Readers' letters: Questions but no answers from Nicola on vaccine app

This week I had the misfortune to watch Scottish Parliament TV in the hope that I might receive some enlightenment from the First Minister on the reasons for the shambles surrounding the introduction of Scottish vaccination app and its harmful effect on the hospitality industry.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaking during an update to MSPs on changes to the Covid-19 restrictions, at the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh. Picture date: Tuesday October 5, 2021. PA Photo. See PA story SCOTLAND Coronavirus . Photo credit should read: Fraser Bremner/Daily Mail/PA WireFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaking during an update to MSPs on changes to the Covid-19 restrictions, at the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh. Picture date: Tuesday October 5, 2021. PA Photo. See PA story SCOTLAND Coronavirus . Photo credit should read: Fraser Bremner/Daily Mail/PA Wire
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaking during an update to MSPs on changes to the Covid-19 restrictions, at the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh. Picture date: Tuesday October 5, 2021. PA Photo. See PA story SCOTLAND Coronavirus . Photo credit should read: Fraser Bremner/Daily Mail/PA Wire

And also an explanation of why the same computer system was sending elderly Edinburgh city residents to the far flung reaches of East and West Lothian for their flu vaccinations and residents in those regions into the city for the same vaccinations.

One can only commend the fortitude and patience of the long-suffering NHS staff in trying to cope in the face of the total organisational shambles perpetrated by the SNP government.

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Needless to say the session in the Parliament did not add to the sum of human knowledge, being the usual circus of perfectly reasonable questions from all the opposition parties receiving no answers.

Ross Greer raised an important point about the fund set aside to improve ventilation in schools. One would have expected that, given how much the education of our children has suffered, the First Minister would have been only too happy to deal with the question. However, instead she read a prepared answer about helping small businesses. No wonder even Ross Greer looked bemused.

As I could not believe what I was hearing I replayed the question and answer and there was no doubt that the answer did not address any part of Mr Greer's question.

No MSP queried the meaningless answer nor raised a point of order.

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Surely Scotland deserves better governance than that provided by the SNP on autopilot and the failure of all the opposition parties to really hold them to account.

John Donald, Edinburgh.

Rocky underground

Rosco Black (News, 5 October) writes that Edinburgh needs an underground system, contrasting London’s having one as unfair.

That vast city is built on chalk and clay. Glasgow is large and has an underground too: it sits on limestone and coal measures.

Smaller Edinburgh’s hilly landscape is obviously fretted with the tough dolerite of palaeozoic volcanoes. Good luck trying to run an underground through that.

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Self-pitying resentment of what others have is always tempting, but love of our country must involve knowing something about it

Michael Upton, Edinburgh.

Power overload

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the SNP overstepped its power. Some lawyers have called the language they used in their decision ‘’unprecedented.’’

They identified four sections of the UN Convention on Children’s Rights and two of the European Charter that are incompatible with Holyrood’s legal powers.

Such was the language, even non-legal minds must ask: why did anyone bother in the first place? Could not Scottish taxes and attention be better spent elsewhere? Perhaps on our ferries, tackling drug deaths, mouldering and unfinished hospitals, the list is endless.

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The decision does not bode well for the SNP’s plans for another referendum without explicit Westminster consent. An illegal referendum would not be recognised by anyone anywhere, with the possible exception of parts of Catalonia.

It should be noted also that the UK Supreme Court was made up of five judges. Two were Scots, two English, and a Welsh judge completed the Court. The president, Lord Reed, was a Scot.

Another reality check for the nationalists.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh.

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