Epstein, Mandelson and Andrew: who knew what and when?

Who recommended that Andrew be given an international trade ambassador job? Was the Epstein relationship known at that time?

Of more importance, what was Keir Starmer told about Peter Mandelson? He should have been well aware from what was apparent in the Blair years that this was a man with few scruples seemingly driven by a need to ingratiate himself into the world of the wealthy and powerful. Perhaps Sir Keir thought this was a good qualification for the US Ambassador job irrespective of trivial things like integrity, objective judgement and vulnerability to blackmail.

What an image of the British Establishment this saga has presented to the rest of the world. Everyone knows that there was insider knowledge of what was happening. Everyone knows that the top priority was cover-up. Grand Windsor banquets and political "hands on heart" expressions of shock and regret won't work. That old question never ceases to be pertinent. Who knew what, when?

Isobel Lindsay, Biggar.

When money doesn't matter

What a life it must be being a politician, made a Lord, and then sacked as UK Ambassador to the United States.

But no worries, it pays quite well, well enough it seems that you don’t need to check your bank account to make sure you can pay the bills.

OK it was more than 20 years ago, but it’s suggested someone, namely convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, put $75,000 in bank accounts linked to you, and you have no recollection ("Mandelson: ‘no memory of Epstein payments’", The Herald, February 2)?

Money’s not obviously a concern to someone like Peter Mandelson, who was reportedly still receiving a six-figure salary last year despite being dumped from the role Keir Starmer appointed him to.

What cost of living crisis, Prime Minister?

And then we move to the royal family, and new revelations and pictures of the former Prince, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, again involving Epstein.

"Randy Andy" as he was known by the tabloids in his early days may have been stripped of his royal titles, but still lives very comfortably. And if all else fails – when was the last working day in his life anyway? – he’ll be able to claim his pension this month.

Put politics and the royals into the same bread bin and there’s only one conclusion: sad and stale.

Andy Stenton, Glasgow.

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We're so dull in comparison

As so many working-class citizens struggle to be able to heat their homes and buy their messages, it beggars belief that a Lord from the party of working-class citizens cannot recall receiving a sum of money that would completely change the life of so many. I also do not expect too many middle-aged men would find it hard to remember if they had ever had their picture taken in their underpants beside a mystery woman. What a dull life so many of us have.

Duncan F MacGillivray, Dunoon.

• Peter Mandelson appears to have as poor a memory as Nicola Sturgeon.

Michael Watson, Rutherglen.

SNP trap for the young

Predictably, the proximity of an election has sent the SNP into freebie overdrive in its efforts to buy votes. How many times between now and May will we hear the party bang on about baby boxes, tuition fees, scrapped two-child benefit cap, free bus fares, breakfast clubs, free school meals, prescriptions, wraparound childcare and its "Child Poverty Delivery Plan" to name but a few? Much of this is designed to appeal to younger voters with the cost to be borne in future by "those with the broadest shoulders" via increased taxation on anyone managing to earn a decent income.

Let’s hope that declining education standards under the SNP have not already eroded the reasoning powers of the young to the extent that they can’t see the trap that awaits them. They may study hard, and through their own efforts and decisions land themselves a reasonably well-paid job. However, instead of enjoying advantages for their efforts they will suddenly realise that they are now the ones with the broadest shoulders and will spend the rest of their lives paying for what they thought was free and wishing they hadn’t bothered. This surely will disincentivise people from the effort and entrepreneurial risk-taking that is required to build a prosperous country.

Mark Openshaw, Aberdeen.

The message of Bearsden

The Lib Dems won last Thursday's Bearsden council by-election with an astounding 38% of the vote. The SNP got 17%.

Turnout was 42%, which means only one out of every 13 registered voters could be bothered voting for the party whose be-all and end-all Holyrood campaign will focus on another referendum.

It also seems to suggest the voters are willing to gang up with whichever party is most likely to beat the SNP.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven.

I voted for indy, not the SNP

Jill Stephenson (Letters, January 31) tells us how she had said "No thanks" to the SNP in 2014. Her ballot paper must have been different from mine, which named no political parties or political figures. I voted "Yes please” for Scottish independence, which would have allowed our nation to be reinstated on the international list of nations, governed by whatever bunch of intellectually-deficient representatives they had chosen under our proportional voting system. We would not have been voted out of the EU by our southern neighbours in 2016. Or been burdened with the costs of Crossrail for London or the billions squandered on the aborted HS2 rail line. A different bunch of incompetents would most likely have had the chance to display their expertise in ferry procurement. We would have missed out on the recent pantomime of revolving Prime Ministers, and would be unlikely to find ourselves complicit in genocide in Gaza. The SNP, if it still existed, would have lost its electoral appeal. I could go on and fill this page but I will leave it to Jill Stephenson to explain why I was given the wrong ballot paper in 2014.

Willie Maclean, Milngavie.

There have been further allegations over Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (Image: PA)

Fuelling the ferries fiasco

The main reason that the Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa were/are eight years late in build and four times over budget is quite simply the decision to use supposed "green" liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a bi-fuel instead of tried and tested marine gas oil (MGO) which is similar to the oil used in domestic gas boilers and is low in particulates and other pollutants.

Unlike LNG this is a safe fuel to store; LNG has to be stored at -162C and it takes three times as long to refuel a ship with LNG as MGO. The fuel is imported from Qatar over 7000 nautical miles by sea, taking weeks, to the Isle of Grain on the Medway and then transported by road to Greenock. Transporting LNG by sea is incredibly complex and the vessels themselves are difficult to build, service and maintain, and of course they use diesel propulsion, as do the road tankers on their weekly 800-mile round trip.

The decision to use Finnish company Wartsila's complex bi-fuel diesels in the ferries made the construction of them on time impossible. For example, the engineers had to install 12,500 pipe sections and 186 miles of wiring in the Glen Sannox. If the contracts for the Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa had specified tried and tested marine diesels, they would have been launched years ago. So who decided that they should be powered by a supposed "environmentally friendly" fuel?

Calmac didn't want it. So who did? Who are the guilty men or women? I suspect that this was a political decision by a cabal in the SNP Government as part of its misguided policy of decarbonisation which makes things less efficient, often less reliable and hugely expensive. And as often happens with failed political projects, no-one is ever held accountable.

William Loneskie, Lauder.