WHILE it is clear that GP services are having difficulties in the current situation, it is worrying that the SNP should be advocating changes which, possibly inadvertently, will open the floodgates to further privatisation of the NHS ("MSP warns seeing your GP for every health issue ‘not sustainable’ as inquiry launched", The Herald, January 24).

The suggestion that pharmacists, optometrists and physiotherapists could take on the role of gatekeepers is superficially plausible, given their accessibility on the average High Street. Let us not forget, however, that these are all commercial enterprises and as such, have a duty to shareholders, or a need for their business survival, to make profits. How often will such entities offer or provide free-at-the-point-of-use NHS services, rather than their own, possibly very expensive, services?

This appears to present a very slippery slope.

Dr RM Morris, Ellon.

ALARMS COST A SMALL PRICE TO PAY

DOUGLAS Cowe (Letters, January 22) continues his tiresome campaign of opposition to any and all words and deeds of the Scottish Government by denouncing the new legislation on domestic fire and gas alarms in Scotland. His letter brings to mind the story in Aesop's Fables of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf". Insurance companies would be on very thin ice if they attempted to reject claims on the basis of legislation which was not in place on the date that cover commenced but might well, subject to adequate notification to property owners, take alarm provision into account when quoting renewal premiums thereafter. This has been long-established practice in respect of door and window locks and other security measures.

Mr Cowe is really scraping the barrel with this one; a one-off cost of £200 is a small price to pay for most property owners in return for a substantial safety benefit and assistance will almost certainly be made available to those who would experience hardship in complying. By all means call the Scottish Government to account when it gets things wrong, but this is a case in which it deserves credit for taking prompt independent action.

Willie Maclean, Milngavie.

* CAN the Government enlighten me, please? Will an electrical power cut render a wired-in smoke alarm useless? Will the resultant use of, for example, candles, then create a much greater fire hazard ?

I’m in the dark.

Bernard Zonfrillo, Glasgow.

TIME TO END RESTRICTIONS

SOME minor Covid restrictions in Scotland have ended (“Scotland lifts most remaining Covid-19 curbs”, The Herald, January 24). In 2020 there was much discussion at the World Health Organization and among national governments as to what level of Covid immunity among populations would constitute herd immunity. Fast forward to January 6, 2022 and the UK Health Security Agency published the Covid-19 Vaccine Surveillance Report which states that 98.4 per cent of the UK population has antibodies to Covid. If this is not herd immunity, then what is?

It's time for Scotland to end remaining restrictions.

Geoff Moore, Alness.

GLASGOW'S TRAMS MISTAKE REVISITED

INTERESTING to read of proposals for a new Glasgow Metro/light railway/tramway system ("Metro back on track in radical transport vision", The Herald, January 21). Having fought long and hard, and failed, to stop the then city council from scrapping our extensive and efficient tram network in the 1960s, it is ironic that I will not live long enough to see what should have taken its place long ago.

Glasgow had more than120 miles of track that extended to Uddingston, Paisley and Clydebank. It was certainly antiquated, with some 200 of the 1,100 trams over 50 years old and definitely in need of replacement. The Light Railway Transport League put forward an excellent paper outlining suggestion for what Glasgow should do. Its paper was laughed out of court as, among other things, it suggested that Renfield Street and Hope Street should be made one-way, deemed ridiculous at the time by our short-sighted councillors.

Glasgow bought rolling stock from elsewhere but built all the coachwork locally. The trams were each off the road for one week a year for maintenance. That was enough, and we had a dedicated electricity supply for the tram system and the Underground at Pinkston Power Station. But, instead of modernising with single-decker trams and more reserved tracks, our pathetic council decided to follow London, which was scrapping its surface trams because of its extensive and expanding Underground system. A knee-jerk scrapping was then seen throughout the UK. Now replacement systems are being seen all over. Think of Edinburgh’s rebuild. No thought was given by Glasgow for future needs, as cities around the world were in the process of modernising and extending their own tramway networks,

This was similar to closing canals and then discovering the benefits, so spending millions re-opening them. Yes, Metro proposals are to be welcomed. They will cost much more than had the existing system simply been upgraded, but it is a price worth paying, and soon.

Nigel Dewar Gibb, Glasgow.

CYCLISTS SHOULD SHARE COSTS

SURELY now cyclists are to ride in the middle of the road and in twos with the changes to the Highway Code, it is time to share road tax more equally, including licensing and taxation?

James Watson, Dunbar.

AN INSPIRING LESSON

HUGH MacDonald’s essay ("What connects Boris Johnson, Prince Andrew and Novak Djokovic?", Herald Magazine, January 22) would have been worthy of any Sunday pulpit sermon, backed up with quotation from the teaching of Jesus.

Ian Provan, Lochgilphead.

DARN THOSE BLACK HOLES

I HAVE no difficulty in accepting the astronomical number of black holes in the universe ("There are 40 billion billion black holes out there...", The Herald, January 24 ). Several have been present anywhere I have lived, worked, played, and holidayed.

As an amateur astrophysicist I believe they usually contain odd socks, small personal items, paperwork, golf balls, sunglasses and Speedos.

R Russell Smith, Largs.