Should a supercomputer be a top priority amid a housing crisis?

The National

13-06-2025

At a very rough and admittedly simplistic calculation – and assuming you could build a decent flat for, say, £100,000 – the almost £1 billion price tag for the supercomputer could have been used to build around 10,000 homes. Politics is all about priorities and supercomputers seem these days to come before homes for our nation's homeless weans. More than 10,000 of them languish in so-call temporary accommodation today and will continue to do so every day for the foreseeable future.
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After the announcement I watched a TV interview with a suitably enthusiastic academic from the university who singularly failed to explain the actual (not theoretical) benefits of the supercomputer. In the meantime, Peter Mathieson, principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, took to the press to say the supercomputer investment will have a 'transformative impact on the UK'. He went on to say 'This significant investment will have a profoundly positive impact on the UK's global standing'. Is this whole project primarily about 'the UK's global academic standing'?
I am reminded of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a comedy science-fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. The number 42 is especially significant to its many fans because that number is the answer given by a supercomputer called Deep Thought which takes 7.5 million years to finally answer the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything.
Perhaps The National could devote some column inches to an article from the university to inform us of the real – not theoretical – benefits of this massively expensive project and explain why it is at the top of the political agenda. Will it be obsolete before it is even switched on?
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I am sure the academics of Edinburgh University will enjoy their new toy when it eventually does come online. The homeless of weans of Scotland less so.
In sharp contrast, on March 28 2021 the then education secretary John Swinney said: 'If we are re-elected in May, the SNP will roll out a new programme to deliver into the hands of every school child in Scotland a laptop, Chromebook or tablet to use in school and at home. It will come with a free internet connection and full technical support. It will be updated when necessary, replaced when needed and upgraded as technology improves. As a child moves through their school life, it will change with them, going from the simpler devices needed at P1 to the more advanced in the senior phase of secondary'.
That pledge has since fallen by the political wayside. So it's a supercomputer for academics but no laptops for our school children.
Sandra West
Dundee
TRUMP'S false charge of race discrimination by the South African government against white farmers and offering them refuge in the US is an act of hostility against South Africa.
Since South Africa took Israel to the International Court of Justice charging it with genocide, the US has ramped up its actions against South Africa.
Trump's presidential order 'Addressing the Egregious Actions of South Africa' promoted the re-settlement of Afrikaners in the US and stated that South Africa had taken aggressive positions towards the United States including 'accusing Israel of genocide'.
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It added, 'The United States cannot support the government of South Africa in its undermining United States foreign policy which poses national security threats to our nation … and our interests.' It concluded that 'the United States shall not provide aid or assistance to South Africa.'
It could not be made clearer that if you disagree with US support for Israel's actions then you will be punished.
In South Africa's colonial and apartheid past, land distribution was grossly unequal on the basis of race. This remains the case. Whites own 70% of the land while being only 7% of the population. South Africa in addressing this issue passed the Land Expropriation Act. Land can be expropriated without compensation only in strictly defined circumstances.
READ MORE: Donald Trump ambushes South African president with false 'white genocide' claims
The United States intervention, making false claims about the act and what is happening to white farmers, whilst offering fast-tracked refuge to Afrikaners, is a disruptive interference in the affairs of a sovereign country.
The US actions seem designed to destabilise South Africa and stop its support for the Palestinians.
South Africa should be applauded for its humanitarian stance in support of the Palestinians and should also be assisted in its journey to overcome 300 years of colonialism and apartheid.
Brian Filling
Chair, Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) Scotland
(successor organisation of the Anti-Apartheid Movement)