Are facts out of favour?

Brexit and the man-made global warming saga appear to confirm that human beings are swayed by deep-seated belief rather than hard evidence. I suppose we shouldn't really be surprised because anthropological evidence has long suggested that far from being truth-seekers we are geared for tribal harmony and social cohesion.

Scientists of my generation were profoundly influenced by the great physics teacher and Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman. He said: "It doesn't matter how beautiful the theory is, or the status of the person who dreamt it up, if its projections don't agree with the facts, it's wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science."

My scientific colleagues have huge reservations about AGW (man-made global warning); my co-religionists are true believers. After I was howled down yet again in a General Assembly climate "debate", the late Laurence Whitley of Glasgow Cathedral playfully asked why I didn't concentrate on more peripheral subjects such as the divinity of Christ.

Rev Dr John Cameron

St Andrews

Our digital future is in the wrong hands

It's no surprise Scottish Government IT is a mess.

I attended the 2016 annual conference of the IT trade body Scotland IS. Keynote speakers were Mike Russell, whose theme was how bad Brexit was, and Derek Mackay, whose remit includes IT, who tried to ingratiate himself with the audience of techies by reminiscing about the Sinclair ZX80 of his childhood.

There was no mention of the unfolding police, NHS 24, farm payments or pensions fiascos. The idea of streamlined government services underpinned by shared data, processes and best practice, or words such as on time, on budget, or adherence to standards, were also ignored concepts.

These people live in a world of undelivered broadband promises, name-dropping terms such as Internet of Things, celebration of innovations more at home in a men's shed computer club and woolly initiatives best captured in the introduction to their 2017 "Digital strategy", whose myriad objectives include seeing Scotland "ranked in the first quartile of countries in the world on productivity, wellbeing, equality and sustainability. It is therefore critical that Scotland is at the forefront of the global digital economy". What drivel.

While there are notable exceptions to this, the sad fact is we lack hard-nosed leadership at the top, a huge reluctance to engage and change in the middle, and not a single Scottish-owned company big enough to specify, develop, deliver and manage these lucrative projects, which, well designed and executed, could transform the delivery and cost of public services and provide the core domestic market on which to build a global industry in the same way as we dominated shipbuilding.

Never mind, we've always got the booming renewables industry to fall back on.

Allan Sutherland

Stonehaven

How could Labour be in this mess?

It beggars belief that the Labour party could find itself where it is at the moment. With even a half-competent and moderate leadership they would be light years ahead of the floundering Tories in the polls and preparing for a Blair-like hundred-plus-seat landslide general election victory and 10 years in power. In fact, when polling day comes, they could well lose more seats.

Instead of riding to the country’s rescue on the crest of a wave, they are enmeshed in more anti-Semitism allegations and claims of Mr Corbyn, Momentum and their far-left chums protecting their own, and if ever they needed a real and principled leader it is now. They entirely lack the wherewithal to see themselves as others see them

The Labour stable is badly in need of a deep clean, starting at the top.

Alexander McKay

Edinburgh

We can't avoid a border

While there is undoubtedly a strong pro-Europe element in Scotland, surely part of the No vote in 2014 was to avoid an EU/non-EU border north of Hadrian's Wall, as it had been made clear that Scotland leaving the UK would mean it also left the EU, even should it plan to rejoin in its own right?

If Brexit does occur, then Scotland becoming an independent EU member would result in the same thing, a border between Berwick and Carlisle.

Jane Ann Liston

St Andrews

An aberration, no matter who is leader

Keith Howell dismisses Scotland's democratic deficit as if it was a temporary aberration. I would remind him that there are 650 MPs at Westminster and as England has 533 of them and Scotland 59, no matter which leader comes and goes, as he puts it, Scotland gets the governments England elects.

Indeed, I don't remember the last time Scotland voted Conservative, which is hardly surprising as it was in 1955 and I was in my pram.

Ruth Marr

Stirling

Keith Howell accuses the SNP of "a degree of demonising of a sequence of Conservative leaders as levers to get its way on independence" (Letters, June 23).

I would suggest that to call a series of Tory leaders incompetent is not to demonise but simply to reach a reasoned conclusion from available evidence. Still, it's nice to see Keith emerging at last from his Conservative closet.

Douglas Muir

Huntly

Don't let up on health tourism

At the British Medical Association's annual conference in Belfast doctors voted to stop charging foreign patients, who are ineligible for free NHS care, since medical staff would be "complicit in racism". Surely it is not racism but common sense, since health tourism costs up to £2 billion a year. The NHS is a UK health service not a world health service.

The solution is simple. All visitors to the UK must have private health insurance or be refused entry. If someone slips through the net then their country should pay or be deducted from their foreign aid. It is well known that many pregnant women fly into Heathrow and have their babies in the UK thus opening the path to free housing, welfare benefits and family members joining them.

Politicians must warn doctors that this will never happen and if they do not like it resign.

Clark Cross

Linlithgow

Time is the enemy

I rarely agree with Boris Johnson but he's right in suggesting Nicola Sturgeon’s independence argument will be dented by a successful Brexit.

The ever canny Ms Sturgeon right now is busy making hay while the sun shines. Most consider the Brexit process chaotic – undoubtedly we're in the midst of a serious constitutional crisis. Her solution is predicable: independence, and, most importantly, quickly while chaos reigns.

But of course, it may well not always be this bad. We could leave with a decent deal; inevitably trade deals will be forged across the world.

Ms Sturgeon's greatest fear must surely be that we become accepting of Brexit – or even that more Scots embrace it. Time is the enemy for Ms Sturgeon.

Martin Redfern

Edinburgh