Afghans betrayed by America

When is the rest of the world going to stand up to the warmongers in the White House? And the American President's poodle in Downing Street? We cannot continue to allow innocent people to be thrown to the wolves.

Margaret Forbes

Kilmacolm

National disgrace

I agree entirely with Ron McKay’s view of the British national anthem: it’s a dreadful dirge. The French have the buoyant Marseillaise, and the sole Venezuelan gold medallist in Tokyo brought forth their wonderfully jaunty national anthem.

Though perhaps we don’t want anything too jaunty. There’s the old and probably apocryphal story about Labour Foreign Secretary George Brown, who was known to like a tipple. At a grand state affair in Peru, as the band struck up, he made a beeline for a vision in red to ask for a dance. The vision responded: “I won’t dance with you. First, because you are drunk. Second, because this is not a dance song, it’s the Peruvian national anthem. And third, because I am the Cardinal Archbishop of Lima.”

Maybe a dirge is safer.

Doug Maughan

Dunblane

We should have arrested Johnson

The Boris Johnson photograph on page 75 last week was taken when the PM made a flying visit to the Police College. The motorbike cop sitting at the top of Mercer Street was a dead giveaway that something was up. So why did the Chief Constable not arrest Johnson for anything?

He cracked some iffy jokes about the climate crisis, apparently crediting the Blessed Mrs T for shutting down the pits. Didn’t go down well with the ex-miners who still live in the village, but I don’t suppose he needs their votes.

If all goes well, Carrie Symonds will have provided him with the 6th and 7th Johnson bairns by the New Year. Both of them younger than my grandson’s dug, and I wish them no harm.

A question: will she still be in Downing Street by then, and would she want to be? There are rumours about the demotion of Rishi Sunak and promotion of Sajid Javid.

The old joke about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic springs to mind here.

Norrie Forrest

Kincardine

Holding COP26 is pointless

The success of the world in reducing greenhouse gases and thus keeping global temperatures from increasing by more than 1.5C to 2C from pre-industrial levels depends on other countries.

The UK can achieve nothing with a miniscule 1.13 per cent of global emissions but it will cost taxpayers £1.4 trillion.

China, at 30 per cent, can make or break the efforts of other countries. China has promised to reduce its emissions and reach Net Zero 40 years in the future when, according to the green soothsayers, we will all be fried to a crisp.

The surging power demand in China to maintain economic growth has meant that 15 coal mines have restarted production and will deliver 44 million tons of coal. China, India and 85 other nations have snubbed the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change by ignoring the deadline for submitting their "nationally determined contributions" for cutting their emissions and none of these countries have legally-binding Climate Change Acts.

Holding COP26 is pointless without their predetermined commitments.

Clark Cross

Linlithgow

More to mental health than pills

Recently, we've heard a lot about mental health. As well as the incredible triumphs, the Olympics have brought to light the stresses of competition, the gruelling routines as well as the constant public pressures and expectations to win.

There's no doubt that athletes face many challenges in their chosen sports, especially in a digital age where performances are rapidly scrutinised on broadcast channels and social media platforms around the world. This however has lead to carping criticism from spectators if an athlete fails to meet those expectations.

It stands to reason that having a solid mental health outlook is a vital part of such challenges. It should also be recognised that it can falter. The athletes should therefore be applauded for their dedication and courage while representing their respective countries.

In the psychiatric industry, however, descriptive names based on biased psychiatric observations across all aspects of life are being used to redefine not doing well mentally. Called disease-mongering, it's defined as the act of convincing essentially well people that they are sick or slightly sick people that they are very ill.

This often leads to the use of physically damaging treatments, but no cures. Expensive psychiatric drugs don't heal or cure anything. They cover up or mask a person's difficulties or problems, creating a false impression that something therapeutic is happening. This becomes apparent when reality hits and the effects of mind-altering drugs wear off.

Users are left to cope with the mental effects of the drugs which include anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, nightmares, trembling, exhaustion, irritability, hostility and aggression.

Rather than focusing on the negative aspects of a given situation, it would be advantageous to encourage people, including athletes, to demonstrate compassionate values that don't come with any added complications.

