IAN Murray MP says that the First Minister is keeping “vital information secret”. The only way to know that with any certainty is to be, himself, privy to that information. So why does he not reveal the information since his only wish is to embarrass the FM, the SNP and the independence movement?

M Ross

Aviemore

IAN Murray the Edinburgh MP has accused the SNP of a cover-up regarding a Nike conference in Edinburgh in February.

Clearly there was no cover-up but he hates the fact that Nicola Sturgeon is regarded by virtually everyone as doing a great job regards the pandemic situation. He hoped that this cover-up story would perhaps gain enough traction to take some of the gloss off Nicola’s performance.

READ MORE: FM hits back at Labour claims of conference cases ‘cover-up’

Perhaps Mr Murray should stop sucking his thumb and look at a bigger issue that he himself has ignored. Namely the fact that since the World Health Organisation alerted the world to the pandemic there have been more than 18 million people flying into the UK without any form of checks or tests.

A significant percentage of these unchecked passengers have landed in Edinburgh.

Nicola Sturgeon has voiced her frustration about this situation but she can’t do anything about it as this form of travel is not a devolved issue.

I wonder if Mr Murray could tell us the number of unchecked passengers who have passed through Edinburgh. The number is clearly in the thousands with the potential to spread Covid-19 throughout the whole of Scotland.
Harry Key
Largoward

GEORGE Kerevan in his article (Why there are dangers of Scottish UBI ending up in the wrong hands, The National, May 18) made some good points for and against a universal basic income (UBI), pointing out that both the right and left of political thinking are in favour of some kind of a UBI.

Mr Kerevan’s suggestion that the operation of running a UBI system should be taken away from the Scottish treasury and handed to a democratic board is a positive suggestion, but this board must include a diverse representation of society.

Mr Kerevan suggests that resources to pay a UBI could come from land tax, shares and property, which is all credible resources. However, it may be worth factoring into eligibility for a UBI payment, a cap on earnings, for instance no higher rate taxpayer should be eligible.
Catriona C Clark
Falkirk

THE article by Jane Cassidy (Call to remember Scots and the ‘forgotten Dunkirk’, The National, May 18) brought back a few memories to me.

I did my National Service in the Black Watch in 1953-55, mainly in Kenya during the Mau Mau troubles.

It was not an exciting time as the Mau Mau stayed away from the troops, and we were mainly bored living in tents with only the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes to alleviate the boredom – with alcohol of course.

We sang a lot, generally Scots song – no TV in those days. One song I remember was “The Highland Division, they fought and they fell, The ranks they were shattered by shot and by shell, My comrades they were, by my side they fell, Down by St Valery”. I do not remember any other words, but at times we substituted “El Alamein” for St Valery.

El Alamein was more familiar to us, we were the 42nd Highland Regiment, in the Highland Division, and the Regiment had been involved in both battles, we recalled El Alamein but had only a very vague concept of St Valery. We knew the name but not the occasion, so it was not high on our list of battles.

We had quite a lot of regulars, many of whom would have been aware of St Valery, but they did not highlight it to mere national servicemen. I can still sing that old chorus, and wait to see if it is the same tune. I cannot remember any other words.
Jim Lynch
Edinburgh

SURELY, if there is an argument for league reconstruction, shouldn’t it be a measured consideration and not rushed to prevent the relegation of one club?

While there may be good argument to reshape the Scottish football league set-up to benefit the clubs and the fans who play in it and pay for it, who could decide with any certainty of success what the best format would be within the short time frame before the start of next season?

Shouldn’t Scottish football’s priority be to work with government to plan the safe start of next season rather than add fuel to the fire of a season already torched?

Why does Hearts’ Ann Budge think putting her own club’s narrow self-interest should take precedence over the welfare of Scottish football as a whole?

Her club’s present predicament is entirely of its own making. She’s threatening legal action, but there could be no winners following that course of action, except the lawyers. It seems incredible that any legal judgement would interfere with the internal decisions of a private organisation when the overwhelming majority of its members agreed with and ratified its decisions.

Fact is, Hearts’ predicament is entirely of its own making. Is trashing the club’s reputation and relationship with the other clubs and fans it depends on for its existence worth it?
Jim Taylor
Edinburgh