Nicola Sturgeon may be a good communicator, but Scotland’s death rate is the third highest in the world

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We have learnt from Nicola Sturgeon’s coronavirus briefings that being an excellent communicator is important – it builds trust. Many who despise Sturgeon’s nationalist politics have grudgingly admitted to being impressed by her daily performance.

But is this anywhere nearly enough? Scotland’s death toll from the virus tragically exceeds 4,000. Our tally per head, in this thinly populated country, is the world’s third worst. The high level of deaths and low level of testing in care homes is a particular tragedy. I’m aware of this from a personal perspective – at my father-in-law’s Scottish care home, despite management’s best efforts, not a single resident nor any member of staff has yet been tested.

Only the very few suggest Sturgeon doesn’t care or isn’t trying her best. Yet are Sturgeon’s communication skills matched by her strategic and tactical abilities in managing the virus’s deadly progress through our country? Sadly, statistics would suggest not.

Martin Redfern
Melrose

Standing up for what’s right

If only the new intake of Tory MPs, and those who wrote to protest about Cummings, would do the decent thing and resign their seats, we would have an opportunity for a government of National Emergency.

This could mean having people who know what they are doing, and who would work together to save this country from itself. We know the mendacious Johnson will use the virus as a cover for the abject failure that will be Brexit. At this time we could at least minimise the additional damage from that farce by asking for a long extension to the transition period.

Deals with America will not be deals, but instructions to us on how we run our businesses, and our food industry. Why was leaving the EU so important when the prospect of trade with America will be a nightmare? We will definitely not take back control.

Wake up England!

Sandra Kelly
Worthing

More than two metres

My background is in science, but I don’t see myself as having any particular specialist knowledge or a different way of thinking to the typical person. I am, however, shaken in this view when I meet up with anyone of a different background for a walk and a chat on the lovely open space of Harrogate’s Stray. I like to keep as far apart as we can comfortably hear each other speak, which is somewhat more than a couple of metres. They will say, “But it’s two metres!”

My thinking is that risk of transmission decreases with distance, with no particular cut-off point at which it suddenly drops from significant to zero. I might accept the risk of venturing closer than two metres if there were some sufficiently appealing benefit to be gained, but why would I not be further away if there is no disadvantage?

In their thinking there is, apparently, a universally correct or optimal distance and some provider of right answers who will tell us what that is. Stranger still, they imagine the government to be this oracle.

There are executives and MPs who might urge government to resist putting tax on kerosene to keep flying cheap. But they don’t seem to recognise a fundamental difference in asking them instead for a reduction in the gravitational constant so that aircraft need less fuel.

I appreciate that the government’s view on the question of distancing does have real significance in terms of police action and lawsuits. But what is or isn’t acceptable to the public would ideally be a matter of how people choose to balance risk and benefit, without the need for government to interpose itself between the public and a range of scientific advisers.

John Riseley
Harrogate

A new name

Regarding a replacement statue for Edward Colston, would not a statue representing the abolishment of slavery, named “Enlightenment”, be a way forward?

Should we not recognise our mistakes, and endeavour to put them right? Is that not how we evolve, and become better? It’s definitely a lesson for Covid-19, and Brexit! Nothing is oven-ready without working for it. Let’s work together. And change for the better!

Gary R Barnes
Bradford West Yorkshire

So many statues

The debate over the removal of statues and monuments rumbles on, with their destruction sought by those who see their views and activities as being abhorrent by today’s standards. It all begs the obvious question as to where we draw the line.

As I cycle round Edinburgh I pass many statues on a daily basis.

The magnificent statue of David Hume, the Enlightenment philosopher, is located on the Royal Mile. However, as Hume famously noted: “I am apt to suspect the negroes and in general all other species of men … to be naturally inferior to the whites.”

On the Mound stands a statue to the Black Watch and its role in the Boer War, a war which saw the brutal incarceration of tens of thousands of men, women and children in the precursor of the modern concentration camp. Within the quadrangle of New College stands the statue of John Knox who famously attacked the “monstrous regiment of women”, arguing that female dominion over men was against God and nature.

In Princes Street Gardens stands the statue of explorer David Livingstone, viewed in some quarters as the “patron saint” of imperialism in Africa.

Turn an eye to the Calton Hill and one can see the Nelson Monument, constructed in honour of Lord Nelson, a man who supported the slave trade and virulently opposed the abolitionist movement.

We can off course pull all these down, leaving pretty little left, but if would leave our cities with little clue as to their past. Indeed, the monuments we may want to replace them with will likewise face the same fate in the future.

Alex Orr
Edinburgh

Exhibiting statues

I am very puzzled and incredulous I have heard no mention of The International Slavery Museum in Liverpool either in the northwest or national news. Although nobody can visit at present, the museum not only confronts the shameful part that Liverpool played in the slave trade but celebrates the achievements of people of colour. I wonder if the museum has space for some statues?

A Jones
South Wirral