Ian Murray's democratic deficit for Scotland - your views

Intro

Ian Murray has lodged an Erasmus and Financial Services amendment to the Brexit deal

Murray's democratic deficit for Scotland

Ian Murray (Opinion, January 7) criticises Scottish democracy. He just voted with the Tories to approve a Brexit trade deal that will shrink the Scottish economy by 5% when Scotland voted to remain in the EU.

The Tory government’s Internal Market Bill is re-imposing Westminster control over the Scottish Parliament. Scottish MPs in Westminster will fall from 59 to 57 while English MPs will rise from 533 to 543, further widening an already gaping democratic deficit.

He criticises the Scottish government’s pandemic response. Throughout, Holyrood has been more transparent and has communicated more clearly than Boris and his crew.

The UK has the highest new Covid case rate in the world and one of the highest death rates, a shameful indictment of the Tory government. Corruption has compounded the misery. As a New York Times report revealed, half of the £22 billion in UK Covid contracts were awarded to companies either run by friends of Tories and/or those with no prior experience, while smaller firms with expertise but no political clout got nothing. Yet Ian wants us to blindly trust ‘the system.’

Boris stonewalled SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford when he asked if there were sufficient vaccine vials, if further travel restrictions would be imposed, if there would financial support for the self-employed, and why Holyrood was being denied additional funding during the current lockdown.

The Tories and Trump share a contempt for democracy. That’s why the Union’s days are numbered.

Leah Gunn Barrett, Merchiston Crescent, Edinburgh.

Teachers should be a vaccine priority

The Scottish government rightly acknowledges that the Covid-19 restrictions have had a serious impact on our economy. They also state that getting the children back into full time, face to face education is their number one priority.

Why, then, are they not putting teachers and members of any teaching establishment right at the top of the vaccination programme after NHS and care home staff?

The current level of who gets the vaccine first seems to be based on a purely political desire to cover up the appalling mess made of the strategy to send the elderly into care homes last year, spreading the virus exponentially and causing masses of unnecessary deaths. So nothing to do with the economy then.

School lockdowns are having untold educational and psychological damage to our school age children and their families as a result of these closures. The Scottish government needs to make their words match their actions and start vaccinating teachers now.

Juliet Le Page, Edinburgh

Nicola has too many hurdles to jump

As an exercise in presump-tion, Nicola Sturgeon's plea to the EU to 'keep the light on for Scotland' takes some beating. It assumes, she would win May's election if there is one; there would be a referendum (Boris willing); she would win; we would meet the criteria for joining in the EU (we don't) - negotiations with Croatia took ten years.

It is possible that under the SNP, we would be out of both Britain and the EU - a disaster, brought about by them, who claim to stick up for Scotland.

William Ballantine, Dean Road, Bo'ness.

Shot in the dark

It is now clear that a one-shot referendum provides significant immunity against separatism. There is no need for a second shot any time soon after the first.

Jill Stephenson. Glenlockhart Valley, Edinburgh.