Readers' letters: Soccer fan zones offer no health threat

"The much smaller Trafalgar Square fan zone is allowing up to 9500 fans to watch games”

John Devlin 04/06/2021. GLASGOW. Glasgow Green. The Fan Zone for EURO 2020 is being built as preparations are ramped up ahead of kick off. A giant tv screen is installed for fans. Banners have been installed around the city and are seen here in Buchanan Street.

Soccer fan zones offer no health threat

It seems Alex Cole Hamilton (Opinion, 9 June) has never been to Glasgow Green, otherwise he would know that this massive area capable of holding 80,000 people is only allowing a maximum of 3000 socially distanced football fans at any one time.

The much smaller Trafalgar Square fan zone in London is allowing up to 9500 fans to watch games without any lateral flow testing but opposition politicians, aided by the BBC, are not attacking the plans put in place in London.

The rent-a-quote opposition politicians in Scotland would gain more respect for their views if they had condemned the mob of thousands of Rangers supporters and their Unionist followers who attacked the police and trashed George Square in Glasgow.

Fraser Grant, Warrender Park Road, Edinburgh.

Scotland’s proud record on poverty

Jill Stephenson (letters, June 9) says the Scottish government is not using existing powers to alleviate poverty. Yet Scotland’s child poverty rate of 24 per cent is substantially lower than England at 30 per cent and Wales at 31 per cent.

Ms Stephenson doesn’t seem to know that most welfare spending is reserved to Westminster, and we know how much the Tories loathe helping the poor at the expense of the rich.

Despite devolution’s constraints, the Scottish government has mitigated some of the worst effects of over a decade of savage Tory welfare cuts.

In addition to providing more social housing per capita than England or Wales, the Scottish government has offset the bedroom tax, introduced free school meals, eliminated tuition fees and prescription charges, provided free child care, frozen the regressive council tax and is introducing the Scottish child payment with plans to double it.

By contrast, Rishi Sunak can’t wait to reintroduce austerity, which we’ve had a sneak preview of with the derisory one per cent pay increase for nurses.

Next in line is cutting the Universal Credit Covid uplift in October and ending furlough and other income support which will result in a tsunami of job losses.

Meanwhile, the Tories merrily squandered billions on Covid contracts for cronies, a failed test and trace system and an enlarged nuclear arsenal on Scottish soil.

Restoring Scotland’s independence is the only way to escape what Philip Ralston, the UN poverty and human rights rapporteur, called “the systematic immiseration of a significant part of the British population.”

Leah Gunn Barrett, Merchiston Crescent, Edinburgh.

Helping to rehome dogs in a pandemic

Since the pandemic hit, Dogs Trust West Calder has been continuing to take in, care for and rehome dogs.

During this time, we have established a virtual rehoming process which has been a huge success for many dogs which have been previously overlooked.

As restrictions lift we we want to start welcoming people back to the centre. From June 20, members of the local dog-loving public can book a slot to visit the centre on one of our information days, held every Sunday between 12-4pm.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank local dog lovers for their continued support and for helping us do what’s best for the dogs in our care.

To book a slot on one of our Information Days, please visit www.dogstrust.org.uk/ourcentres. If you are interested in rehoming a dog, please visit www.dogstrust.org.uk/rehoming to find out more about our virtual rehoming process.

Susan Tonner, Rehoming centre canager, Dogs Trust West Calder.