Readers' letters: Councillors go quiet on strip club verdict

I write as an active member of the Edinburgh Northern and Leith Labour Party and will criticise my (13 out of 64) councillor colleagues where I think deserved and praise when too I feel deserved.
Strip clubs Burke & Hare, Baby Dolls,  Showbar and Western Bar are sparedStrip clubs Burke & Hare, Baby Dolls,  Showbar and Western Bar are spared
Strip clubs Burke & Hare, Baby Dolls, Showbar and Western Bar are spared

I have in mind the work in the council chambers and in their respective wards of new(ish) Labour councillors Katrina Faccenda and Ross McKenzie; I wish I had their energy!

You report the win by the United Sex Workers Union (News, 11 February) on behalf of their members working at the Burke and Hare, Western Bar and Diamond Dolls, all in a very small confined area of the city, minding their own business and trying to make a living in these toughest of times.

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No, my Labour colleagues, nor anyone else, not to feed problematic drug use!

Women are by this judgement allowed to work, allowed to put food on the table, many with kids, hurrah! I look forward to reading Lord Donaldson's common sense written judgement. He did, of course, reserve the matter of costs for another day.

I hope our council is insured, they do seem to be on the losing side of litigation way too often. Please do not appeal.

And meanwhile, not a single comment from any of the administration (Labour supported by the Tories) - councillors, where are you?

Douglas McBean, Edinburgh

Sturgeon running out of time in the polls

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I know the SNP leader has a fascination with opinion polls and readily quotes numbers, but only the polls she likes.

Well. the largest in Scotland for some time came out in the Sunday Times and it is shouting out loud and clear to Nicola and it is saying it is time to go

Forty two per cent of the Scots asked want her to resign immediately and a further 13 per cent are not sure. Added together that is 55 per cent - a clear majority!

The Scots voters are following the Indian Council of Scotland, the Muslim Council of the UK and just about every women's group in Scotland withdrawing any support for "our Nicola".

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She is the only political leader on earth that does not understand or listen to anybody else and of course she is never wrong and can never remember!

David MCoutts, Edinburgh

It’s defence spending that fuels inflation

The UK government refuses to talk with striking public sector workers in England, deceitfully arguing pay rises in line with inflation will incite more inflation.

Yet it is planning to increase its £50bn defence budget by more than £1bn and to lavish £205bn on Dreadnought, the nuclear weapons system to replace Trident in Scotland.The UK has one of the largest defence budgets in Europe but one of the weakest economies, thanks to austerity, Brexit and having sold off the state’s strategic resources and infrastructure to private companies.

Defence spending, unlike spending on health and education, doesn’t benefit people or the economy. The money flows to US arms manufacturers. Defence spending worsens the UK’s trade balance and creates domestic inflation.

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By contrast, money spent on nurses and teachers provides useful services to the community and stimulates productive economic activity because these workers spend their wages into the real economy.

The economic logic of this escapes the UK government because it has been completely captured by corporate interests.

Scotland can either remain a de facto colony of a sinking England or restore its independence so the sovereign Scottish people can control their own future.

Leah Gunn Barrett, Edinburgh

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