McDonald that government policy is necessarily ruining Scotland’s justice system (It would be a backward step, Letters, June 25). Even after decades of effectiveness, a legal system does need reforms and improvements.
I am not a criminal law expert so I cannot comment on corroboration but I do know that some reform of the court structure was pressing and this Scottish government has been commendably resolute in implementing changes and, yes, some necessary economies.
For instance, many people believe that personal injury lawyers have over-used the highest court in the land, the Court of Session in Edinburgh, with relatively low-value (but lucrative in terms of lawyers’ fees!) compensation cases.
Now this SNP Government has put into practice Lord Gill’s civil court reform proposals by planning to remove low-value personal injury claims from the highest court and giving pursuers the chance to run their claims either in a centralised personal injury Sheriff Court in Edinburgh or in their local Sheriff Court.
This seems to me to be an eminently sensible example of necessary reform by the Holyrood Government and I congratulate Scottish ministers on carrying out this reform even in the face of strong opposition, as it seems to many, by the proponents of Scotland’s endemic compensation culture.
Angus Logan WS. Ardwell Policy Forum, North Berwick.
Futile efforts are put in perspective
Sir, A new report says the UK faces missing key targets to cut greenhouse gases through the 2020s (The Courier reports).
The whole point of cutting such emissions was said that it would reduce global warming, now conveniently renamed “climate change” since the world has not warmed for 16 years.
The UK only has 1.5% of emissions and Scotland 0.15%. Surely a more meaningful exercise to report would be to see how much world emissions have dropped since this whole expensive charade started.
Two reasons it is not done is that world emissions continue to increase as China and India open a new coal-fired power plant every day and Europe imports coal from America since wind electricity is too expensive as well as unreliable.
In addition 87.3% of the world refuse to curb their emissions or commit to future reductions. Puts the futile efforts of the UK and Scotland into perspective.
Clark Cross. 138 Springfield Road, Linlithgow.
Not good for wildlife tourism
Sir, The recent disastrous encounter between a rare white-throated needletail with a wind turbine on Harris was not a good omen for wildlife tourism in Scotland. It’s also another headache for Energy, Economy and Tourism Minister Fergus Ewing.
How can he square this deadly contradiction between his tourism and energy portfolios?
Alex Salmond has argued that Scotland’s commitment to renewable energy makes it more attractive to ecologically-minded visitors.
Ministers routinely tout Whitelee wind farm as a successful tourist attraction.
Perhaps Mr Ewing should take this creative thinking a step further and present this fatality as an exciting new marketing opportunity for Scottish tourism. Scotland could now become the must-visit place for viewing bird-mincing turbines in action and rare birds as museum exhibits.
Linda Holt. Dreel House, Pittenweem, Anstruther.
Medical staff should decide
Sir, The National Health Service’s troubles multiply day by day. Not only are patients affected, but doctors and nurses are also suffering badly. They are subject to constantly changing directives from the Government and managers with conferences, in-service training, reporting on staff efficiency and paperwork taking up more and more time, leaving less for patients.
The medical staff do not seem to have insisted on their predominant position being safeguarded when they agreed to co-operate with the National Health Service when it was first set up in the 1940s. Since then, doctors and nurses have become more and more subordinate to the authority of an increasing number of bureaucrats and managers.
This does not mean they cannot, even at this late stage, reassert their position and insist on regaining the respect and authority they once had. Consultants and matrons once ruled supreme in our hospitals and, by and large, they did an excellent job. I cannot remember anything like the chaos we see now in our hospitals when I was a regular patient of Dundee Royal Infirmary in the 1940s.
Doctors and nurses must take back the NHS from the bureaucrats, retaining only office staff and one manager in charge of the office in each hospital, with regional offices dealing mainly with the equipment needs of the health service.
Decisions on patient treatment should be left entirely to the medical staff. Perhaps then we might see a return to sanity in the NHS.
Come on, doctors and nurses. Stand up for yourselves. Tell the managers where to get off!
George K McMillan. 5 Mount Tabor Avenue, Perth.