I HAVE just returned to Glasgow from Spain on holiday.

When arriving in Alicante, we went through passport control. A separate group then checked that everyone had completed the medical form by scanning the QR code (no QR code, no entry), we then passed through an area where two nurses checked everyone’s temperature using an infra-red camera. It was very efficient and professionally done.

We had a safe holiday: rules are rigorously enforced by the police, and mask-wearing is mandatory.

We returned to Glasgow where we passed through passport control. There was no check by QR code that you had completed the medical form, or, indeed, any scanning, and definitely no temperature checks.

Given the draconian rules that Nicola Sturgeon is putting in place on the public, might it not be within her remit to ensure airports in Scotland are at least matching the Spanish process with respect to people arriving from abroad?

Bill Adair, Glasgow.

BEFORE lockdown my wife and I booked return flights to Tenerife with Jet2 for an October holiday, leaving from Glasgow.

Sixteen days before we were due to travel we received an email from the company, telling us the outward bound flight was cancelled, without compensation, but the cost of the flight would be refunded.

However, as the return flight was still scheduled to fly there was no refund of that flight’s costs. We therefore looked for an outward flight and found one from Edinburgh on our original date.

Four days after our original cancellation email we got another email from Jet2, this time cancelling our return flight. Again we were able to book a flight with another airline, this time returning to Prestwick.

On the evening of the return flight cancellation email Jet2 were now advertising a new return flight on our original date but with a slightly later take-off time. It appears we did not qualify for a seat on the alternative flight home. We could rebook with Jet2 but would lose the flight payment made to the alternative airline.

Proof, if it was needed, that some airlines just don’t care about their customers.

Robert Aitken, Glasgow.

I LISTENED with interest on Wednesday afternoon to portfolio questions in the Scottish Parliament, in particular to an exchange between Liam Kerr MSP and John Swinney.

Mr Kerr mentioned that his wife was a teacher in Aberdeen, so, as a result, he came with some anecdotal evidence of conditions in schools.

He stated that 83 per cent of Aberdeen-based EIS members reported no reduction in class size to facilitate social distancing. Aberdeen City Council claimed, according to Mr. Kerr, that its schools would need twice as many staff in order to make this happen.

The local EIS secretary had said that the money for this would have to come from the Scottish Government. Mr Kerr proceeded to ask Mr. Swinney to provide the money required to allow Aberdeen’s schools to do what his government asked – or did he want to leave teachers and pupils at risk from the virus?

Mr Swinney’s response was to angrily accuse Mr Kerr of using reckless language and of scaremongering, insisting that schools are safe because the government had put in place appropriate guidelines. He concluded by asking Mr Kerr to “look at the evidence”.

I’m afraid teachers across Scotland will be angry at such a narrow-minded, defensive response from a government minister, which took no account of teaching conditions in our schools.

Like Mr Kerr I, too, know teachers who work within Aberdeen City Council, and while all of my evidence is anecdotal, I will nevertheless present it.

I hear of secondary teachers who cannot use their own textbooks for fear of Covid contamination. I hear of secondary teachers who cannot collect in pupils’ jotters to mark work for fear of the virus.

I hear of secondary teachers who are awaiting supplies of Chromebooks – simple laptops with internet access – so that their pupils will actually have something to write on. As an alternative to textbooks and jotters (of which there seem to be few), the council promised one Chromebook for every pupil.

A Chromebook would allow pupils to email work to teachers. Aberdeen City Council promised these for the start of term. So far these supplies have not materialised. Teachers in the secondary sector are teaching with virtually no resources.

In effect, it’s a return to the 1960s “chalk and talk” for many Aberdeen pupils. Is this really the best our government can do?

I speak out as as a friend of all Scottish teachers because, well, to put it simply, they cannot.

Iain Harris, Selkirk.

A HERALD Sport heading (September 24) states “Cash or bust for Scottish clubs”. This is both an emotive and scathing assessment of the reality facing many Scottish clubs.

There is no simple solution but perhaps the comment of James Watson (letters, September 24) namely, “ ... our sports people talk of bankruptcies but still pay eye-watering wages” should be seriously heeded.

Football, or any sport, is not exempt from the harsh reality of Covid-19. Clubs regularly offload players who are surplus to requirement by way of free transfers. The current climate regrettably requires such action. Drastic pruning is the unfortunate but necessary first step to survival.

Allan C Steele, Giffnock.

WHAT with the chaos of Covid and the shambles to come of Brexit, we are surely heading towards martial law. One rule of law for everybody from Westminster. And questions to be raised if ‘MSP’ has ever been a “viable job”.

John Dunlop, Ayr.

FOR years the Scottish National Party have attempted to curry favour with the youth of this country with seemingly progressive and green plans, including lowering the voting age.

Nicola Sturgeon has basked in these apparently well-supported initiatives, to the extent of assuming the vast majority of the young Scottish vote was for her party. Is this still the case?

The first mistake was the exam results fiasco but some U-turning managed to minimise the damage for the meantime although the long-term fallout and what is still to come might paint a different picture.

However, we have now witnessed an even bigger mistake, that of allowing universities to re-open and then applying draconian measures once the much anticipated virus explosion happened. (“Sturgeon defends strict new Covid rules for students”, September 26.)

This double whammy is not going to be easily erased from young minds, and once one catastrophic mistake is replaced by another some doubts must creep in as to the wisdom of the Scottish government’s entire approach, including the ultimate one of breaking up the United Kingdom for a vague and problematic gamble on future prosperity.

Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.

IT is inhumane to make it illegal for first-year students in university halls of residence to return home in the present circumstances. Such studied cruelty is beyond comprehension.

Stretching reasonable understanding also is the passivity of the Scottish people in the face of restricting measures being applied to families throughout the land, criminalising even one-to-one meetings.

The ideology of clarity of message is being prioritised over the welfare of young and old people. Why is this demagogy tolerated?

Nicola Sturgeon continues to project her own fears and insecurities on to the population of Scotland. Can no-one recognise the lasting damage she and her advisers have and continue to inflict on everyone?

Rev Dr Robert Anderson, Dundonald.