Readers letters: SNP hypocrisy over Westminster barbs

" Maybe Boris watched Sturgeon’s eight-hour masterclass in avoiding answering questions”

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon welcomes Prime Minister Boris Johnson outside Bute House in Edinburgh ahead of their meeting. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Monday July 29, 2019. See PA story POLITICS Brexit Scotland. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

SNP hypocrisy over Westminster barbs

Over the last few days we’ve had some of the SNP ‘big guns’, Sturgeon, Robertson and Blackford laying into Boris Johnson and accusing him of Tory sleaze, lack of transparency and avoiding answering questions about decoration work in his flat.

After recent events at Holyrood I would say being accused of any of these things by the SNP is a bit like being scolded by King Herod about my babysitting skills.

Maybe Boris watched Sturgeon’s eight-hour masterclass in avoiding answering questions to the Salmond committee, maybe he should just say he’s forgotten or can’t recall if he paid for the work or not.

He could always simply refuse to hand over any evidence or say that the notes or minutes of the meetings about any of this have been shredded or lost.

I couldn’t care less who paid for the work in his flat as long as it’s not the tax payer.

As for handing contracts to his mates, the SNP should start doing this as well, maybe that will prevent new hospitals lying empty for years or ferries left rusting in dry dock or new bridges closing every time there’s a bit of frost in the air.

Johnson and the Tories will get their judgement by the voters at the next general election, in the meantime it would be good if the SNP concentrated on getting Scotland fully operational again and back to work instead of incessantly sniping at Westminster.

A blind man can see we have needed them during this pandemic as there would be no furlough scheme or self-employed grants without the financial support Scotland has received.

We have also benefited from being out of the EU as wel, as we wouldn’t have anything like the number of people vaccinated if the UK was still part of the block. That’s an indisputable fact.

David Smith, Doctor McEwan Lane, Prestonpans.

Survey shows Scots misled by myths

It is unnerving to read the results of a survey, by These Islands, that demonstrates the misapprehensions under which so many Scottish voters labour.

Many of those who support leaving the UK believe myths circulated by SNP campaigners including, for example, the claim that Westminster has invented the figures used by the Scottish government to hide Scotland’s true wealth; that Scottish tax revenues are understated because Scottish exports leaving via English ports are credited to England; that whisky taxes are not properly assigned to Scotland; that Scotland looks as if it runs a deficit because it pays for London infrastructure.

These myths are entirely separatist inventions. They are not true. Scotland is in grave danger of sleepwalking into disaster. And leaving the UK would mean a lower standard of living for Scots. That is what is true.

Jill Stephenson, Glenlockhart Valley, Edinburgh.

So when is green power really green?

Green electricity should be electricity that is generated 100 per cent from renewable sources not fossil fuels.

Companies such as Bulb Energy, Pure Planet, Shell Energy, Green Energy UK, Octopus Energy, Ecotricity and Ovo Energy claim to supply "100 per cent green electricity".

This is impossible, since fossil fuels generate a large percentage of the electricity sent to the grid. A report by consultancy firm Baringa with Scottish Power and Good Energy shows as little as three per cent of the power supplied by green providers is "genuinely green" and have asked the Advertising Standards Authority to investigate.

Could the claim of "100 per cent green electricity" be "greenwashing" ?

Clark Cross, Springfield Road, Linlithgow.