Brian Daniels

Citizens Commission on Human Rights

East Grinstead

Concerns over PCR tests

The Herald on Sunday (Aug 8) has many articles on Covid cases. The gold standard method for testing is the PCR test (polymerase chain reaction). A function of the PCR test is to try to detect viral RNA in the human respiratory tract. However, there is documented uncertainty in its accuracy.

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control, a multi-billion dollar national public health institute in the US) published a paper in July 2020 titled Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel. On page 37 there are bullet points on the limitations of PCR, and bullet points 9 (“Detection of viral RNA may not indicate the presence of infectious virus or that 2019-nCoV is the causative agent for clinical symptoms”) and 12 (“This test cannot rule out diseases caused by other bacterial or viral pathogens”) particularly draw attention.

Other medical academics have expressed concern. The British Medical Journal published a letter from a retired GP in June 2020 who said that the late Kary Mullis, inventor of the PCR test, “is reported to have said that it was for research purposes only and not for medical diagnosis”.

Are we being led up a giant wild goose chase?

Geoff Moore

Alness

A classical education

As a rather lengthy addendum to last week's letter on the influence of Latin upon English, it would do us no harm to take a twirl round the rich treasure trove of words we have inherited from Greek.

Just look at the names of so many of the subjects studied in school (the very word school being derived from Greek) – physics, chemistry, biology, geography, economics, geometry, arithmetic and mathematics.

All those words come from that language. Words ending in -ology, -archy and -ic have their origins in Greek.

Then we have those words beginning with tele-, which all readers could easily produce a list for, but do not be taken in by television, which combines both Greek and Latin in its hybrid combination.

There are so many other words of Greek origin which grace our language. Alphabet, gamma rays, deltoid muscle, iota, omega, nephritis (it being the case that diseases or conditions ending in -itis or -opia are of Greek derivation while the organs and bones so affected take their names from Latin for the most part), politics, drama, hector, stentorian, meander, Achilles' heel, odyssey, lesbian, eureka and Alexandria, to name but a few, have found their way into English either as straight takes or marginally modified.

Attic Greek probably has much the same relationship to modern Greek as Chaucerian English has to modern English.

With the virtual disappearance of classics from our classrooms, our language is becoming more impoverished as those influences no longer have the dominance they once had in educated circles.

Mind you, when we watch the performance of a man who prides himself on his classical background and holds the office of PM, perhaps there could be serious doubts planted in the minds of many over the benefits of such an education.

Denis Bruce

Bishopbriggs

Who is out of step?

It seems that Alexander McKay, like a number of his Scotland in Union colleagues, has updated the famous words of Descartes – “I think, therefore I am” to provide an incontrovertible argument for the Union.

For him/them, the quote is “I think, therefore I am right, and this is fact”.

Only with this mindset could he claim a “certain-to-be-enormous deficit” for an independent Scotland, or the “downward spiral …” of the SNP, after they won only one seat fewer than an overall majority in the election. With his “guaranteed blind mass following”, therefore, he insults a huge proportion of the Scottish population, including numerous highly respected academics, successful entrepreneurs and business people, as well as a majority of voters.

As to his demand for answers to a number of questions, the fact that he has not yet found many of these in the public domain, produced by experts in their field and those who have researched the topics over many years, can only mean that he has refused to look for them.

If he truly believes what he writes, then we are “A’ oot o’ step but oor Jock”!

l. McGregor

Falkirk

High cost of holidays

Freedom day will soon have hit all of the UK. Restrictions are going, nightclubs are opening, football fans are back in their thousands, and free movement is back. To keep a check on things, lateral flow tests are widely available and you can even go online and order a PCR test even if you have no symptoms, all free to use. Even the self isolation rules are to be relaxed.

It all sounds too good to be true. Well, if you are thinking of taking a holiday in the sun to celebrate this avalanche of good news, think again. No free PCR tests on your return – it will cost at least £90 per person and you might need one before travelling and two on return, so do the maths.

Certainly a good time to own shares in a testing company.

Paul Morrison

Glasgow