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The Herald Scotland

Just think what we could done with the cash wasted on the CalMac model

While avoiding the big picture of catamarans' superior cost-effectiveness, Mr Turbet tries to make a case for large live-aboard crews on a number of frankly tenuous grounds: shift working and stewards helping disabled passengers on to lifeboats. In an emergency, surely any crew member or fellow passenger would have a duty to help in such a circumstance. Such issues, however, are nothing to do with the monohull versus catamaran comparison, but with management and operational practices, CalMac's being singularly costly while providing a less than optimum service. In comparison, council-owned monohull ferries operating on Shetland's frequent inter-island services have minimal shore-based, shift-working crews and operate efficiently for significantly longer hours daily than CalMac; likewise, privately owned Western Ferries, with one route, four ships and exemplary reliability and which incidentally also pays tax to support public services. Mr Turbet finishes by extolling the virtues of 'the public model's ability to divert resources where they are needed', as compared with an operator serving just one route. Well, if CalMac's record of network capacity constraints and chaos is his desired model, I fear for the future of our island communities. There is, however, a better way – catamarans, minimal shore-based crewing, multi-ship frequent crossings and gradually-introduced debundled route tendering, preferably to community-owned entities. Roy Pedersen, Inverness. Read more letters What's the value of human life? It is quite remarkable that an amendment to decriminalise self-abortions until birth in England and Wales was considered in the same week as new legislation seeking to decriminalise assisted suicide in the Westminster Parliament. Similar initiatives are also being examined in Scotland, as mentioned by Hannah Brown ("Labour MP calls for Scotland to decriminalise abortion", June 29). It is, therefore, appropriate to ask what is happening in our modern society; why have many members of the general public, and their representatives in Parliament, given up on the concept of the value of human life? A societal paradox seems obvious. UK and Scottish government funding has been quite rightly provided to support extremely premature infants, while initiatives are considered to enable abortions until birth. Similarly, financial support is rightly being provided to prevent suicides, including amongst young persons, while new assisted suicide legislation is being considered. In all this confusion, it is worth asking why human life should be valued. Certainly, from a purely scientific perspective, human beings have no value whatsoever since they are just made up of about 70 per cent water and a few other biochemical compounds. Do human beings then have value because they have autonomy? But this would mean that some lives, such as the unborn and those with very serious mental disorders, are worthless. Moreover, how can the autonomy of persons, logically, give them any worth? Maybe the value of a human life comes from the amount of pleasure or suffering it experiences. But why should the activation of certain sensory cells in the brains of individuals give them any greater worth? Moreover, if pleasure is all that mattered, it would mean that all persons in society would have lives of unequal value. So where does the value of human life come from, including that of politicians who adjudicate (after a few hours of discussion) whether some of those around them have lives unworthy of life, which can be ended? But perhaps politicians in Parliament only exist to support the concept of a social contract where everyone should equally respect each other. But why then should the strong and powerful respect such a contract? And why should anyone care if no one has any value? The only possible answer to the question of why human persons have worth, lies in the belief that every human person has immeasurable value. A belief that everyone should share in a secular society if it is to remain civilised and not descend into a jungle of barbarity. In this regard, it was distressing to see so many MSPs disparage personal beliefs in the debates on assisted suicide in the Scottish Parliament. They ought to have realised that it is only because they, themselves, share the belief in the value and the equality of all human life, that democracy and the Scottish Parliament actually exist. Dr Antony Latham (Chair); Dr Anne Williams (Vice-Chair); Prof Dr Robert Minns (Honorary Chair); Dr Calum MacKellar (Director of Research); Dr. Danielle de Zeeuw (Senior Researcher), Scottish Council on Human Bioethics, Edinburgh. Why the EU is struggling Ian McConnell's article rehashing tired Brexit regrets ("We're all still paying price for hard Brexit", June 29) does so in defiance of mounting evidence that the EU's internal contradictions are being brutally exposed. Donald Trump's proposed high tariffs on EU exports are not reckless bluster – they are a response to long-standing covert trade barriers and regulatory protectionism that have helped the EU run persistently high surpluses. The irony? Britain experienced the same treatment, yet was told to accept a £121 billion goods trade deficit with the EU (2023) while paying £10bn net annually into the EU coffers. And this wasn't a global pattern. The UK's goods trade with the rest of the world was broadly in balance, underscoring how structurally skewed our trade relationship with the EU had become. The bloc's protectionist barriers – and rigid regulatory alignment – consistently undermined British competitiveness. Unlike Britain's previous passivity, the US has now acted decisively. And with Fortress Europe under pressure, countries like Italy, facing economic malaise and rising populism, may well look to strike their own deals with the US, bypassing Brussels entirely. Germany, meanwhile, long enjoyed the advantages of an artificially weak euro, supercharging its export dominance. But that model is now unravelling: a struggling car industry, falling Chinese demand, and crippling energy policy are exposing deep vulnerabilities. A weaker Germany means a less cohesive EU. Outside the bloc, Britain is free to strike deals. Like, for example, trade deals with the US, India and the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership), which may be modest today, but they align us with the fastest-growing economies of this and the next generation. They represent flexibility and global engagement – exactly what Brexit was meant to enable. The EU is now discovering how 'difficult to negotiate with' it has become – only this time, it's not Britain acquiescing but America swinging a hammer. Ian Lakin, Aberdeen. Debt worry for Scotland The latest figures on Scotland's debt makes grim reading: average household unsecured debt is running at over £16,000 and more than 475,000 people are on benefits, while 810,000 16-64-year-olds are economically inactive. There needs to be radical change to stimulate employment and a return to work in order to get us out of the financial rut that the SNP has allowed Scotland to sink into. Dennis Forbes Grattan, Aberdeen. Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump (Image: PA) Please support these rabbis It is tragic for humanity that two men have appeared on the world stage at the worst possible time and place. One whom I am referring to is Benjamin Netanyahu. The government of which he is Prime Minister is responsible for murdering and injuring some 50,000 children (Unicef). That would keep most people awake at night. But no: he and his fanatical supporters press on, planning more suffering, more cruelty, more murdering of children, more clearing Palestinians off their land, destroying their infrastructure. The other is Donald Trump. I do not need to list the ways in which he is singularly unfit to be 'leader of the free world'. I was however going to suggest he is unfit to be President of the United States, but that is a decision for the American electorate to make, once those who voted for him come to their senses. I mentioned in my letter published on June 29 that one of the positive elements in this unfolding tragedy is the many Jewish Israelis 'who defy courageously their government by working for peace and justice'. There are many such groups and I suggest that we can respond to their courage by providing them with financial assistance. I give one example only, that being Rabbis for Human Rights, who, driven by 'the profound Jewish values of responsibility for the safety and welfare of the stranger, the different and the weak, the widow and the orphan' provide aid for Palestinian communities facing state-backed settler violence and ethnic cleansing. There is a website for British Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights. John Milne, Uddingston.