Green manisfesto is no help to Edinburgh - your views

"Anyone who has had building work done will know how impossible and irresponsible this timescale is, a mere four years”

Planters and excessive signage at the end of a very quiet Edinburgh west end crescent

Green manisfesto is no help to Edinburgh

The Scottish Greens manifesto is not good news for Edinburgh. The Pentlands Special Scenic Area would no longer be protected from wind farms, only National Scenic Areas and two National Parks.

The party would "Require all private sector homes to meet at least Energy Performance Certificates C at the point of sale of major refurbishment from 2025".

Anyone who has had building work done will know how impossible and irresponsible this timescale is, a mere four years. Stone built homes are particularly difficult to insulate and are mentioned.

The danger is that the Greens are predicted to hold the balance of power and therefore able to bargain with the SNP for support for independence and force through some of their policies.

Our "Green" politicians may have good intentions but after a pandemic the last thing people need is irresponsible targets preventing people moving house and being flexible in the new jobs market. Please read the manifesto.

Celia Hobbs, Peebles Road, Penicuik.

Scots may need England for work

On Radio 4's Today programme, Nicola Sturgeon rightly stated that no one is talking about excluding an independent Scotland from the UK common travel area - but maybe it's time Westminster got tough and started to?

Post-Scexit, the SNP assumes Scots will have the right to work in England and, if Scotland were ever to meet the EU's stringent entry requirements and join the EU in many years time, also work in mainland Europe.

However, almost none of us is fluent in any other language but English, so the chance to work in the EU is virtually meaningless - it's only job opportunities elsewhere in the UK that are of value. If Westminster withdraws the right for Scots from an independent Scotland to work in England, then in practice, Scots can't easily secure a job anywhere else.

That will, of course, be fine for some, but others may find it restrictive in that independence would be career limiting, shrinking freedom of choice and opportunity. Time for Westminster to become as aggressive as the SNP?

Martin Redfern, Melrose

Plonking planters is just plain crazy

Planters and excessive signage at the end of a very quiet Edinburgh west end crescent! Utter madness!

Stella Nelson, West End, Edinburgh.

Who will represent me in elections?

I look at the Scottish elections and I have to ask who represents me or the others who were in the 38 per cent who voted for Brexit. Of the five parties which were in the TV debates and which are assured of being re-elected, none is pro-Brexit.

To be sure the prime minister and the Conservative party in England are intent on making the best of Brexit, but the Scottish Conservatives? They range from entirely uninterested in the issue to almost as much rejoiners as the SNP. This is frustrating as the fact that a country can’t be independent in the EU is a key vulnerability of the SNP.

If I was one of the nationalists who followed the advice of Jim Sillars and voted for Brexit, I could vote for Alba.

But for around 20 per cent of the voting public who were both pro-Brexit and are pro-UK, no party with the profile to get into Holyrood caters for us. Sadly, the new MSPs will not represent all Scots.

Penny Patience, Ingliston Road, Edinburgh.