AS the PM recovers from his Covid infection at Chequers and will very likely be away from office for many weeks or even months – as this recuperation is likely to be combined with his pre-booked paternity leave in June for the arrival of his latest child – I feel that his gushing comments “I owe my life to the NHS”, and naming certain ICU nurses, will not sit well with those whose loved ones possibly could have been saved if Johnson and his cabal had acted much sooner.

He ignored the evidence of Italy many weeks ago. They warned the UK of what was to come and said we must implement an early lockdown, and his response was “we will take it on the chin” and we have the “bulldog spirit” as he visited a hospital and shook hands with people with a flippant attitude to the unfurling crisis, still with the smirk on his face.

READ MORE: Viral Irish Post column nails the truth about Boris Johnson

He then ignored emails and phone calls from the EU procurement departments about the sale of ventilators, PPEs and testing equipment. If we had received the testing material early on in the crisis, we could have saved many more NHS frontline workers. This is all part of his and his government’s warped ideology and dismissing anything that is “European”.

Johnson will eventually go on his merry way and his legacy as the last UK Prime Minister will be the Covid pandemic, his handling of it and the carnage he has left behind him.

It is an absolute tragedy that the people of England have lost so many loved ones unnecessarily. Johnson was never fit for the top job and I am finally hoping that the people of England will see him for what he is, an absolute charlatan.

Susan Rowberry
Duns

THE United States military expenditure is as great as that of the rest of the world put together. The US, according to World Health Organisation, has only 2.6 doctors per 1000 population and 2.9 hospital beds per 1000. Germany has 4.2 doctors per 1000 and 8.3 beds. Sweden has 5.4 doctors.

The UK is in line with the US with only 2.8 doctors and 2.8 hospital beds, lower than the rest of Europe. But, of course, we do have around 200 nuclear bombs just 30 miles from Glasgow, so we should feel really safe.

Isobel Lindsay
Biggar

ON Sunday morning my wife and I were listening to a Katherine Jenkins CD when the track Hymn to the Fallen came on. It set me thinking. My uncle, Walter, died on December 1917 going over the top, I think it was at the battle of Cambrai. His body was never found but he is named at a memorial in Calais.

Over the past 106 years our fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers have been called upon to face the risk of giving the ultimate sacrifice, but all we are being asked to do to help the NHS and our fellow citizens, is to, stay in and sit on the sofa for the next few weeks. Puts it in perspective really, don’t you think?

Steve Brooker
North Kessock

I CANNOT speak too highly of Ms Olivia Strong, who formed the Run For Heroes campaign. It would be comforting to think that the UK Government could be inspired to match the amount now raised and contribute that sum to the campaign.

However, I would go further. As I have previously suggested in this newspaper, and given that Mr Johnson has now, to his credit, acknowledged that he owes his life to the professionals of the NHS, can I suggest that he now forswears the Tories opposition to and continued undermining of the NHS since its inception, put government money where his mouth is and suspend income tax for all NHS professionals (and all other essential professionals) for the duration of the pandemic?

I can hear the shrieks of, “The country cannot afford this!” Not true. The shortfall can be made up by diverting money from the development of Trident, a weapon of mass destruction, and channeling it to the NHS, our only weapon in the desperate humanitarian fight to save lives in the darkest days this country has endured since 1918.

Joe Cowan
Balmedie

THE National’s regular Scots scrievers Ah fair enjoy readin – the likes o Tam Clark an Antonia Uri. Ah howp they’re no in limbo fae yer pages the noo like Greg Moodie.

Hooever, anent Scots in The National, is it jist masel, but when Ah try tae read maist o yer contributor Mr Forde’s letters, it’s like huntin a preen in the mirk. Ah ken fine it’s there afore me, but Ah jist cannae ay get the pint. Ah try ma best tae grup the thistle o his epistle, but ma neive steys toom.

Ah dae ken if it’s the Scots he yaises. Is it ower erudite an academic for me, or ower archaic an auld-farrant? Is it the ilk o somethin seeminly hauf-inventit by a MacDiarmid? Or am Ah jist a muckle daft gowk?

Mibby it’s the columnists haudin back an ower-dark spate o peaty Scots. Or mibby they yaise a broader register tae mak shair the hale kirk o the National’s readers (twa yairds apairt in the pews mind!) will ken whit they’re sayin.

An is that no part o ony scriever’s or speaker’s intent – tae tak tent o wha is in the body o their kirk, and when giein their sermon laldy, tae be gey clear aboot it.

Colin Crombie
Leven

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