Readers' letters: Making life hard for the bank governor

Poor Andrew Bailey at the Bank of England is having sleepless nights about the state of the economy and the difficulties of performing his role as governor.

The public are waking up daily to find a surprisingly new picture of Tory incompetence. Daily newspapers are publishing criticisms of present and previous Tory governments

We are now told that the inflation crisis of the 70s had its roots in the Barber boom. We hear that Thatcher's government did not come near to meeting her plans for economic development. And now we hear that most businesses are totally against the naive Liz Truss idea that to grow our economy all you need is trickle down.

Why does Truss suddenly have to reduce in scale government policy to exclude migrants? It's because the popular innuendo orchestrated by Tory MPs against migrants that went on for years had helped cause a lack of skilled workers.

And now the government intends to encourage the development of windfarms – further examples of U-turning.

Andrew Vass, Edinburgh.

Meat eating is off climate crisis menu

Ignoring the necessity to adjust ones diet and give up consuming all animal by-products is not an option when acting to combat climate change.

COP27 President designate, HE Samey Shoukry, Egypt’s foreign minister, says, "We must accelerate climate action on all fronts” and that "there can be no room for delay."

Yet in the list of examples he gives, no mention is made of the food we eat. Is Mr Shoukry vegan or at least vegetarian? Perhaps he could let us know.

In the climate change conference in Glasgow bits and pieces of animal corpses and other animal by-products were served up.

This was not the choice of the catering staff, but those who organised the conference. And the majority of those attending, supposedly concerned about climate change and there to discuss what action could and should be taken, apparently saw nothing wrong in eating such inappropriate food.

The amount of hypocrisy regarding climate change is breathtaking although not surprising.

Newspapers should no longer publish restaurant reviews and cookery pages containing animal ingredients.

If restaurant reviewers are not happy about being restricted to plant-based meals I feel sure there would be many vegans and vegetarians willing to take their place.

It would also hopefully encourage chefs to be more inventive and provide tasty, animal-free dishes.

Many do already, but there are also many who give little thought to the many vegan diners who are growing in numbers.

Sandra Busell, Edinburgh.

Nuclear power is cost competitive

In an interview last week on BBC1 Nicola Sturgeon was asked about nuclear power, which the SNP has always opposed while perversely permitting existing power stations to continue operating.

Her reply was that “It's a highly expensive form of energy.” Is this now the SNP's chief objection?

If she meant the price of the electricity it generates, then she was wrong. Although nuclear's capital costs are greater than those for coal-fired plants and much greater than those for gas-fired plants, its fuel costs are a minor proportion of the total generating cost.

Consequently nuclear power is cost competitive with other forms of electricity generation and there is no reason to reject it on cost basis.

Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh.

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