IN June I wrote in these pages how eradicating the virus would mean closing the Border with England and other neighbours. While that would be heartbreaking, it would be necessary to keep us safe. The science has now shown that we were close to joining countries such as Vietnam, Taiwan, South Korea and New Zealand in being Covid-free and having no everyday restrictions, but then travelling abroad and to England brought it back in.
While the reaction from Unionists and independence supporters alike to the idea of closing the Border to England was strongly against when Nicola Sturgeon mentioned it in a later press conference, that policy was enacted in mid-October without any great outcry. The legislation followed in November and with the incoming Level 4 restrictions it is due to be enforced at last.
READ MORE: Police chief warns English cars will be stopped to enforce travel ban
We now have another chance to go for eradication. Strongly enforce the Border ban with all our neighbours and remove the last of the exceptions for entering Scotland. It’s not nice but it will be worth it in the long term. We could follow Wales and much of England in having a “stay at home” requirement over the new year as part of the move to Level 4 if that is what it would take to rid us of this disease.
Our neighbouring countries are now shutting off travel options to the UK, and of course the UK is shutting off travel options to Europe for unrelated political reasons in two weeks. It would not take much more effort to eradicate Covid and stop wasting lives and money.
Jonathan Riddell
Gorebridge
THE opinions of Otto Inglis (Letters, December 21) on lockdown appear in The National and elsewhere. He believes they are ineffective and regularly quotes Sweden as an exemplar of a country which has not employed them and where mask-wearing is not prevalent. He uses the death rate in Sweden compared to elsewhere as evidence for his opinions.
READ MORE: New Covid strain will be spread by mass exodus from the south-east
Readers may be interested to hear that the number of deaths in Sweden is currently 7993. In the other Scandinavian countries, which have taken a different approach to lockdown, the deaths totals are, Denmark 1035; Norway 405; Finland 489. Readers can draw their own conclusions.
Douglas Turner
Edinburgh
CONSERVATIVES, we believe in “freedom”, said the Chancellor. Never has there been a more stupid nostrum uttered. To stop at “freedom” is irrelevant nonsense as one has to determine freedom to do what and freedom from what.
He has just added to this by exhorting those who have worked from home during lockdown to spend spend spend those extra savings gained from this to save the economy!
Nandos-man has completely lost it yet again. People use their income and savings to enable their family to thrive and grow and to meet their personal needs in the first instance. Given the turbulent times ahead, to exhort people to go on a mad spending spree is the height of irresponsibility.
Perhaps he had more in mind of “spending on the economy”, which will bump up share price, dividends and “bonuses” for the bosses and shareholders in the first instance. His hedge fund background is being revealed here in his latest uttering.
One has to wonder at this guy’s grasp of economics in the broadest sense – or is he just a spiv with a pan-loaf accent?
Perhaps he will “call up” those uber-rich home workers and enrol them to do National (Spend) Service, issuing them with a card which logs their extra “spend out to help out!”
John Edgar
Kilmaurs
I AM a politics student at Newcastle University. I am not surprised that support for Scottish independence is at a record 58% at this current point in time.
Nicola Sturgeon has said that the current situations regarding Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic are increasing the support for Scottish independence and this is completely understandable as England’s unresponsiveness to the health crisis by delaying closing borders and introducing tier systems highlights its ineffectiveness to govern.
Support for Scottish independence will undoubtedly have increased due to the EU being enthusiastic to readmit Scotland, according to Donald Tusk.
Brooke Simmons
Norwich
WITH the release of terrible Scottish drug death figures, it was inevitable that questions would be asked in Holyrood. Still, it was difficult to stay calm listening to the manufactured anger with which Baroness Davidson attacked the FM, accompanied by the rumble of furniture being battered to pieces by her Tory friends.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon apologises for ‘letting down’ Scots in drug-death crisis
Short-term answers to the problem are difficult and should be led by experts, not politicians, but there is one long-term answer which is usually neglected, especially by Tories: income inequality is positively correlated with drug and alcohol abuse, just as it is with many other societal and health problems. And which party has happily presided over a century of rising inequality in the UK while mouthing meaningless slogans such as the current “levelling up”?
Derek Ball
Bearsden
WOW! Now there’s a plan! What a great contribution in the Sunday National’s Seven Days section from Andrew Tickell (Drug deaths highlight the need for a political Lord Advocate, December 20). What an insight into what must be done not only for the independence struggle but most definitely to tackle our shameful, tragic drugs death record.
READ MORE: Drugs deaths in Scotland highlight why we need a political Lord Advocate
In the legal impasse that we find ourselves in we need a Lord Advocate who at least shares the ideology of the current Scottish Government, not one who cannot be a creative lawyer. Lives depend on the joined-up initiatives and players involved trying to change our record on drug deaths, but it is wasted energy if the Lord Advocate sticks to the letter of the law. He is putting the brake on essential, much-needed change. Hopefully the First Minister was reading the article at breakfast and notes the promise this single action might hold.
Patricia Logan
Dalkeith
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