Sir, – In suggesting we should be having a “grown up discussion” about the corona lockdown, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is belittling our intelligence.
We can all see what is going on. We realise this will take some time.
We can see the situation is worse in some areas and better in others and the risk for some is more, and for others, less. We can see the current strategy appears to be working, but that any decision to unlock is going to be difficult if we don’t want things to run away on us again.
All countries are having to consider this issue at the moment and, luckily for us, several such as Spain, Italy and France are a few weeks in front of us, so we can get some clues on what works and what does not.
We can see vaccines are in development, that new drugs and medical techniques are being developed and that, all the while, our economy is being underwritten by the UK Treasury.
Ms Sturgeon has said nothing that adds to our understanding of what is going on.
By going on television every day to say what the UK Government are going to be saying a few hours later is infantile enough, but to start talking about options for several weeks in to the future, she is confusing the message.
The risk is this undermines solidarity and confuses people. It might even make them angry or disheartened.
If that happens, the risk is they will break out, and the problem will flare up again.
Ms Sturgeon likes to be seen as the one in charge. But, she is not in charge of this situation, which is being driven by scientific expertise at a UK level, and being paid for by the UK Treasury.
As such, Ms Sturgeon needs to put her disruptive instincts to one side and try to be a team player.
Preparing her lunchtime television programme must take up a considerable proportion of her day.
She would be better advised to use that time to oversee the particular situation in Scotland.
We don’t need a Scotland specific strategy. We have the same problems as everyone else.
The solutions too are likely to be the same.
Victor Clements.
Mamie’s Cottage,
Aberfeldy
Perthshire.
Boris’s lifeboat springs a leak
Sir, – On Wednesday April 22, a lifeboat was launched captained by Jenny Hjul (Spare us the blame game, Courier).
The article was an attempt to rescue Boris Johnson from the storm that will surely engulf him and his incompetent government.
The vessel is springing leaks on a daily basis, therefore Ms Hjul’s Grace Darling attempt to rescue Boris and his crew from the gathering storm is bound to fail.
Her article invites the reader to abandon the blame game.
Never mind that Jenny is a veteran exponent of the same, with hardly a week passing when she finds something to blame on the Scottish Government, yet not a cheep regarding the shambles of Westminster.
James Smith.
4 Brownhill Place,
Camperdown, Dundee.
Reopening the pubs is possible
Sir, – Can pubs and retailers not be allowed to partially re-open if they agree to install CCTV, to enable remote monitoring of the two-metre rule by local authorities?
Not a few have it already, and of course the police can always carry out spot-checks.
In common-sense Sweden, where the pubs are open, table service is now mandatory, and if customers ignore social distancing then closure can be the result.
I reckon that in Scotland there’s almost universal acceptance of the need for distancing, and that in only a few cases would the relaxation be abused.
By the way, the two-metre stipulation isn’t set in universal stone
In Germany it is 1.5m.
George Morton.
29 Hudson Road,
Rosyth.
What are risks of online shopping
Sir, – In 1665, while the bubonic plague was rife in London, a consignment of cloth sent from there to the village of Eyam in Derbyshire proved to be a carrier of the Black Death.
The villagers, in a brave act of sacrifice, put the whole place in quarantine..
This shut down helped to stop the disease spreading to other hamlets, but over a period of 14months 260 residents of Eyam died.
A boundary wall was used as a trading post where villagers put money in holes as payment for food left by wellwishers, and vinegar was used as a disinfectant in these transactions.
If one piece of merchandise could virtually wipe out a whole village, what risk is there, in these modern times, for people shopping online to gain goods, from national and international sources, which may well carry viral Covid-19 contagion?
Ron Caird.
East Station Place,
Newport-on-Tay.
Options for a future currency
Sir, – In uncertain times, there is comfort in knowing some things don’t change, such as letters pages of pro- and anti-separation offerings, whose authors aren’t going to give an inch.
However, this virus crisis has highlighted one issue that ought to provide an objective conclusion.
When the lockdown was imposed, the UK chancellor announced mind-boggling sums to support those affected.
He could do this because, to all intents and purposes, he controls Sterling.
Not our individual banknotes but the mechanics and processes behind running a currency. Essentially, he can create money.
And Scotland, being part of the UK, reaps the benefits.
The chancellor can’t create dollars or euros or yen because they belong to others. If he, or you or I, want some , we buy them at the going rate.
So what of an independent Scotland?
I’m aware of four options – sharing the pound; using it, Scotland’s own currency locked to the pound and its own free floating currency.
Sharing the pound isn’t going to happen.
The UK is firmly against sharing its currency and the current crisis illustrates why.
The chancellor can act quickly, while the euro countries have to argue and agree, something that’s becoming increasingly fragile.
A separating Scotland would take with it a part of the wealth but it would leave behind the mechanisms of control.
Using the pound is straightforward.
Anyone can use any of the world’s fully convertible currencies.
Panama uses the dollar. So could Scotland, if it so chose, just as it could use the pound but it would have no control over it.
It couldn’t make new ones. So the finance secretary couldn’t bail out Scots in a crisis.
Our own currency locked to the pound might work for a time.
The UK locked the pound to the proto-euro as part of the ERM experiment till the weight of illogicality broke the lock.
A new Scottish currency could be locked for a time but only as long as the two were roughly equal in worth.
Once the demand for exchange becomes too one-sided, something has to give, unless exchange controls are imposed.
It’s difficult to see this option ending well.
Own currency, free floating will work because there will be an exchange rate, which will go up and down as exchange rates do.
The pound will be worth £1.20. Or 80p. Or who knows what.
Dave Dempsey.
7 Carlingnose Park,
North Queensferry.
