SCOTLAND is fortunate that Nicola Sturgeon is cautious on Covid and face masks (“End to face masks delayed as free tests rolled back from April”, The Herald, March 16, and Letters, March 17), as this has led to many fewer deaths and cases per head of population over the last two years compared to England and Wales.

Boris Johnson’s dithering at the start of the pandemic has proved very costly for the economy and our health, as by March 18 2020 most infected countries had put in strict controls; but not the UK, which has resulted in the third-highest death rate in Europe.

Covid patients admitted to hospital throughout the UK increased by 20 per cent over the last seven days with more than 100 people dying every day and most scientists have criticised the UK Government decision to drop Covid safety rules and widespread testing as in future we won’t know soon enough when a new variant develops.

We should listen to experts like Dr Deepti Gurdasani, who criticised comments on face masks from the Tory MP Andrew Bowie.

“I just don't understand how politicians who don't seem to have any understanding of public health two years into the pandemic feel free to wade in and put out completely uninformed and unhelpful rhetoric", she said. "We should be doing more not less..."

She added: “England is not a good standard for comparison for anything. Yes, England doesn't have mask mandates because of the sheer stupidity of politicians, not because they're not needed.”

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh.

REASON FOR THE SPIKE

GEOFF Moore (Letters, March 17) says that the current spike in Covid suggests that masks are not working.

I would suggest that the current spike in Covid is because more and more people are simply ignoring the rules on mask-wearing in public places. We have all seen it.

David Clark, Tarbolton.

PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY MUST CHANGE

STUART Waiton is critical of our First Minister apologising for the treatment of witches since 1563 ("The woke witch-hunt against men has begun", The Herald, March 16). What this shows is how far back in history the crimes of the patriarchy against women reach. In fact the control of women by men goes back to the beginning of time, and this is what Nicola Sturgeon’s apology means.

The whole culture needs to be changed, and to this end, there is a programme in five schools in the Govan district of Glasgow to teach boys, as well as girls, that males controlling females is not acceptable. It is starting at a young age so that the children, boys as well as girls, realise what is acceptable and what is not acceptable behaviour.

The patriarchal society we live in has to change. This does not mean that it is acceptable for women to treat men badly, either. We must have respectful attitudes from either sex to the other. It is not about criminalising men and boys, it is about ending the idea that one gender is superior to the other.

Freedom of speech comes with responsibility. We are responsible for respecting each other. If that cannot be taught at home, then it is a good idea to teach it at school.

Jess Phillips read out at Westminster the names of women who have been killed by men. Sara Everard was murdered by a serving police officer last year. When women held a vigil to protest against male violence, women were arrested. The patriarchy must realise that we need things to change.

Margaret Forbes, Kilmacolm.

MEN ARE NOT BEING DEMONISED

STUART Waiton's accusation of a witch-hunt against men is obsessive and excessive. The paranoid tone of his article is set by the use of the word "woke", which I'm assuming is meant as an insult and frequently used to put down those who object to the use of sexually explicit language deliberately directed towards women. Why would any right-minded individual see such conversations as acceptable or appropriate?

This proposed legislation is not demonising men en masse. It is calling out those embarrassing individuals who routinely denigrate women in the most offensive and threatening way. As a mother of two wonderful sons who have grown into decent young men, I know that they do not feel demonised by the prospect of this new legislation because they know that it is not targeted at them or their many male friends.

Moira Smith, Johnstone.

* READING Adam Tomkins' article ("Holyrood should legislate on misogyny – despite traumas of the Hate Crime Bill", The Herald, March 16) it would be hard to know where he stands in the gender debate, when he queries "could a (biological) woman be liable for harassing a trans woman"?

Why is the word "biological" bracketed and the word "trans" not? Bracketing the word "biological" suggests that the word "woman" clearly needs defining. Does he think then there may be a difference? Would the trans woman argue there is no difference and that a trans person is a woman and a biological woman is a woman? Perhaps Professor Tomkins is suggesting by his careful punctuation that there really is a difference.

Irene Munro, Conon Bridge.

PUBLIC DENIED SAY ON PHONE MOVE

THE scrapping of landline telephones in 2025, to be replaced by a digital network, shows how the public is disregarded by privatised monopoly state services. Surely this move was significant enough to have been raised at the last annual general meeting of BT shareholders, where it would most likely have been rejected.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinross.

NOW THEN, NOW THEN

TODAY'S letter by Doug Maughan (March 17) prompted me to seek an example of epizeuxis, a figure of speech in which words are repeated in immediate succession.

Hamlet responded to a question about what he was reading by saying "Words, words, words".

An apt description of your Letters Pages.

David Miller, Milngavie.