Letters: Extra spending is not the way to address the attainment gap

Throwing money at something does not fix it. The Curriculum for Excellence has been criticised for many years now and the dabbling round the edges is not making any improvements.

In 2015, the First Minister asked to be judged on education, stating that she was prepared to “put her neck on the line on the education of our young people”.

Of course, this was an empty promise as we watch the attainment gap rise in many areas, while she points out the one or two areas where it has narrowed.

Investing in our education system needs input from experienced teachers who know how to get the best out of pupils, not throwing good money after bad.

Jane Lax, Aberlour.

DOUBLE STANDARDS ON QUESTION TIME

ALEXANDER McKay (October 23) resents that Brian Cox, who has a global reputation, lives in America, his main place of work, whereas he himself is happy for other millionaires who have never lived in Scotland, and probably use offshore tax-avoidance schemes, to bankroll anti-independence groupings.

Brian Cox was a breath of fresh air in what was otherwise the usual sterile Question Time programme.

The Covid figures by nation can be found at https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk, so there was no excuse for BBC researchers or the presenter, Fiona Bruce, to repeatedly argue with Kate Forbes when she said that cases had fallen in Scotland.

At that time the infection rate in England was twice as high pro rata than in Scotland, and Welsh rates under a Labour administration are even worse than England’s. But Anas Sarwar was not challenged on this by Bruce when he attacked Scotland’s Covid record.

Similarly, Bruce never challenged Andrew Bowie on Better Together and Tory promises in 2014 and 2015 to fund a carbon capture storage facility in the north-east of Scotland, which is the best location with the greatest existing infrastructure and expertise.

It’s not just Alexander Mackay who indulges in double standards.

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh.

* ALEXANDER McKay sees fit to castigate Brian Cox for daring to support the case for independence, as he is a “millionaire based in the US”.

Apparently, most “intellectual giants” abhor “Scottish nationalism” too, by Mr McKay’s estimation, though he failed to name any of them, apart from the leader of a unionist party.

I would suggest to Mr McKay that a great number of “intellectual giants” support independence, and perhaps almost as many are opposed to the idea.

The fact that Brian Cox lives in America, for work reasons, does not automatically exclude him from rational thought. I am sure that Mr Cox, being a “millionaire”, would survive the dire “economic consequences” Alexander McKay predicts if his precious UK were ever to break up.

Kevin Orr, Bishopbriggs.

THE SNP IS NOT TEARING ITSELF APART

DENNIS Forbes Grattan (letters, October 23) is indulging in a spot of wishful thinking if he believes that there are rifts “tearing the SNP apart and smashing the dream of independence”.

My branch of the SNP has recently been busy campaigning at the Falkirk South council by-election, where less than two weeks ago the SNP’s Emma Russell won what had previously been a Labour seat.

Members are now looking forward to attending the Party’s upcoming National Conference and to debating the items on what the provisional Agenda suggests will be an attractive and dynamic, forward-looking event.

Unlike other parties who filled halls with their delegates, the SNP Conference will be held on-line in order to protect members from the risk of contracting Covid. With a full programme of campaigning ahead of us, we really don’t have either the time or the inclination to tear ourselves apart.

However, I heartily agree with Mr Forbes Grattan when he wishes Nicola Sturgeon a long reign as SNP leader. Last May’s election result and subsequent opinion polls suggest that the voters want that, too.

Ruth Marr, Stirling.

DEVOLVED NHS IS IN MELTDOWN

DAVID J. Crawford has criticised my stance on the SNP’s handling of the NHS (letters, October 15).

He also implies that independence is the only solution. Where are the details? Saying it is worse in England does nothing to help Scottish patients.

Now we hear that Lanarkshire Health Board, one of Scotland’s biggest, is in trouble. Where is the urgently needed support, not just the usual promise of more money, from the SNP? Where are the practical ideas on the front line to help from our SNP Minister of Health?

The currently fully devolved NHS is in meltdown and it is not money that is the solution and it certainly isn’t independence. It is a competent government with competent ministers. Does Mr Crawford think our present incumbents qualify?

Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.

ON ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

ADAM Tomkins (“Sally Rooney and Israel boycotts – legitimate political criticism or something more worrying?”, October 20 celebrates the apparent failure of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, to pressure Israel into withdrawing from (illegally) occupied Palestinian land, and that Britain continues, unhindered, to supply Israel with weapons.

However, he maintains that BDS contributes to anti-Semitism within Britain and is unfair because other states and regime also behave badly. (As a legally-trained person he will know that the fact that there are many other criminals around does not exculpate someone who is on trial.)

His linking of a pro-Palestinian stance with anti-Semitism implies without justification that supporters of BDS and other actions are, in effect, anti-Semitic, and that people who are concerned with the defence of human rights, including those of all Jewish people, had better keep quiet about Palestine, unless, of course, we voice “legitimate” criticism.

Perhaps Tomkins could explain what exactly is legitimate.

Comparisons to Nazi behaviour are objectionable and also pointless, since the conduct of the state of Israel with regard to the Palestinian people should be judged on its own merits – or, rather, demerits.

Websites, news reports from throughout the world, and reports of human rights organisations make clear that Palestinians suffer from persistent killings, imprisonment (often without trial), loss of land and water supplies, destruction of crops and demolition of homes, the wholly illegal invasion of their territory by aggressive Israeli settlers, and severe restrictions on movement.

Naturally there is Palestinian resistance, sometimes violent, but this is insignificant when compared with the violence of the Israeli army and many settlers.

The figures speak for themselves: the Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem, has been tracking deaths since September 2000. Of 8,166 conflict-related deaths, 87% have been Palestinian. For every 15 people killed in the conflict, 13 are Palestinian and two are Israeli.

Tomkins may of course challenge these sources but would need to provide evidence that the above descriptions and figures are inaccurate.

What his article seems to amount to is that all the injustices, cruelties and deaths suffered by Palestinians since 1967, and earlier, are a price that it is acceptable for them to pay so that British trade with Israel, and supplying them with sophisticated weapons, may continue.

Ronald MacLean, Kiltarlity, by Beauly.

ASKING A POINTED QUESTION

THE Prime Minister is just one of the many people urging the over-70s to get a booster vaccination. I would be delighted to get one if someone would only tell me how to do it.

Peter Dryburgh, Edinburgh.

ADVANCE IMPACT OF COP26

HOSPITAL appointments cancelled, medical professionals warning of the most challenging winter yet for the NHS, and thousands of people from all over the world about to descend on Glasgow. Am I alone in thinking that the price of hosting COP26 is already too high?

Roddy MacDonald, Doonfoot, Ayr.

GIVE ME A BREAK

COP26 chief Alok Sharma was a physics graduate before turning to finance so he knows enough about the uncertainties of climate science to be alarmed by Johnson’s claim that the Glasgow jolly is “the most important moment in the history of the planet”.

Every green talk-fest since COP1 has been the “last best chance to save the world”, so we expect extravagant exaggeration and hyperbole from climate alarmists. But the “most important moment in history” occurring in Glasgow ? Cut me just the tiniest break!

Dr John Cameron, St Andrews.