ANDREW Bailey, head of the Bank of England (not the Bank of Great Britain), is reported as having asked: “When is the plague of locusts due?” His quip was made at the regular dinner of the Society of Professional Economists.

I find his comment distasteful. This attempt to lighten the evening’s proceedings went down like a “lead balloon” with me.

Given the Biblical nature of these problems that we all face – with the imminent ending of furlough, the removal of the £20 uplift of Universal Credit, HGV Driver shortages, the fuel shortages, the downstream food and commodity shortages, increasing inflation and issues with the ambulance and health services – it is an easy but unfortunate metaphor.

However, the Society of Professional Economists are undoubtedly in another class, as most if not all will shrug off these difficulties with ease. The increasing wealth gap means jokes like these fall like seeds on stony ground, to continue in the same metaphorical vein.

As a point of interest, locusts strip the vegetation from the food plants causing famine, rather like the current profiteering by major global corporations where it is exported to low/no-taxation centres, depriving these small local economies of the resilience to survive, and the cost lands on local communities and the voluntary sectors.

This may seem to others as simply jealousy on my part – not so, as I have a great deal of respect for anyone who puts in the hard hours to get to grips with their subject area and employment.

Where comments are made which appear crass when reported outside their audience, they do deserve all the “pelters” they receive. Winter is coming, and some people will be badly affected.

Will it be the first-born of the entitled classes that will be adversely affected? Not on your or my nelly.

Alistair Ballantyne

Birkhill, Angus

WITH COP26 on the immediate horizon, Mr A Johnson (PM) has acknowledged the need for others (humanity) to grow up and tackle the four areas of coal, cars, cash, and trees to curb further global warming – and is perhaps best paraphrased as “blah, blah, blah, and blah”.

Fossil fuels, manufactured goods, wealth, transport and land use would have been a better starting point for discussion. Fossil fuels – just say no, manufactured goods – make them last, wealth – distribute it better, transport – increase localism, land use – make sustainable.

The first is a list of items to be dealt with, the latter are contexts to be dealt with. To put it simply, fighting items is the political way of spitting in the eye of climate change for show, whereas resetting the contexts actually gives the Earth a chance to reset itself.

Resetting contexts for the Earth’s climate also means the contexts within which humanity lives also require to be reset. It’s complicated, and requires local, regional, national, supranational and international contexts to be initially formulated and then iteratively joined up.

By definition this is a tsunami of a mutant algorithm, requiring goodwill, integrity, commitment, energy and technical capability. Therefore whilst Scotland, as an independent nation state (national), could take on such a challenge, it will need to allow for a predictable UK Tory government (regional) failure and rely upon the EU (supranational) success to bridge the gap. The size/cost/time of the challenge is huge and if we look just at land use, it’s like requiring the whole of Scotland to become “organic”. The consequentials are huge and UBI is almost a certain requirement, with enormous changes to the way of life generally.

For city dwellers, the 20-minute city is an outcome sought to partially deal with reduced transport needs, so that’s a start already made. Such concepts set contexts which COP26 must address, and there will be so many geopolitical differences across the world to take into consideration.

Close to home, the financial and political devolution changes required for such approaches are huge and detailed, meaning the “bish, bash, bosh” approach of Her Majesty’s

UK Government is wholly inappropriate, and inadequate to the task, as it affects the citizens of Scotland and beyond.

Brexit is clearly the antithesis of any joined-up local (Glasgow), national (Scotland), regional (UK) and supranational (EU) climate reset context. Therefore Scotland needs to become an independent EU nation state at the earliest opportunity, and should state this as fact at COP26.

Stephen Tingle

Greater Glasgow

I MUST object to Maggie Chapman’s article of September 17 (Scotland’s links to the slave trade matter, obscure or not). She indicates that the Scottish education system is funded in part by the wealth derived from the slave trade. Obviously the slave trade was evil but you cannot blame a nation for the activities of individuals.

I was a baby in 1940 when the Germans bombed Clydebank, which was only a mile from our house. Any wealth Britain had was used to save the world from the Nazis. The debt due to the USA took 60 years to pay off.

When I went to school we had to use slates and lead sticks, as no paper was available. There were 60 pupils in our class. My father had to work a lot of overtime and the money due was held back and promised to be paid after the war. He and millions of others received not a penny. He would have had enough money to buy a small house.

Millions lived from hand to mouth in overcrowded tenements. Some with 10 kids in a single end (one room). I was 14 before rationing ended.

If Britain gained a fortune from the slave trade it was in the hands of a few aristocrats and magnates. You must also remember that a million Europeans were taken to Africa by the Berbers. As my mother used to say “there is good and bad everywhere” so let’s not blame all Scots for slavery.

Sandy Philip

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