I wholeheartedly agree with Alex Massie that the treatment heaped on JK Rowling is deplorable, disturbing and shameful (“Death threats don’t sit on right side of history”, Comment, last week).
Nicola Sturgeon and her government are pandering to a minority and ignoring the majority view regarding trans issues. The vast majority have no issues with trans people being who they want to be — but those activists who vilify and send death threats to people who merely state their opinion should be charged with a crime.
It seems you cannot have a reasoned debate about anything without being “cancelled” or worse. Where did free speech go?
Eileen Parkin, Perth
Time to answer back
Rowling is a very clever woman who has brought pleasure to children and adults alike. And she has not at times had an easy life. She is entitled to her opinions. So why should she get death threats?
If people want to change their sex that is up to them — we can respect their wishes and leave them to get on with their lives. But if a woman does not want to share a toilet or jail cell with someone who is physically male but says they feel like a woman, has she got no rights?
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I lived through the Second World War and saw what hate and intolerance can do. Maybe it is time to answer back and bring a bit of common sense back to the world.
Jean Gilchrist, Edinburgh
Scotland better on its own
Gillian Bowditch is wrong to suggest that an independent Scotland could not have managed the pandemic (“In a perfect storm we need our neighbours”, Comment, last week).
The Tory government has consistently cocked up this public health crisis, leaving us with one of the worst Covid death rates in the developed world. It has repeatedly locked down too late, flouted scientific advice, lavished public money on its chums (who failed to deliver) and has systematically starved the NHS of resources, leaving it ill-prepared for the pandemic.
An independent Scotland in control of its borders and finances would, like smaller Nordic nations, have had the powers to act in its citizens’ best interests, rather than following the UK’s disastrous path. Norway, Denmark and Finland closed their borders to Sweden, keeping their infections and deaths far lower. With their own central banks they borrowed to support their businesses and populations. They have sufficiently resourced their public health services and aren’t, like the UK, privatising them. Finally, they aren’t simultaneously enduring the Brexit fiasco, which has exacerbated the pandemic’s economic fallout.
The UK wilfully cut its ties with its European neighbours. Scotland’s future is with Europe, not with a diminishing little England.
Leah Gunn Barrett, Edinburgh
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‘Lessons to be learnt’ is not good enough
The article about Annelise Sanderson moved me to tears (“A teen‘s death in a jail cell: why was she there at all?”, News, last week). Having spent my life working in special education and childcare with young people who had additional support needs and emotional and psychological problems, I find it distressing that the system can get things so tragically wrong.
When will we ever learn? Early, high-quality intervention is essential. It is often too late and extremely costly — in every sense of that word — if issues are not addressed before the young person becomes involved in the criminal justice system. Over the course of the past 35 years, I have seen politicians and officials cut back on budgets and personnel for support services and mental health provision for children and families.
When things go wrong piecemeal reports of “lessons to be learnt” are not good enough. Humanitarian concerns are too often superseded by financial expediency. We need to re-examine our values as a society. Annelise’s death diminishes us all.
Tom Swan, retired head teacher, Falkland House School, Falkland, Fife
Sell my home? Yes I will!
You raise the possibility of increasing national insurance to help pay for social care (Leading article, last week). I cannot see why people should not sell their houses to pay for their own care, if they have to go into a home. I intend to do just that. One’s offspring will not inherit one’s home, but it’s either that, or others having to pay for it.
Elizabeth FitzGibbon, Elgin, Moray