Letters: How Nicola Sturgeon outdoes Boris

Ask the English

Sir: Toby Young rightly criticises the juvenile posturing of the devolved governments of the Union over Covid-19 (No sacred cows, 24 October). Each of these governments has implemented extreme lockdown measures without consideration of their cost to the taxpayer. As 90 per cent of British taxpayers are English, this represents an egregious example of ‘taxation without representation’.

In contrast, I watched the Commons announcement of a Tier 3 lockdown in the north of England, which was followed by an opposition reply, and then a reply from the SNP. Surely I wasn’t the only Englishman to ask: ‘What’s it got to do with them?’ Toby Young is right to call for a new referendum to bring this nonsense to a halt. However, he also needs to advocate for a referendum to be held in England. It would be highly unfair for the English electorate to be left out of a decision to dissolve the Union. English contempt for the antics of Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford may well lead to a close-run contest.
Richard North
Hayling Island, Hampshire

How Sturgeon does it

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Ameer Kotecha

Lindt has cheapened itself

Sir: I feel the need to reply to your nationalist correspondent on the state of the Union (Letters, 24 October). He feels that Scotland has handled the pandemic better than England; this may be true, if only on population density grounds. However, the facts say otherwise: as measured by excess deaths, Scotland has the third worst result in Europe. Test and Trace in Scotland is no better than elsewhere. Scotland has the same care-home scandal as in the rest of the UK. Scotland is ‘perceived’ as doing better because the First Minister is a far better communicator than Boris.
William Ballantine
Bo’ness, West Lothian