Readers' letters: ‘Freedom Day’ is coming too soon

" Boris is undermining the only thing he says is the best way to fight Covid – vaccinations”

Boris Johnson gives an update on relaxing restrictions at Downing Street

‘Freedom Day’ is coming too soon

England is Europe’s Covid capital and the July 19 ‘Freedom to Infect Everyone Day’ will ensure it remains in first place.

This week England’s Covid infections were 43 per cent higher than Scotland’s and it’s certain they will continue to escalate after July 19.

The UK government is encouraging mass infection in England because herd immunity through infection has always been its goal. It welcomed the Delta variant into the country via 1.5 million overseas arrivals from January to April. With infections out of control, Boris and Sajid are washing their hands of any responsibility, placing it firmly on individuals and businesses to ‘do the right thing,’ but no one is sure what that is.

Boris is undermining the only thing he says is the best way to fight Covid – vaccinations. Mutations will emerge spawning more dangerous variants, further undermining the vaccination programme. But hey, Big Pharma will grow richer making vaccines to fight the never-ending cycle of variants.

The Scottish government is maintaining sensible mitigations including face masks and social distancing. It recognises that minimising infection and reopening the economy go hand in hand.

Leah Gunn Barrett, Merchiston Crescent, Edinburgh.

Scotland’s football legacy to the world

The influence of Scots in developing the modern version of football is becoming increasingly well-known, but there is considerably less awareness of our nation’s role in the development of football around the world.

The recent Copa America final, for example, saw Argentina defeat Brazil, but few will be aware of the pivotal role played by Scots in the development of the beautiful game in these two nations.

The so-called ‘father of Argentine football’ was a Gorbals-born schoolteacher, Alexander Watson Hutton, who in 1891 established the Association Argentine Football League, the first football league outside the British Isles.

In Brazil it was also a Scot, Charles Miller, who is widely recognised as the ‘father of Brazilian football’.

After bringing back a set of playing rules and footballs after his time at school in the UK, this led him in 1895 to organise a famous match between the Sao Paolo Railway Company and the Gas Company. Miller was also a founder of the football league, Liga Paulista.

The year prior to this match Thomas Donohoe, a textile worker from Busby, in East Renfrewshire, arrived in Rio de Janeiro.

It is understood that he organized the first ever football match in the history of Brazilian football, a five-a-side game which took place before Miller’s match, previously recorded as the first in Brazil.

Donohoe was also involved in founding the Bagu Athletic Club in Rio, important as it was the first to allow black Brazilian footballers to join.

Scots played a crucial role in the development of football in many countries around the world, and with a resurgent interest in the game in Scotland following Euro 2020 it provides the perfect opportunity to raise awareness of this.

Alex Orr, Marchmont Road, Edinburgh.

SNP funding probe is not a good look

So the police are to investigate SNP funds. Whatever the rights or wrongs of this, it does not look very good.

It seems that funds allocated for another referendum were spent elsewhere; this is not the action of a party that thinks another referendum is imminent, nor very important!

William Ballantine, Bo'ness.