Readers' letters: Boris is back on his spinning wheel

Boris Johnson is doing the only thing he ever did well – spinning. The phrase 'taking back control' is centre-stage again. Our government is now taking back control from the tentacles of the dictator of Russia.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a virtual press conference

While Boris will have an uphill battle - despite his propaganda skills - if the Tories are to 'take back control' of the electoral map in the next election, Labour still look like they need a spin doctor or two if they ever hope to redress the propaganda advantages which the Tories have exploited in the past.

Luckily the off-stage noises can find such glaring failures of substance in Tory policies that even a Labour leader who doesn't have the sharpness of a Harold Wilson or the capacity to control the narrative of a Tony Blair can impede Johnson' attempt to take back control of political events.

It is obvious to anyone there is something distasteful about Boris Johnson trying to make propaganda capital out of the horror of the conflict in Ukraine.

And the public can see that Michael Gove's plan to find each Ukrainian family a room by paying the rent of £350 on their behalf is little more than tinkering, given that the Home Office maintains inflexible limits on Ukrainians coming here.

The Tories are at sixes and sevens, some calling for Priti Patel to go, some for the chancellor to stop the rise in National Insurance and lend more money to families facing huge fuel bills.

The problem is that the old Conservative party was linked to the south by being pro-EU, pro austerity and small government.

But the new Conservatives shifted their base nort and now look to do very badly in London regional elections. They are caught betwixt and between, and can only court the electorate by spinnning.

Andrew Vass, Edinburgh.

Independent way to managing resourses

Leah Gunn Barrett’ is right (letter, 12 March). I don’t think it’s fair to say that COP26 demonised gas, coal and nuclear energy.

It would be fairer to say that most environmental scientists agree that we need to reduce our dependence on these fuels or we face possible extinction.

Ms Barrett quite rightly asserts that the reasonable way forward is to switch to renewable clean energy. Nobody, including presumably Ms Barrett, would argue that this can be done overnight and the transition to renewables is indeed a thorny issue that needs public debate.

On balance, however, Ms Barrett’s suggestion that the way forward is through independence seems reasonable when considering how disastrously the UK government has managed Scotland’s resources.

This becomes very clear when, on the one hand, we see how close the UK ministers and MPs are with oil, gas and nuclear energies.

On the other, consider how well the Norwegians have managed their energy resources through their sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, with a return on investment of 1.58 trillion Norwegian crowns ($177 billion).

It would seem that self-determination for Scotland is the only way to serve the interests of the people of Scotland.

Peter Glissov, Edinburgh.

Market forces drive the cost of oil

The retail price of petrol is driven by middlemen and commodity speculators. Crude coming out of the ground has not suddenly become more expensive to extract and refine.

Demand falls as price rises, so price is reduced to increase demand, as the crude can’t be stored. Very soon the price at the pumps will be back to normal.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinross.

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