Letters: Boris Johnson has been a ‘true friend’ to besieged Ukrainians

I could take issue with several contentions in this article but would like to highlight one.

Riddoch claims that, unlike the derided UK, the EU “is in the headlines for all the right reasons – with a quick collective decision to impose sanctions, exclude Russian banks from the Swift payment system and deliver ‘lethal arms’ to Ukraine’.

I suggest that Riddoch consider an early visit to Specsavers as her visual acuity is suspect.

She appears to have overlooked the fact that, as President Zelensky has acknowledged, the UK was first out of the block in equipping the agile Ukrainian army with anti-tank and now anti-aircraft weapons that are inflicting disproportionate damage on Russian armour and personnel.

As for quick collective decision-making, the Kyiv government has this weekend complained that promised German missiles have still to arrive. President Macron is similarly proving tardy in arms provisioning.

The UK moved quickly to isolate key Russian banks from the Swift system and impose sanctions in lockstep with the EU.

And to Johnson’s credit he has consistently acknowledged the contribution of EU member states and the difficulties they have faced to differing degrees in imposing sanctions owing to their close economic ties with Russia – Germany being a prime example.

This stands in marked contrast to Riddoch’s insistence that Johnson regards the EU in his “fevered imaginings” as a “basket case”,

The default position of his political opponents is to conveniently characterise Johnson as a clown.

Well, the former career of Volodymyr Zelensky as a comedian should have equipped him well enough to recognise a clown when he sees one.

However, far from channelling this caricature, Zelensky has instead praised Johnson as a true friend of Kyiv armed with the same virtues of “empathy, trust and integrity” which Riddoch professes to find so characteristically absent.

Professor Douglas Pitt, Newton Mearns.

FERRIES SHOULD BE A RESIGNING ISSUE

THE term “collective responsibility” has been on the lips of many SNP MSPs the last few days regarding the ferry fiasco. But what exactly does this term mean?

Looking at the Institute for Government website, it is quite interesting to note that while it is used to say that all members of government are responsible for the actions and decisions of government as a whole, it also says: “once a position has been agreed in cabinet, all ministers are expected to abide by that position and vote with the government, or else resign from office”.

The SNP seem to be interpreting it slightly differently and have collectively decided to pass the blame to anyone else they can by throwing Derek Mackay under the bus for having been the Transport minister when the contract was approved even though he was on holiday.

The CMAL procurement team have been blamed and the ship-builders themselves. There is no acceptance that the Scottish Government should not have agreed to a contract which did not offer a full refund guarantee which put millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money at risk.

According to Kate Forbes on BBC Radio Scotland yesterday, the inability of Fergusons emerged just a matter of weeks later. Not months, not years, not once the ship was already half way finished. A mere few weeks.

Any half-decent businessman or woman at that point would have slammed the brakes on and said they were not willing to carry to financial risk this contract would involve.

Of course, this is not a business, it is government and it is not their money. It was our money and the SNP were willing to take that risk at our expense.

I’d like to see the SNP Scottish Government take collective responsibility for their incompetence and the utter waste of taxpayers’ money, and call on every single one of them to do the honourable thing and resign.

Jane Lax, Aberlour.

A BUS QUEUE WITH A DIFFERENCE

A FEW days ago the First Minster said, when talking about the cancelled ferry fiasco, that the buck stopped with her and that her government practised collective responsibility.

She then, as the saying goes, threw Derek Mackay under the bus.

Since then this matter has become a major traffic incident as more and more Scottish Government Ministers are thrown under this mythical bus.

“Collective responsibility” my derriere.

W.MacIntyre, East Kilbride.

MAKE MSPS PAY THE PENALTY

THERE should be no “lessons to be learned” from the current ferry fiasco except that government agencies need to follow their approved legal and compliance processes. If MSPs choose to interfere, they get to personally cover the cost over-runs.

Allan McDougall, Neilston.

MEDIA HAS MADE THE RUNNING

AM I alone in thinking that the SNP has been somewhat fortunate in that the absence of a really tough and assertive opposition has meant that the ferries fiasco has not yet become the scandal it deserves to be? It seems that it is the media that has made much of the running.

A. MacDonald, Glasgow.

DOUBLE STANDARDS OVER THE FERRIES

AS Kate Forbes told BBC Scotland yesterday morning, the problem with the CalMac ferries lies with the construction – not the procurement process, which met international standards, nor who signed off the contract.

Article 25 of the Auditor General’s report illustrated that CMAL reduced its financial risk to 50 per cent of the total contract value. Ferguson Marine was not in a financial position to guarantee the full contract and the Scottish government obviously took on the risk rather than moving the work abroad.

It was CMAL that specified the requirement for dual fuel engines.

Under the UK’s Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier programme, two ships cost taxpayers £6.2bn – some £2.3bn over the initial budget, which is enough to rebuild the entire CalMac fleet – but I don’t remember days of media hysteria, endless political point-scoring or suggestions that the UK wasn’t capable of governing itself.

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh.

OBLIVIOUS? AFTER ALL THE COVERAGE?

I SUGGESTED in a letter yesterday morning that “[Peter] Russell and those of his opinion would be better served trying to understand the electorate, rather than slandering them”.

Right on cue, Allan Sutherland opines on the same page: “The problem in Scotland, however, is the vast majority of our 4.3m registered voters are still oblivious to what is going on, wouldn’t know a defunct Ferguson ferry if it docked in their back garden”.

“Oblivious” just cannot be the right word when most Scottish papers have run at least one report almost every day, while television discusses it at length whenever they can. It even penetrated “Politics Live” last week!

Alasdair Galloway, Dumbarton.

AIRLINES AND COMMON SENSE

LAST Friday my wife and I were on the Jet2 flight to Tenerife left stationary for two-and-a-half hours on the runway at Glasgow airport, the result of an elderly gentleman feeling unwell and requiring medical attention.

He was eventually taken off the plane, to be followed by disgruntled passengers and their baggage who had now decided not to fly.

Throughout this time the captain kept us up-to-date with events but any expected service from the cabin staff failed to materialise.

When we asked if there would be complimentary drinks, even if it was only water, we were told it had to be a four-hour delay for these to be made available. It was company policy and we could take it up with head office.

They were also unable to provide a bar trolley service as they had to deal with the unwell gentleman. There was silly me, thinking that that was what the medics were doing.

Clearly, the overpriced food and drink profits couldn’t cover a few gallons of water.

Foreign travel has not taken off, post-Covid, as expected and financial analysts have downgraded airline and holiday company shares.

But could operators not show a little humanity and provide a drink under these circumstances, considering how many young children were stuck on the plane?

Robert Aitken, Clarkston, Glasgow.