'Climate justice must mean social justice' - Readers' letters

As coverage of COP26 dominates the news and myriad voices express their priorities I'm struck by how little attention is given to how the fight against climate change will affect ordinary people here in Scotland.

Climate activists march through the streets of Glasgow

The Scottish Socialist Party recognises the urgency of the climate crisis and fully supports the need to change our behaviour to combat this problem.

However, we are equally convinced that we must ensure that actions taken against climate change will improve the lives of working class people, rather than making them harder than they already are.

This is why you can see Scottish Socialist Party activists four days a week on Princes Street petitioning both Westminster and Holyrood to ensure that the measures taken include – among other things – bringing energy back into public ownership so that the change to renewables can be made without a single job loss, and introducing free public transport to give people a viable alternative to their cars.

It is uncontroversial to point out that in any crisis the worst off in society pay the highest price, we believe that must be turned on its head.

When approximately 75 per cent of harmful emissions are caused by 100 major corporations we can see that climate change and inequality are closely linked. Climate justice and social justice must also go hand in hand.

The fight against climate change is one that cannot be shirked, but it will only be truly successful if the methods deployed benefit the working class majority of Scotland and the wider World.

Michael Davidson, Scottish Socialist Party member, Edinburgh

Business rates

Daniel Johnson is guilty of misleading Evening News readers over business rates (1 November) as last year the Scottish Government gave 100 per cent rates relief to the retail and hospitality sectors for a full year – the only part of the UK to do so and at a time when the Tory Chancellor removed 100 per cent rates relief for those businesses.

Rishi Sunak has adopted some of the SNP's policies on Non Domestic Rates such as more regular revaluation and more reliefs. Scotland already offer reliefs for improvements and include new builds plus our poundage is lower than in England or Wales.

England are Wales are now catching up with Scotland’s National Living Wage at £9.50 an hour yet Sir Keir Starmer told his employment rights secretary to argue against a national minimum wage of £15 per hour.

The UK’s deficit was £324 billion last year and those who are working face a more than ten per cent rise in National Insurance while pensioners will lose out on £10 a week next year due to the change of UK government policy on tackling the worst state pension in western Europe.

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh

A blue letter day

My husband and I got quite excited this morning when two blue envelopes came through our door. We thought it must be dates for our Covid boosters but no, it was a letter each listing the dates we had both our jags and telling us various technical details about them.

What a waste of time and money these letters are. They will get dog-eared if we're expected to carry them with us. Why could a small card similar to a credit card not have been issued at the time of getting the jags? These would be much easier to carry and would have saved postage. I know for a fact that cards like these have been issued in some parts of England.

However, Nicola will never agree that Boris has had a good idea.

Sylvia Wilson, Edinburgh

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