Readers' letters: Partygate is just tip of a moral iceberg

As ‘Partygate’ rumbles on it seems to be taking up a disproportionate amount of space in the media.

For a government without a moral compass what did anyone expect? Decency?Elsewhere, however, it only takes a brief outline of the Michelle Mone PPE scandal, for example, to throw into high relief the extent of this incompetence.Initially, Ms Mone pitched to the cabinet minister for procurement Lord Agnew that she could supply PPE via an Isle of Man company called PPE Medpro, which had only been set up a few days before.

Michael Gove became involved when the wheels were moving too slowly and she contacted him directly. Leaked civil service emails describe how angry she was that things weren’t moving quickly enough.

Gove then submitted it to the VIP lane for ‘politically connected companies', which he at first claimed did not exist. We now know it did.

Mone claimed to have no connection to PPE Medpro who were the middle-men in this deal. It now transpires that both she and her husband were connected.

PPE was bought from China for £46 million and sold to the government for £122 million. Not a single garment was deemed fit for use and now languishes in a shipping container somewhere down south.

Some might think a profit of £76 million for useless products was good entrepreneurial business, even if it was taxpayers’ money. Some might think it was profiteering when people were dying and the country was in crisis.Whatever the morality of this debacle, at a time when the cost of living is going through the roof, the UK government has shown itself to be incompetent and utterly wasteful of taxpayers’ money.

It has shelled out to many ‘politically connected companies’ for sub-standard equipment and has squandered billions.

‘Partygate’ is only the tip of the moral iceberg.

D Mitchell, Edinburgh.

Sunak letting down needy pensioners

Chancellor Rishi Sunak says that he can't help everyone, but he could help struggling pensioners by reintroducing the triple lock on pensions.

This would raise pensions on 11 April by 8 per cent and provide help to those pensioners having to decide whether to heat or eat.In November last the House of Lords voted to keep the lock but the House of Commons later overruled it, letting pensions rise this April by only 2.5 per cent.

The triple lock, a pension commitment, is due to return in April 2023, but the funding crisis is here and now. The Chancellor has seven days to act.

Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh.

Ferry fiasco is bad for SNP image

On the end of a deserved grilling over the ferry fiasco, Nicola Sturgeon gave the reply that her actions “saved the yard and jobs”.

Hmm! This is perhaps the case for now, though it will cost about £1 million per job at the end of the day.

What is more likely to be the case is that the incompetence of the SNP and their management of the whole project has ensured that the yard will have no future and no prospects of future work.

This is not fantasy as even the Scottish Government knows this is the case. Despite owning a shipyard they couldn’t bring themselves to award their very own yard – saved by the costly actions of the First Minister - the contract to build Scotland’s next two ferries.

Who else is going to entertain Ferguson Marine, if not the owners? SNP, protecting jobs and yards in Turkey.

Ken Currie, Edinburgh.

Write to the Edinburgh Evening News

We welcome your thoughts. Write to [email protected] including name, address and phone number – we won't print full details. Keep letters under 300 words, with no attachments. If referring to an article, include date, page number and heading.

A message from the Editor

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription. Click on this link for more information.