Has the Sturgeon/Murrell ‘team’ destroyed the SNP? (“Murrell’s legal aid bill for SNP embezzlement to rise”, The Herald, August 6).
Into this mix add John Swinney, who appears to have made this story front page news almost forever by not allowing an in-depth inquiry into the whole affair.
The SNP looks to have had little oversight of its funding, little control over Ms Sturgeon's outbursts, and no control over killing this story.
The SNP has been in decline for years as its vote share drops in recent elections. Given the state of the country - and the SNP’s only policy being taxing those it has already taxed many times before - is the writing on the wall, finally, and has its luck run out, both at the same time?
It has the best part of five years still to run in government, but that is looking to be a curse rather than an achievement.
How many of its ministers are doing well? This appears to be a lame duck administration. It is not ‘stronger for Scotland’.
Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.
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Stuck in a wind farm sink estate
Sturgeon's successor must change the Government's priorities
End the benefits squeeze to help those living in poverty
Challenges for future generations
“So what”, asks Joseph Graham, “will intelligent high school pupils do in the future? On what will they focus their aspirations?” (Letters, August 6.)
I hope they will devote all their hearts and minds, and apply their wits, scientific and humanitarian, to tackle a problem which my generation, to our everlasting shame, has not only failed to solve, but hasn’t even attempted to address.
How can we all get along together, without destroying ourselves, and the planet?
How can we revive the international institutions, such as the United Nations, which in the space of a decade have been rendered impotent, and in the next decade might well be dismantled?
How can we rediscover our humanity by disenthralling ourselves from the addictions of social media? How can we recognise Artificial Intelligence for what it is, a blind alley?
How can we tear down “the gates, fences and locked doors (that) are springing up everywhere in the western world”?
How can we show the current masters of the universe that a bleak future is not inevitable, but rather a choice, and one that need not be made?
The great challenge for the next generation is to abolish war.
“You may say I’m a dreamer” and that it’s impossible. We used to say the same thing about disease, and poverty.
I’m writing this 81 years, to the day, after the atomic bomb was cast upon Hiroshima, an anniversary that has received scant attention. Either we find a way to abolish war, or war will abolish us.
Dr Hamish Maclaren, Stirling.
Prison ships, the remedy
Campaigners have urged Scotland's First Minister, John Swinney, to scrap his plans to allow sex offenders and domestic abusers out of jail early.
Previously he said that he would not rule out the early release of killers and rapists due to prison overcrowding.
This could be seen as showing more concern for criminals than their victims. Over 1,000 prisoners were released early in 2025.
Many reoffended. Why should prisoners be released after having served only 30 percent of their sentence? Scottish prisons may be overcrowded, but the solution is not early release.
The obvious solution to overcrowding is prison ships in stormy waters. Justice done.
Clark Cross, Linlithgow.
Hostility to UK business must end
Scott Wright correctly states that BP’s improving results (The Herald, August 1) are mainly connected to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Commodity prices move with scarcity and demand; companies that still produce the oil and gas society needs will, in tight markets, post higher earnings. That is commercial reality, not moral failure. Profits are a snapshot that could change overnight if hostilities end. What then? Energy firms must invest for years ahead, not on today’s headlines alone.
Once again the siren voices of Uplift and Global Witness are raised. Patrick Galey of Global Witness calls BP’s profits “a scandalous reminder of who’s been cashing in on human misery this year,” blaming big oil for prioritising shareholder wealth over a liveable planet while wildfires, drought and energy costs hit families.
Yet these campaigners accept none of the responsibility for keeping the lights on, powering industry or ensuring fertilisers and other oil-and-gas derivatives continue to flow. Their demand for a dash for net zero ahead of any planned transition is itself driving fuel poverty. Their outrage is cost-free; the energy system is not.
Where was the UK Government when Deepwater Horizon cost BP shareholders, not taxpayers, around £70 billion in clean-up and compensation? Or when oil fell to $22 a barrel? Nowhere – yet it rushed to lend the banks in the 2007-08 financial crash.
Why then the focus on the UK’s North Sea - a soft target? Britain has shut down its coal plants. Germany still generates about 21% of its electricity from coal; Poland around 53%, with residual new-build.
China and India continue vast coal expansion. Open hostility to business in the UK must end, or we remain the laughing stock of more dynamic countries. The carbon challenge is global; the lectures by fringe groups stay local and should be completely ignored until they have something sensible to say.
Ian Lakin, Milltimber, Aberdeen.
Let’s celebrate Hospital at Home
It was rather disappointing to read your recent article (“Worst June for Scotland’s A&Es”, The Herald, August 5). Many factors could have come in to play which resulted in those figures.
However, regardless of how they have come about, for both those having long waits and NHS Staff, it is ultimately distressing.
Opposition parties are quick to criticise, as your article highlighted. Yet those same opposition parties are slow to bring solutions to the table. While waits in A&E have been disappointing, one aspect of the NHS in Scotland is growing positively, Hospital at Home.
This service has seen an additional £100m investment from the SNP while in government, with the party planning for Hospital at Home to be the fastest growing, and largest element of the NHS in Scotland.
And this was achieved between October and December 2025. This service is keeping hundreds out of hospital and care homes, and allowing patients to recover quicker in their own homes. It deserves to be recognised for the huge contribution it is making within our NHS.
Catriona C Clark, Banknock, Falkirk.
SNP consistently failing
Scottish exam results were published this week, and many children have done exceptionally well, making progress towards a future career (“Exam results day 2026 was uneventful. The goal should be to repeat that”, The Herald, August 5).
This is more than can be said about the attainment gap, which is as wide as ever since Nicola Sturgeon promised, 11 years ago in 2015, to eliminate the gap completely. A&E waiting times were also released this week, for June.
They show the worst ever waiting times on record, with only 67.9% of patients being seen within the SNP four hour target.
The only positive comment that can be made regarding SNP performance in devolved matters is that it is very consistent with its failure to achieve.
Dennis Forbes Grattan, Aberdeen.
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