Sir, – I was given a copy of Greta Thunberg’s booklet No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference which contains 11 of her own speeches.
In one of them she refers to her Asperger’s syndrome which, she explains, only permits her to see issues in terms of black and white.
Her speeches continuously repeat the mantra that human emission of carbon dioxide is the sole cause of climate change.
There are no references to the many natural forces of nature, historical natural climate variability or the influence of the sun.
This is, however, an accepted characteristic of her condition where, in spite of an enthusiastic and passionate grasp of a particular subject, there is an inability to consider multiple perspectives.
These are features of Asperger’s syndrome that are often described as “mind blindness” by therapists, a trait that equally seems to apply to climate alarmists.
It is wrong that this young person’s challenging condition, her youthful zeal, her apparent inability to read between the lines and lack of worldly wisdom have been manipulated and taken advantage of by vociferous left-wing green extremists.
They have presided over a transition from valid environmental concerns to the theory of global warming.
When the warming phase stalled we got to the slightly more concerning concept of climate change, apparently responsible for every unusual weather event.
Now we have their latest attempts to ratchet up fear and guilt by rebranding it as a climate emergency.
If they cared to consider for example that the life-giving CO2 “pollutant” comprises just 0.04% of our atmosphere, of which part the human contribution is merely 3.8%, then maybe a few rays of enlightenment might enter their consciousness and encourage a New Year resolution to open their minds and help to disperse the green smokescreen of falsehoods and needless alarm.
Neil J Bryce.
Gateshaw Cottage,
Morebattle,
Kelso.
What is the true cost of new aircraft carriers?
Sir, – If the UK Ministry of Defence wants to sort out its mess on funding and set itself on a level financial footing for the future, then a good place to start would be to come clean on the final cost of building and commissioning the Royal Navy’s two new aircraft carriers.
The MoD has disingenuously used commercial sensitivity as an excuse to stifle all queries on cost growth on these two new carriers since the final £6.2 billion build and commissioning budget was set back in November 2013.
Even after allowing for the way in which the Navy’s in-service budget appears to have been siphoned to complete HMS Queen Elizabeth and bring her up to operational standard – at the expense of the operational frigate, destroyer and amphibious fleet, much of which remains berthed alongside due to lack of funds – it is implausible that this £6.2bn budget for the new carriers has held.
In spite of the spin from the MoD on how well the build has gone, it is apparent that both carriers were around nine months late in leaving Rosyth compared to expectations back in the summer of 2015.
This slippage amounts to an awful lot of yard and crew cost and, I’ll wager my dinner, that the £6.2bn budget has now been totally blown.
If the MoD stopped hiding behind commercial sensitivity, the true final bill for building and bringing the two carriers up to operational state will (realistically) top out at around £8bn.
Particularly if one allows for the way that some of the cost seems to have been decanted over on to the Batch 2 River Class Patrol Ships and Type 26 Frigates, whose over-inflated cost can only really be explained by cross-booking of costs between projects.
The UK Government’s 2009 Terms of Business Agreement for shipbuilding more or less facilitated this cross-booking by the way in which it guaranteed the shipyards a post-carrier income regardless of what they built.
The Royal Navy has spent two decades indulging itself in fantasy, by sinking huge sums of taxpayers’ money on these two aircraft carriers, that are far larger, more costly and complex than they ever needed to be for bona fide UK needs.
Now that the second and final ship, HMS Prince of Wales, has been commissioned into the fleet, it is time for a line to be drawn under this nonsense, and for the government to present the UK parliament with an honest, final bill for the two ships.
If they are unable to present a finalised bill at this stage, they should at least confirm the total cost to date and a reasonable date by which they will confirm the finalised cost.
Dr Mark Campbell-Roddis.
1 Pont Crescent,
Dunblane.
Focus on issues in health sector
Sir, – Official figures show delayed discharges from hospital cost the Scottish NHS 521,772 bed days in 2018-19, a 6% increase from 2017-18.
That is to say, over half a million bed days were lost in Scottish hospitals because no safe destination had been found for those whose medical problem had been resolved and who did not require the expensive accommodation provided in a hospital.
This meant that some of those arriving at A&E who required to be detained could not be moved on because no bed in an inpatient ward was available.
Medics will tell you the best thing for patients, especially the elderly, is to spend as little time as possible in hospital because prolonged stays can lead to atrophying of muscles and exposure to infection.
I thought health and social care responsibilities had been merged in Scotland.
But where is there any sign of the system available in Sardinia, where a friend was briefly hospitalised and then, when no illness was diagnosed, accommodated in an adjacent care home for several days until she was fit to travel home?
Health and social care are fully devolved to Holyrood and have been the SNP’s responsibility since 2007; the current first minister Nicola Sturgeon is also a former health minister.
Why is the time and energy expended on the separatist movement not directed into solving the genuinely pressing problems in the health and social care sector?
Jill Stephenson.
Glenlockhart Valley,
Edinburgh.
Exemplary service to public
Sir, – Clearly some of those employed at senior levels in the public sector deem themselves to be on a higher moral and social plane than the rest of us.
I joined a niche engineering firm as financial controller in 1985. It had 30 to 40 employees and was at risk of insolvency, particularly during the 1980s subsea oil industry downturn.
Our superb engineers, technicians and many others kept it going through some very difficult years, sometimes at the cost, inter alia, of untaken holiday entitlements.
When I retired in 2008, we employed over 350 in full-time positions.
I consider my colleagues and I also “gave 30 years of public service”, in the entitled words of Alison Saunders, former director of public prosecutions, as she justified her damehood.
John Birkett.
12 Horseleys Park,
St Andrews.
