Readers' letters: Stones Somerville can unturn for teachers

The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, Shirley-Anne Somerville said she would leave 'no stone unturned' to find money for teachers pay rise.

I suggest she looks under the stone that found money for the First Minister and others to go uninvited to COP and give away Scottish taxpayers money.

Or she could look under the stone that found money to open and staff two further embassies in Poland and India.

Or she could look under the stone that funded lawyers to fight the indyref case in London, knowing she would lose but could use as a war cry against UK.

Or she could look under the stone that funded several more advisors to help write indyref documents. Or the under the stone she found money to give SNP MP Ian Blackford another job.

Elizabeth Hands, Armadale

Priorities are wrong on Scottish NHS

At last the SNP and Greens have woken up to the crisis engulfing our NHS. Not that much though, with the priority debating how to come up with yet another plan for independence.

SNP have been in full charge of the NHS in Scotland for over 12 years. Despite nationalists trying to find ever more fanciful ways to blame the UK government for the failed management of NHS Scotland, we know where the fault lies.

No amount of blaming others will provide a solution. Confidence that an ambulance will turn up in an emergency has gone. Timely treatment is a lottery, years on a waiting list becoming the norm as a result of SNP misplaced priorities.

Doctors, surgeons and nurses are crying out for help. We need better government, as SNP are failing Scotland again.

Alastair Murray, Edinburgh

Humanity must do more to save Earth

There is little doubt that people throughout the developed world are in danger of destroying our planet's ability to endure as a safe haven for humanity.

Despite knowing that all unnecessary air travel or continued extraction and burning of fossil fuels to power our transport system will result in the release of ever more greenhouse gases, we continue along the same destructive path. Even after numerous years of COP meetings. corrective action appears to be woefully inadequate.

Each person has a role to play along with every government and commercial company. Leadership should come from the developed countries which, since the industrial revolution, have released the most greenhouse gases.

The chances of this happening in the UK would be greatly increased if our politicians would stop thinking in the short term about what will get them the most votes.

I would suggest if one of the major parties were to state they were calling for a temporary cessation of party politics, then none of the other parties would dare raise objections.

The report of the recent Montreal COP25 Convention on Biodiversity Loss, warns effective action by all developed countries is urgently needed to maintain the ecosystems on which life on the planet depends.

The consensus of climate and biodiversity scientists is overwhelming. If all developed countries act responsibly, biodiversity loss will be reversed and greenhouse gas emissions reduced sufficiently to ensure that we do indeed save the earth from humanity.

Stanley Mowat, Bo'ness

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