Herald letter: Who Is To Blame?

MANY of your correspondents are quite rightly outraged at Dominic Cummings and the Prime Minister and it is little wonder that they have taken to your pages to express their fury – although I wonder where the anger of some of them was when Catherine Calderwood was breaking lockdown for a couple of jollies in Fife, and when Nicola Sturgeon was defending her to the hilt.

However, I hope that they all feel much better for getting it off their chest, and will now turn their attention to figuring out who is responsible for the NHS and public health in Scotland, and in particular, where the blame lies for our excess death rates and in particular those in our care homes. (Clue: it is not Dominic Cummings.)

Peter A Russell, Glasgow G13.

Herald letter: Covid Alert Level.

NOT very long ago, Nicola Sturgeon told us that she would enter into a grown-up conversation with the Scottish public about coronavirus. So far it appears to consist of “shut up and do what you are told”, but we can hope that it will eventually begin.

When it does, a good start would be to be informed whether Scotland is to have its own Covid Alert Level, which seems to be a useful tool in the battle to get out of lockdown. Crucially, it also would allow us to come to our own conclusions as to whether the measures in place at any time are necessary and proportionate.

Or does the First Minister not think we are grown-up enough to handle such information?

Peter A Russell, Glasgow G13.

Herald letter: Elderly Care & Devolution.

DAVE McEwan Hill (Herald letters, May 5) is absolutely correct that after the Covid-19 crisis is over, we need to examine and improve the ways in which care for the elderly and vulnerable is provided and regulated. However, like many of your other correspondents, he appears not to have noticed that devolution has happened, and continues to blame the Westminster government.

While it is true that the private sector was originally able to use the elderly care system as a cash cow due to the UK government, most of us are aware that for over 20 years the issue has been in the hands of the Scottish Government, which since 2007 has been run by the SNP.

Similarly, when it is apparent that that the protection of vulnerable people in Scotland’s care homes is inadequate, the blame for deficiencies in the regulation of those institutions lies with Jeane Freeman [health secretary] and ultimately with Nicola Sturgeon.

The Nationalists choose to neglect the fact that they have had the powers to create a better system for all those years, but have failed to do so. I wonder what could have been the distraction on which so much energy and money has been wasted instead of looking after our elderly?

Peter A. Russell