PUSHING back migrants to France in the English Channel seems wrong-headed in many ways.

First, it will cost lives of the migrants no matter how carefully the UK Border Force gently cosset the boats back over the median line between UK and France.

If migrants are turned back towards the French coast and subsequently the migrants boat sink with drownings, how will know?

Will UK Border Force be required to follow the craft to ensure safe landing? If not, will French coastguard engage to take these migrants back to safety?

If no French coastguard are available, will the UK Border Force be required to land the migrants in the UK, as is the case now?

READ MORE: Priti Patel 'sanctions tactics' to send migrant boats back across the Channel

I, like Priti Patel, would like to stop the people traffickers, but this is not the way to do it.

Many commentaries by people who support migrants have stated that people traffickers exist because there is no legal way of migrants to apply for asylum or entry to the UK. There was a system in place where the UK had people in France managing entry applications, but this stopped when the European Research Group took control of the UK Government.

This government should know that where a need/demand exists, people will service this need. That is what a market-based economy allows. The same is true for drugs and alcohol.

We can’t stop migration, but at least we can manage to remove the people traffickers from milking the migrants.

Alistair Ballantyne
Birkhill, Angus

REGARDING the article about the Upper Clyde work with Jimmy Reid and the shipyard workers (How government inaction led to a shipyard work-in, Sep 7), it took workers with instructions from the unions to complete the orders.

The writing was on the wall for shipyards. Speaking as an ex-shipyard worker, we all knew we had many of the the best shipbuilders in the world yet they were blamed for the lack of flexibility. The truth was that British management for 100 years plundered the profits for their shareholders like the empire shipbuilding was finished, the reason being a major lack of investment in modernisation. The workers could not compete with countries building ships in huge sections – a lot indoors, where roofs opened up and cranes could lift hundred-ton sections. They were on a different planet.

READ MORE: How government inaction led to a Clyde shipyard work-in

It’s great that other countries in Europe still build ships, and workers enjoy sharing meetings with management on safety and union matters leading to better productivity. Mr Fry, the Scottish shipyard workers – like the car, steel and now renewable workers – don’t count, as British management’s attitude to working people will never change.

I know Scotland may have its faults, but I hope the I’m-all-right-Jacks in Scotland think about their children and grandchildren to fight for a country we can be proud to live in rather than be ruled by a xenophobic, cruel and heartless government.

Ian Gordon
Glenrothes

THE Scottish Government’s current handling (or absence of handling) of the pandemic has created a terrifying cognitive dissonance.

Of Europe’s nine worst Covid hotspots, seven are in Scotland. The other two are countries, not regions of a country.

With more than 6000 new infections a day, and an average of a dozen deaths a day, and a record ambulance waiting time of more than four hours, our government’s plan is … nothing. Just carry on.

England’s figures are much better than ours, but Boris Johnson, who reportedly said he would rather “let the bodies pile high” rather than have another lockdown, is, rightly said to be considering a “firebreak” lockdown in October.

READ MORE: Scotland should rethink its Covid strategy as the current one is failing

Let us pause and consider that. The English Tory government, led by Boris Johnson, is responding to this plague more skilfully and sensibly than the Scottish Government. These are words it feels very strange to write.

The SNP (of which I am a member) clearly knows restrictions should be in place, because even though party members could now gather unmasked in a club and dance close all night, branch meetings are still being held online, not in person. So party branches are, rightly, defying the policy of our party’s leadership.

Many people in Scotland are still working remotely, which means for-profit businesses are doing more to protect people than the Scottish Government is doing.

Nicola Sturgeon and her crew are no longer just showing poor leadership in this crisis. They have effectively abdicated, leaving us to fend for ourselves.

Greum Maol Stevenson
Glasgow

THE FM should hold a welcoming dinner at Bute House for all the leaders during COP26. Let’s see what Boris does. If he chooses not to attend, we could take it that he really doesn’t see himself as a world leader...

Noirin Blackie
Haddington