FLIGHT OF FANCY

ON reading the Scottish Government document, The National Islands Plan Survey – final report July 9, 2021, on which the future of our island communities depends apparently, I found the following under the Main Finding section (use of Air Transport):

“Residents of Mainland Shetland and Mainland Orkney make most use of flights to and from the mainland, with 58% doing so more than once a year. This is significantly greater than residents of Arran, Bute and the Cumbraes, who had the lowest levels of use.”

The more astute reader will have spotted, that while several islands do indeed have an airport or landing facilities, Arran, Bute and the Cumbraes certainly do not. With this lack of knowledge or attention to detail in Holyrood what could possibly go wrong, and is it any wonder that we are experiencing the current long running ferries fiasco? Do they even know where the islands are?

Neil HC Arthur, Kilpatrick, Isle of Arran.

Read more: More proof Tories are set on keeping us in our place