Buses should be a place of safety - your views

"Perhaps Lothian Buses should consider training their drivers to spot vulnerable women”

Buses should be a place of safety

I was on the bus home from work recently and a young woman tried to get on for a child's fare, but she clearly wasn't under 16. It became clear the young woman couldn't afford the adult bus fare and left the bus.

As I attempted to shout after her so I could pay her fare, the driver pulled away with little regard for her safety. This young girl could have been in a dangerous situation.

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With all the current media attention on women's safety, perhaps Lothian Buses should consider training their drivers to spot vulnerable women attempting to get home safely.

Lothian Buses belong to the people of Edinburgh, so what profit motive was there here? The least women or indeed anyone can expect from them is to get home safely if they feel in danger.

L Gilmour, Silverknowes, Edinburgh.

Health Board miss vaccine slots

I was pleased to read that the First Minister, who is 50, is to get her first vaccination before the Scottish government’s deadline of mid April for the delivery of the first dose to all those over 50 and in the high priority groups.

However, I know of people in Edinburgh who are over 60 and are still waiting for their first vaccination appointment. It would appear that, through no fault of their own, they were overlooked when the rest of the over 60s were being vaccinated.

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What is worse is that, even when the names of those forgotten people have been given to Lothian Health Board weeks ago, that board has done nothing to upload their data to NHS Scotland who are responsible for making the vaccination appointments.

They are not given any priority over the people over 50 who are currently being scheduled for appointment. They are just put into an ever increasing backlog.

These people have no means of finding out when their data will be uploaded and can only phone the helpline daily to find out if their names are on the list for appointments.

They are living in a Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare which is causing them needless physical and mental distress.

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If the Scottish government’s deadline is to be met, the First Minister will have to do something urgently to sort this situation out in Lothian Health Board and doubtless in other health boards as well.

Iain Jamieson, Edinburgh.

Cultural identity and political reality

For a component region of a modern nation-state,Scottish cultural identity is securely established and, arguably, disproportionately on display around the world. The tartans, the kilts, the bagpipes, the whiskies, and Mac as part of a family name, all travel well, and there is an acknowledged distinctively Scottish contribution to many disciplines.

Scottish national identity is magnified by an accident of history. With Britain having been prominent in setting up a variety of international organisations, Scotland, along with Wales, Northern Ireland and England, has “international” status in, for example, FIFA, UEFA, World Rugby and the Commonwealth Games. There is some justification for objections to sporting over-representation from the British Isles.

All this is much more recognition than for comparable component regions – Bavaria, Tuscany, Andalusia, Brittany, for example – which shared their sovereignty with their geographical neighbours.

Mature politicians marry cultural diversity with the hard realities of geography and economics in healthy, creative ways. Then we have the SNP and Alba.

Tim Bell, Madeira Place, Edinburgh.

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