Readers' letters: Time to open up again after vaccinations

" No government can keep its public 100 per cent safe from anything and I don’t expect them to”

Deputy charge nurse Katie McIntosh giving Clinical Lead of Outpatient Theatres Andrew Mencnarowski, a Covid vaccine at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, on December 8.

Time to open up again after vaccinations

Now that the elderly and vulnerable are fully vaccinated, it’s time lockdowns were completely lifted so we can get on with life before it’s too late.

These lockdowns have caused irreparable damage to people’s lives and livelihoods, many others have died because of the cancellation of hospital appointments.

My own family were directly affected with this when my father’s follow-up appointment was put on the back burner for nearly six months. By the time he was seen his relatively minor problem had developed into terminal cancer.

Then you have thousands of people still on furlough that won’t have jobs when it ends. The hospitality sector is on its knees, many pubs, clubs and restaurants will never reopen and neither will countless businesses in other sectors.

The damage to young people’s education is almost immeasurable and will set thousands of pupils back to the extent that their future prospects will be impacted.

It’s time we learned to live with this virus and got on with it. Covid is here to stay and the sooner we realise this the better.

No government can keep its public 100 per cent safe from anything and I don’t expect them to. What I do expect is for a responsible government to make things as safe as possible, publish the medical evidence, then let us decide for ourselves what we want to do or where we want to go.

To visit quite a few countries in the world you have to get a yellow fever jab. This by no means guarantees you won’t get yellow fever, so you have to decide whether you want to go or not, same thing applies to Covid.

I know a lot of people won’t agree but, if some want to be locked away at home for years to come then that’s up to them.

David Smith, Doctor McEwan Lane, Prestonpans.

Trade deal mismatch

The broad outlines of a free-trade agreement between the UK and Australia should be viewed in context.

It is the UK's first post-Brexit trade agreement to be negotiated from scratch, and the government has long argued that the ability to strike its own deals around the world is one of the big benefits of leaving the EU.

However, on the government’s own figures the deal is estimated to add 0.02% to UK GDP in 15 years’ time, while its own estimates of leaving EU single market will reduce UK GDP by four per cent over the same period. We will need the equivalent of 200 Australias to offset the impact of leaving the largest single market in the world.

Alex Orr, Marchmont Road, Edinburgh.

Whine trade

So, the good news is the march of capitalism to a free market economy brings great benefits to the people of the UK and Australia of reduced/no tariffs.

As a retired person on a modest income one of my few pleasures in life is a glass of wine of an evening. So the news that a cheap box of Australian plonk is to cost me less has to be welcomed with open arms? No.

Nicola Sturgeon’s crew have ensured that the £5 a bottle brigade continue to suffer from minimal alcohol pricing. While efforts have to be made to combat alcoholism, why do only the less well off have to pay?

John Allan, Edinburgh.

Inventing grievances

Following attacks on Lothian Buses employees and passengers a nationalist MSP from Glasgow suggested he could “only assume” that Lothian were guilty of “anti-Irish racism” because bus services were cancelled on part of St Patrick’s Day.

It is time to even things up and make it a criminal offence to accuse someone of being racist or bigoted, when clearly they are not.

Alastair Murray, Edinburgh.