Readers' letters: The Maginficent Seven ride again

As a change from the rather gloomy recent correspondence, please can we have a lighter note?

The Lyceum Young Company’s performance of Seven Against Edinburgh is a vibrant show with a multi talented cast, directed by Becky Hope-Palmer and Sophie Howell.

These aspiring women medical students, led by the indomitable Sophia Jex-Blake, fought against all kinds of opposition from Edinburgh University and the wider public to their admission to study medicine, despite passing all the exams. They paved the way for women finally to study at universities, although the Edinburgh Seven only received their graduation certificates posthumously in 2018.

Central to their campaign were two important figures, James Y Simpson, the renowned obstetrician, who pioneered the use of chloroform in childbirth and Alexander Russel, the editor of the Scotsman in the 1870s. His support was “consummated” when he went on to marry Helen Evans, one of the Seven!

Sophia Jex-Blake fought for the right of women to train as doctors

The shame of it all is that the only visible reminder of the whole campaign is a small, partly obscured plaque at the unused entrance to the Surgeon’s Hall in Nicholson Street. These women and many others deserve more, in a city with more statues of animals than women.

Fiona Garwood, Edinburgh

Does Auld Reekie really still reek?

I am given to understand, while on my current visit to the capital city, that a Low Emission Zone is planned to be established soon.

Auld Reekie was understandably the deserved epithet for the antique Old Town, but since then the residential population has diversified, not least to the impressively airy New Town.

I have not (yet) been told of evaluation plans but surely one would expect thorough measurements of air pollution and its distribution across the city to be undertaken and published, both before and well into the LEZ , to demonstrate its utility.

Mallory Wober, London.

Broken spell

The vote for Boris Johnson to be reported to the Privileges Committee has two effects. Firstly it shows that some Conservatives have consistent integrity. Secondly, it breaks a spell.

The magic that the Conservative Party has concocted since the decline of Gordon Brown is gone. Those who were mesmerised by it can no longer now believe that the strong and stable Conservatives are invincible, balanced and stable.

I have seen the country mesmerised before. The Conservatives of Margaret Thatcher's era were the country's favourites. But the shine was gone in the next era. Labour MPs of the Tony Blair era were the ones with the Merlin touch.

Now Keir Starmer has the chance to impress. Now voters will want to listen. They will no longer say: “Oh Labour has no policies of note.” They may soon say: “Boris Johnson had the style once, but Keir Starmer has the substance.”

Can Labour be seen as the best party to manage the economy? Quite simply, businesses depend on consumers to keep buying so that the tough economic conditions of our times can be navigated. Leaving consumers to face a cost-of-living crisis with little government support will further hollow out our retail sector. Without realistic governing, we have a tough slide into recession.

Is the pendulum about to swing? If the Conservatives replace their prime minister and the whole cabinet, there can still be time for a new face of Conservatism to emerge. Style will no longer win. There has to be integrity and substance.

Andrew Vass, Edinburgh

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