Inquiry focus should be on pinpointing the source of Covid

Now imagine the inquiry into the fire. The terms of reference would cover the economic consequences, the loss of education, the response of the emergency services, their PPE, the funding of those services, the decisions of our leaders would be scrutinised, and comprehensive plans made for tackling the next fire. In short, every single detail examined, except the cause of the fire. That is where both the UK and Scottish Covid inquiries stand with regard to the origin of the virus.

Four years on from the outbreak in Wuhan, the world is none the wiser about how the pandemic began. Instead of knowledge, we've had lies, obfuscation and inconsistencies. It remains the default understanding of many lay observers that it spilled out from illegal wildlife at the Huanan seafood market. This despite the absence of any animal samples testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. It would be farcical if we spent a fortune on multiple Covid inquiries, and were still none the wiser about the virus’s origin.

In a recent address in Washington, Senator Rand Paul pointed out that a cover-up by the Chinese Communist Party would hardly be surprising. Of more importance is what our own governments and taxpayer-funded scientists know or suspect. The possibility, or indeed probability, of a serious lab-leak means that there are lessons to be learned regarding future biosafety and security, openness, reporting, training and record-keeping, adherence to and breaches of safety protocols. This is particularly important with regard to dangerous gain-of-function research. The inquiry could then help form the basis of a national virus risk assessment.

So the reason for discovering, or uncovering, the origin of Covid is not simply about history lessons: it is about preparing for next time. Because if we do not find out how this pandemic began, we will, despite the best efforts of both inquiries, be ill-equipped to know when, where and how the next one might begin. The British people deserve answers from the inquiries for which their taxes are paying, and that includes knowing from where future threats may arise. When we know that, we won't make the same mistakes as before.

In Viral, their book on the subject of the origin of Covid-19, Alina Chan and Matt Ridley use a Sherlock Holmes metaphor to describe the curious silence amongst scientists, journalists, and government officials.The easiest way to decide whether the lab-leak is conspiracy-theory or conspiracy-fact is to invite the Chinese Ambassador or Consul, and Alina Chan and/or Matt Ridley to give their evidence in an open, public forum.

Graeme Arnott, Stewarton.

Read more: PR voting is a must if we are to save our politics

A lack of proper debate

WHERE stands Scotland at the start of the year? Our NHS has “dangerous” staffing levels, even though it is better staffed than elsewhere in the UK. Scotland’s education is accused of failing because of poor Pisa findings relative to our big neighbour down south. However none of the media or political accusers references the Pisa introduction to the report for England, which states that “higher-performing pupils may be over-represented”, and because of this that “some of the Pisa results may be…somewhat higher than they might otherwise be”. Should Scotland follow suit and cherry-pick schools/pupils to “game the system”?

Strathclyde Police good, Police Scotland bad, is absurd reasoning. And is Scottish local government underfunded, just because they say they are? I’m certain a proper model for local government funding would be a great thing: why has no one proposed such a thing? Theresa May proposed gender legislation, but it was only “bad” when Scotland introduced it (and Wales wanted a similar law).

We in Scotland cannot properly debate issues as we have no serious context or perspective to adjudicate on. Simply wishing things were better, without explaining the consequences of your funding or policy choices, is “child’s play” politics but it’s what we are stuck with.

GR Weir, Ochiltree.

Thank you, No voters

THE appalling prospect of another two years of SNP misrule over Scotland is unconscionable amid the burning pyre of failed economic and social policies, where ministers’ utter incompetence is only matched by their arrogance and hubris.

The SNP regime is demonstrably ineffectual and morally bankrupt.

It has, in effect, been a Ponzi scheme where voters were encouraged to invest their trust in safe hands to run the country; little did we realise they were going to squander that trust and run the country into the ground.

The list of their epic failures includes everything from plummeting education rates amid the ironically-named Curriculum for Excellence, the eye-wateringly expensive ferries debacle, the divisive obsession with gender reform, failure to upgrade the A9, the health service and 750,000 stuck on waiting lists that should shame even the iPad king, not to mention the crazed Green eco policies that will cost people thousands they can’t afford on inefficient and unproven heat pumps and other ideologically-driven hare-brained schemes.

There are far fewer police officers on the beat, cars or police stations (which are being flogged off en masse); prison convicts were given "cell" phones, the tax burden is increasing and the SNP’s obsession with coddling criminals is sending crime rates soaring, despite manipulating the futures to claim otherwise.

The obsession with trans rights has seen contested gender ideology infest schools at the expense of focusing on subjects such as maths, science and English where the bar has been set so low by the SNP there’s a fair chance my springer spaniel could get a pass mark and rapists can switch into female jails so they can practise being women.

I voted for independence in 2014 and thank the heavens others had more sense. The carnage the SNP could have wreaked left entirely to its own devices doesn’t bear thinking about.

Eileen McAuley, Bothwell.

Shona Robison piloted the Gender Recognition Reform Bill through the Scottish Parliament (Image: PA)

Wide support for GRR Bill

ANDY Maciver (“If the SNP crisis turns into a full-blown crisis, where next for Scottish politics?”, The Herald, December 29) writes that the Gender Recognition Reform Bill "can find its roots in the coalition with the Greens". The Scottish Greens have long been strong supporters of LGBT equality, but this is historically incorrect.

Gender recognition reform was originally a manifesto commitment of each of the SNP, Labour, LibDems and Greens, in their party manifestos for the 2016 Holyrood election. In 2017, the then Scottish Government published detailed proposals for the reform, covering all the main elements of the final bill, for public consultation. In 2019, it published the bill itself for consultation. The four parties then repeated their manifesto commitments for the 2021 election. All that of course pre-dates the SNP/Green coalition, which began after the 2021 election.

When the GRR Bill finally came to parliament, having been held up by the pandemic, all four parties mentioned above supported it, with a number of constructive amendments made. It passed of course with a two-thirds majority, and the Equality Network is grateful to all parties and MSPs who supported the bill.

That support should not come as a surprise however. Similar legislation has already been enacted in more than 30 other liberal democracies around the world. And it would now be in place here, were it not for the most socially illiberal UK Government since the 1980s.

Tim Hopkins, Director, Equality Network, Edinburgh.

Read more: Won't someone give Labour a lesson on socialist values?

The menace of nappies

ALLAN Sutherland's very sensible proposals (Letters, December 29) for a more productive return on the £33 billion earmarked for "green heating" didn't include the issue of the impact of disposable nappies on the environment. To be fair, none of the other UK political parties is keen on highlighting the problem as it isn't a vote-winner.

Using UK data for a pro rata comparison, Scotland could be landfilling around 800,000 disposable nappies every weekday. These won't have decomposed by the end of this century.

There have been alternatives around for a few decades that would reduce a child's consumption to 15 "real nappies" every two years, making a significant reduction in the family budget. On paper it's a no-brainer.

Scotland already had a successful company (Tots Bots) but it folded last November solely due to cashflow problems. Why didn't the SNP/Green Alliance step in and provide some temporary funding to keep it going?

Part of the problem is a generation of grannies who remind anybody prepared to listen of their experiences with the old laborious system where nappies had to be steeped, then scrubbed and laundered. Why hasn't Zero Waste Scotland spent some of its substantial PR budget on bringing the public up to date with today's modern products?

John F Crawford, Preston.