I AM amazed at just how low the opposition parties at Holyrood will sink in their constant efforts to denigrate Nicola Sturgeon and everything her government does. On the radio yesterday morning Alex Cole-Hamilton slated the efforts to test and trace those coming into Scotland from abroad because 700 people have given a false address and were therefore not traced.

He admitted that it was not a job for the police to track these folk down, but blamed Nicola Sturgeon for her “failure” to do so. Did he suggest a way this could have been done? No, not a hint of a positive suggestion. So how does he think these people could have been traced?

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Should Nicola have personally asked the airlines for their passenger lists to ascertain their real addresses? Would that not infringe data protection laws? How would he propose to track them down, once they had disappeared to their actual home addresses? They may indeed have committed some level of crime in giving false identification, but would that not be a police matter?

Still, these are probably questions about which Alex Cole-Hamilton is not concerned, as long as he has achieved his aim of going on air and giving the impression that people falsely identifying is a government failure.

Would he not have been better to back the government’s attempts to control the virus and to slate those who selfishly undermine that effort by giving false information?

So who is playing politics with the pandemic?

P Davidson
Falkirk

TO say the Tory Party is toxic in Scotland is to state the obvious. The recent appointment of Douglas Ross as leader of the branch office and Ruth Davidson as a sort of spokeswoman has been touted as some kind of dream team. This is of course nonsense – it is akin to rebranding salmonella as flavour of the month. As recent polls show, support for independence just keeps rising, this despite the efforts of right-wing media attack dogs.

I firmly believe that the Scottish psyche is hard-wired to a David and Goliath attitude and that the Tory branch office and their right-wing press baron chums are in actual fact the SNP’s secret weapon.We can almost certainlyexpect a furious onslaught from all Unionist sources between now and the Holyrood election. As far as I am concerned, bring it on!

Terry Keegans
Beith, North Ayrshire

ON Radio Scotland yesterday morning it was concerning to hear Scottish businessmen piling in to support the idea of free ports in Scotland, such as at Invergordon.

This is a UK Government initiative and we should be wary. Surely it is better to have a Scottish port of a normal nature with direct links to Scandinavia. Germany and the Netherlands? We should be planning for the building of a new port or expansion of an existing one to fulfill this need right now.

I understand there is great scope for money-laundering and corruption at these free ports. A look at the trading situation for the whole of Scotland is what is urgently needed. Surely Scotland is not going to fall for the old story of “bought and sold for English gold” yet again?

Susan Grant
Tain

CAN I come to the defence of the lynx? It is absolute nonsense to state that the Eurasian lynx was not native to Scotland. Evidence abounds of its presence in Scotland and the UK more than 4000 years ago. Carbon dating has confirmed that it roamed British forests during the Roman period, so this claim that it never graced our beautiful country doesn’t stand. The lynx, it is thought, died out in the UK because its habitat was altered by climate change.

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We must try to accommodate all fauna now and in the future for our own health and for our planet’s well-being. Goodness knows we have done enough damage to biodiversity the world over. If we don’t see this opportunity as a priority then as a species we are diminished and doomed. We seal our own fate and those of future generations.

Keith Taylor
via email

How many more contrived “scandals” are we facing in the Yes movement? Mere sideshows them all! Since Alex Salmond stood down as First Minister in 2014, the rumour mill has cast doubts over the relationship between Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. Whatever their feelings on the moral virtues of one another, to the voting audience, more unites than divides them.

There is a perpetual raising of rifts within the SNP, with different factions allegedly colluding against others. Again, in the big scheme of things more unites the party than divides it. So too in the entire Yes movement. Set aside the personal egos at play, and with the exception of no doubt a few Unionist plants, we are all in this together and shall ultimately display collective unity on the day that matters and win the big fight together.

However many rifts, scandals and conspiracy theories are thrown our way, it is comin’ yet for a’ that when wily Alex and Nicola, leaders they are, whatever their differences, shall lead us down the road together on the very issue that unites all who seek independence for Scotland.

Tom Gray
Braco