YOUR article “Universities hit as 2,500 EU academics quit in the last three years” (The Herald, December 28) is a wonderful piece of Trumpian “fake news”. No wonder The Scottish LibDem education spokesperson Beatrice Wishart, not able to accept reality or resist opportunity, uses this statistic as a stick to beat Brexiters with.

Do we readers not deserve some balance here? It is not the gross number of leavers that signify but rather the net number. In other terms, how many of these leavers have been offset by replacement arrivers? In any case, that is not the real point of concern.

“Scotland,” says Ms Wishart, “has some of the best universities in the world but their academic excellence is anchored to the talents of their people, many of whom are from the EU.” It has been ever thus (at least for some good while). When I arrived at Edinburgh University in the early 1960s the department was staffed largely by non-Scottish (mostly English) incomers (including myself as an Australian). The much-expanded, present-day department is staffed mostly by incomers from the EU and elsewhere. Then as now you could count the number of Scottish staff on the fingers of one hand and still have a couple left over to pick your nose with, if desired.

The problem for Scottish universities is not to be obligated to provide employment for large numbers of European academics, excellently qualified as most are, but who largely cannot find employment (or on so favourable terms as) in their homelands. It is for Scottish universities to staff themselves from the by and large now legion of the cream of Scottish graduates and alumni/ae whom they have been churning out over the years.

Where has all this Scottish talent gone and why is it not being exploited and tempted back? From my experience many decamp after graduation to the old “Empire” – Canada, Australia and especially the United States, where employment is easier, prospects brighter and conditions and salaries far superior to those prevailing here.

The situation as regards staffing the Scottish universities is thus much the same as for the British NHS. What is to be deplored is not the loss of opportunity for EU and other aspirants but the lack of opportunity and prospects for home-grown talent. Let the politicians, including Ms Wishart, direct their efforts to solving that particular challenge if they are truly concerned about the future academic life and prosperity of their country and leave political point-scoring aside.

Darrell Desbrow, Dalbeattie.

ACCORDING to Nicola Sturgeon and many of the SNP correspondents in this newspaper we Scots are now (conveniently) devoted Europeans and wish to turn our backs on the “little Englanders”, the US and the Commonwealth. Also the fact we would have been out of the EU if we had voted Yes in 2014 is now to be “airbrushed” out of history by the SNP lest it spoils its narrative about being “dragged out” out of the EU by rUK.

Furthermore, not to be discussed or recognised is the uncomfortable truth that the SNP lost the Scottish-wide vote in 2014 and the UK-wide EU referendum in 2017 and in doing so Mrs Sturgeon wants to tear up the Edinburgh Agreement and the EU referendum result in an attempt to hide the hypocrisy of the SNP arguments for independence. Incidentally, although I voted Remain it was done on the basis that it was a UK decision and not something to be hijacked (like our flag) at a later date by the SNP for political expediency.

More importantly, given the US trade disputes with the EU which have resulted in tariffs of $7.5 billion placed on goods during October, the recent announcement to curb the Nord Stream 2 pipeline (designed to supply the EU with cheap Russian gas) and the clear intent to tighten the trade screws further on Fortress Europe this year, completely changes the ball game as far as I am concerned. Indeed if Boris Johnson plays his cards right, the UK could be in the enviable position of a significant trade deals with the US (free of US EU tariffs) the EU and the Commonwealth putting the “Great” back into Britain. Alternatively, one could opt to believe that somehow it is better for Scotland to go it alone outside the UK internal market, the EU single market (for an indefinite time period), be outside a trade deal with the US and the Commonwealth along with a “toy town” currency.

Ian Lakin, Aberdeen AB13.

THE recent posturing from Brussels on access to British fishing waters demonstrates the predatory relationship that has been built up at our expense.

The Spanish, French, Dutch and others have built up fishing fleets beyond their domestic limits to fish in waters that our political elite have given away without any return. To add insult to injury, these continental boats were built using subsidies, to which we are net contributors, while our own fishing fleets have been reduced in the name of conservation.

The previous shameful surrender of our fishing waters led to unemployment in our rural, coastal regions. This was a European Union-mandated transfer in which our politicians took away jobs from British workers and swapped them for poverty imported from the continent.

The time has come to swap back. There will likely be significant job losses in Spanish and French coastal communities but these jobs were looted and should not have been created in the first place. These boats were fishing for euros from the pockets of British people.

Tom Walker, Loanhead.