DO the children left behind after the clearing of the so-called Jungle in Calais have any camping skills? It must be very cold sleeping on the ground. Will they be safe against sexual attacks? Will they get a hot meal in the mornings?

Refugees should have been given work landscaping the site and planting. Maybe the ones who are left can help with this and transform the site into something beautiful while learning useful skills. The reputation of the countries on both sides of the Channel can then be salvaged.

Another missed opportunity for democracy, humanitarianism, leadership and investment in survival skills that people could take back to their homelands when of if they return.

The English strategy was to do nothing and hope it would all go away – not good leadership for the rest of the EU. Can they turn this around and salvage their reputation?

Don’t brutalise people – that was already done to them in their homelands.

AC, Aberdeen

MY nearest railway station is in Bergen, Norway, but I nevertheless follow closely the travails of ScotRail passengers. The first thing that strikes me is the number of travellers complaining about delays due to engineering works. Don’t they realise that this is a result of the neglect of our railways over decades by Wastemonster governments – Tory and yes, even Labour – and railways cannot be modernised overnight?

Being a bit of a railway buff, I have been following Michael Portillo’s TV series Great Continental Railway Journeys. With every programme I watch, the angrier I get. I’ve repeatedly seen modern, fast, clean and mainly electric trains, even in the former Soviet-subjugated states of eastern Europe. Some people may even have been surprised to learn that Swiss Railways started electrification in 1903 and the bulk of its main and suburban lines had been electrified by the mid 1920s.

Wednesday’s programme was the last straw as it concentrated on Michael’s travels round Holland on a variety of modern rolling stock from sleek inter-city trains to double-decker suburban ones. The Dutch railways, owned by the Dutch Government, as we all know, operate ScotRail as Abellio.

Once again I’m forced to ask, why is it that the Dutch, French and German governments, among many, can own and run their own railways and services in the UK on top, yet we are constantly told that we can’t renationalise ScotRail?

As we start to consider indyref2, is it not time we laid down some markers that there are certain essential public services that must be brought under either direct control by re-nationalisation or indirect control through tough regulations backed up by hard enforcement and tough legal options including imprisonment? This type of tough but fair regulation should also apply to banks and any other public services. Tough regulation will be needed, for I very much doubt that a newly-independent Scotland could afford to re-nationalise everything given away by previous Tory and Labour governments.

Finally, and this must be one of the first of new laws in an independent Scotland – all transactions taking place in Scotland concerning individuals or companies in Scotland will be made under the primacy of Scottish law.

Charlie Gallagher, Sullom, Shetland

RICHARD Walthew’s letter (October 26) about the likely backlash from the USA when a future independent Scottish government demands the removal of Trident from the Clyde reminded me of an early episode of

Yes Prime Minister.

Newly elected PM Jim Hacker comes up with a proposal to save billions by scrapping the “white elephant” that was Polaris at the time, and is Trident now. He wanted instead to spend the money on conventional defence, and perhaps the NHS and other worthy, more cost effective and popular (vote-winning) causes.

Having gained the informal support of the armed forces, in particular the army, he raises the issue with Sir Humphrey. The latter points out that the American response will be less than positive, and that his forthcoming, and much desired, photo-op with the president at the White House, would almost certainly not take place. Instead he would meet with a lesser minion such as the secretary of state, if he was lucky. Vanity prevails. Yes, Prime Minister.

The Scottish Government’s decision would not see these obscene weapons of mass destruction scrapped, alas, but merely relocated to somewhere else in the rUK. Ideally in the Thames in full view of the midden of Westminster.

Archie McArthur, Edinburgh

YOUR article about the annual report of the chief inspector of Scotland’s prisons (Prison should only be used for the most serious crimes, The National, October 26) was timely and hopefully will be acted upon by the relevant powers.

The report came out a day after the driver of a Stirling Council bin lorry was handed a one-year custodial sentence following on from the death of Peter Wills in his wheelchair in Dunblane in 2014.

Peter had been a good friend and neighbour of mine for more than

20 years and I was one of the first to get to his house after the accident. I am totally dismayed at a custodial sentence being given to the driver in the circumstances involved.

This was a situation where a momentary lapse of concentration had disastrous results, when a vehicle reversed at walking pace for a few feet, not the result of dangerous speed or inebriation. 

I find it also very unsatisfactory that it took just a couple of months short of two years for the court proceedings to reach this point.

George M Mitchell, Dunblane

ONE of the finest speeches Alex Salmond ever made at a bygone SNP conference was on his vision of how the EEC should develop into a European Union of Confederate States, in which every nation would retain its sovereignty and democratic freedom. Sadly the EU has gone down a federal path, with countries sacrificing chunks of their freedom and sovereignty.

However, if Scotland got a deal with conditions for her specific needs, using as a format those ideas of a confederacy, it’s not too late for that great European train to get back on track. Please, Alex, search through your notes, find that speech and publish your ideas for this advance in democracy.

Iain Ramsay, Greenock