I WAS horrified to read the story about Christian Allard (Tory told ex-MEP ‘to go home’, March 4), particularly as the comment came from a Scottish councillor, albeit a Tory. I have always thought of xenophobia as being a trait more common south of the Tweed. Fear of “Johnny Foreigner” is growing it seems. It set me thinking...

The denizens of England have found their xenophobic voice, as they are part of a pure and noble breed.

What if they all run to check their ancestry? Let’s start with the Romans, then we have – get ready for the list here – the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes, not forgetting the Danes, the Vikings and the Normans.

READ MORE: Tory Conrad Ritchie told SNP's Christian Allard ‘to go home’

Actually, probably the most mongrel race on the planet, except of course for the USA, itself the result of racial/ religious hatred/ bigotry, ethnic cleansing etc. I could go on.

Perhaps Ms Patel and indeed Mr Johnson himself should check their papers – do they indeed reside here legally? Maybe we could return Bawjaws to Trumpland where he would certainly fit in? Oh, God, how I wish.

Yours in horror, but also a desperate hope that a fairy will appear, wand at the ready.

Wendy Wilson
via email

BECAUSE we communicate in extremes and in a boiling pot of permanent hysteria, I’ll state clearly that I am not dismissive of Covid-19 and the health challenges (with a depleted NHS) or economic implications.

However, when I wrote weeks ago about the discrepancy between our reaction to the potential threat of the new flu and the obvious and proven premature deaths from, for example, air pollution (30,000-40,000 per year in the UK), I had no idea that things would progress the way they have. I don’t mean the virus but the panic.

READ MORE: Coronavirus in Scotland LIVE: First Minister says 'rapid rise' of cases could occur

Am I still being too cynical in suggesting that our government has now the perfect smokescreen behind which to hide all the problems that we know will result from Brexit? Yes, we have our new king’s latest younger woman impregnated and we have the other royal household pumping out positive spin like Alastair Campbell on speed in the wake of Harry and Meghan’s departure, but none of that compares to a public health emergency.

How easy it was to ignore Ebola when it was just Africans dying. Now it’s Westerners and we are in meltdown despite a fatality rate of 1-2%. Ebola has had fatality rates of up to 90%.

What we need to learn from Covid-19 is just how unprepared we are for the ones that are coming.

Amanda Baker
Edinburgh

IT would appear that if the Covid-19 pandemic effects are as indeed envisaged by some, having around a 2% fatality, then Scotland could initially lose around 120,000 of its people. At the moment it is being suggested in the mainstream media that the most exposed groups are those with underlying heart, liver, kidney and lung health issues, and the elderly.

However, what must not be overlooked are the fatalities resulting from frequency of contacts with infected members of the public. This perhaps highlights the potential impacts upon the very fabric of society of such an epidemic, hitting our carers, health staff, teachers and police.

Then there is the issue of whether there is any significant future resistance built up by those who have been infected but have recovered, and whether the virus is capable of future mutation sufficient to bypass such resistance, fully or in part, or indeed is the first of repeated waves of Covid-20?

There are some suggestions that animals may also be susceptible to this virus, and if so they may also play a part in its mutation. Unfortunately, vaccination of such large numbers of people and animals, if indeed possible, looks to be some 12 to 18 months away.

Surely the UK Government should potentially already be seeking a four-nation lockdown and be simultaneously stabilising relationships with the EU, whilst the pandemic uncertainty continues over the next few years. Perhaps somewhat perversely, free movement of EU peoples may well become essential in rebuilding the societal fabric that exists at present, or indeed actually holding it together.

Indyref2 therefore should not be put on the back burner, whilst the UK Government continues its No-Deal Brexit, whilst the pandemic is in progress, but advanced, so that Scotland can minimise the risk levels its own people face, from the double blow of Covid-19 and also being outwith the EU.

Stephen Tingle
Greater Glasgow

STATUTORY sick pay is only a drop in the ocean for most workers if they are forced into isolation (Sick pay available from first day of illness to tackle coronavirus, PM says, thenational.scot, March 5).

Ian Blackford asked for it to be at least the minimum wage, but Boris Johnson ignored that request in his reply.

John Jamieson
via thenational.scot