Edinburgh Council’s Transport and Environment Committee have approved a revamp of George Street at an estimated cost of £35 million. Add to this a further loss of over £3m from parking charge revenue. Further costs to the city are bound to be incurred over the projected two-year period of the construction phase. The council recently estimated that some £86m would be required to restore the Capital’s roads from their current potholed-riddled state. Given that there is a constant claim of underfunding, council officials should concentrate on addressing current issues rather than proposing yet another vanity project – £38m would provide a good start for the restoration of the city’s roads and pavements, making it safer for road users and pedestrians alike. Derek Stevenson, Edinburgh Go compare “The mullahs, enmeshed in corruption and incompetence, have squandered the nation’s wealth on funding terror and proxy militias. The Iranian economy now lies in ruins, strangled by mismanagement” (Struan Stevenson, Perspective, 24 June). There are some fascinating similarities here with another regime rather closer to home. Tehran preaches Islamic fundamentalism; the Scottish Government embraces such lunacy as gender identity politics, universal basic income and Green anti-nuclear ideology. The mad mullahs blame Israel as well as that “Great Satan” the United States and its allies for problems they themselves have created, while the Scottish Government does likewise by demonising England and Donald Trump. Following a mercifully brief stint as First Minister, former SNP leader Humzah Yousaf and his acolytes seem to spend most of their time nowadays criticising every Israeli air strike and military action in the region, calling for sanctions against the Jewish state. They’re clearly far more concerned with the Middle East than tedious old domestic issues. Just as the ruling Iranian clerics have wasted their country’s money on arming terrorist organisations, the separatists in charge at Holyrood have poured money down the drain by deliberately implementing policies that diverge from the rest of the UK purely for the sake of being different, no matter how ludicrous or unworkable. And let’s not forget the cost of commissioning all those endless independence papers. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and First Minister John Swinney: two clueless fanatics proudly running their respective countries into the ground. Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh Follow the logic John Swinney believes that Professor Iain Gillespie, the disgraced former Principal of Dundee University, should hand back his £150,000 pay-off, stating: “Given the awfulness of the handling of the finances of Dundee, it is the reasonable thing to do” (“Return £150K pay off, uni chief is urged”, 27 June). Where to start with this total lack of self-awareness? Given the awfulness of Michael Matheson claiming for the astronomical internet bill from the taxpayer, is it not reasonable for him to return the almost £13,000 resettlement grant he pocketed when he stood down as a Minister? Given the awfulness of the ongoing ferry saga, is it not reasonable for a Minister (take your pick as to which one) to have been sacked? Given the awfulness of the state of the Scottish NHS, is it not reasonable for Neil Gray to fall on his sword? Given the awfulness of the demise of the Scottish education system, is it not reasonable for Jenni Gilruth to step down? Given the awfulness of the handling of all these devolved issues, is it not reasonable for John Swinney and his Cabinet to step down and call an election so we can get a government of whatever persuasion that actually wants to make Scotland a better place and improve our services? They’ve been in power for 18 years and they have nothing to be proud of. Jane Lax, Aberlour, Moray Peace plea The 120-plus Labour rebels who are prepared to vote against the Welfare Reform Bill reflect the ideals of the Party in standing up for the poor and the vulnerable. They must be dreading next Tuesday’s vote. The cuts in PIP and the Disability Allowance are particularly cruel. It takes a former Conservative prime minister to dub them as “callous”. I’m surely one of many disillusioned voters who feel betrayed by this Labour Government. Where money seems to be tight for welfare, it apparently is plentiful for defence. Largely to pacify Donald Trump, the recent Nato summit has agreed to raise the spending on defence to 5 per cent of GDP with only Spain abstaining, in the biggest increase since the Second World War. Surely a truly scary increase in firepower spells an increased likelihood of war, where the first victims are welfare, and aid to the poorest in the world. Never has the old cliche “jaw, jaw, not war, war” sounded more reasonable. Before it’s too late, there should be a world summit, convened to cease an arms race in which there is no winner. Only then can we usher in a stampede for peace. Ian Petrie, Edinburgh Welcome help Let’s all stand together to make sure our elderly mothers, fathers, grandparents and friends have care in care homes when they need it. Without the dedicated immigrant staff working in care homes, almost all of them would have to shut, leaving nowhere for our relatives to go. Some with families would have to be looked after at home, and others, with no-one to care for them, would be in hospitals. Sadly, this would cause major bed-blocking problems, and in turn lead to a lack of hospital places for ill patients. We need to accept – we need immigrants. Anne Wimberley, Edinburgh Breathe uneasy H Douglas Lightfoot heaps praise on carbon dioxide but doesn’t mention that having too much of it is toxic (Letters, 27 June). High levels in the blood can cause narcosis and death, conditions which intensive care units in Scotland fight hard to prevent every day; and when a cloud of carbon dioxide was emitted from a volcanic lake in Cameroon in 1986 it killed1,700 people. And to opine that high levels of it in the atmosphere don’t cause global warming is plain wrong. Scientific evidence caused the Swedish Nobel prize winner Svente Arrhenius to conclude in 1896 that atmospheric carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. Subsequent research has not shown him to be wrong. Hugh Pennington, Aberdeen High hopes George Herraghty gives a confusing message on the efficiency of wind turbines (Letters, 26 June). While it is true that the maximum efficiency of a turbine, given by Albert Betz, is 59 per cent, the actual working efficiency – which is what we are interested in – depends on how much wind is blowing, and this increases with height. So the SNP have got it absolutely right and they deserve praise, not denigration. H Belda, Edinburgh Broken system For once I can agree with Jill Stephenson, “the problem in both Scotland and Wales is that we have devolved rule” (Letters, 27 June). What Ms Stephenson apparently fails to recognise, though, is that if the NHS in Scotland is considered to be “dying” (to quote the seemingly headline-grabbing budding-politician chairing the British Medical Association in Scotland) then in Wales, and in many parts of England, the NHS is already on “life support”. The demise of Britain’s public services is not only reflected in certain NHS statistics and struggling care services but across the spectrum of local council services (Birmingham is already “bankrupt”), education (lowest UK science and maths PISA scores since 2006 – without England following a wider curriculum as recommended by the OECD) and welfare (due to austerity and continuing cuts to UK budgets). Efforts to revive Britain’s economy are not helped by unfunded commitments for massive financial spending on more weapons and nuclear power, while interest payments are now exceeding £100 billion per year, but the UK Government could immediately begin to address our failing democracy. The first-past-the-post electoral system for Westminster underpinned by an unelected House of Lords as a Second Chamber is an anathema to anyone sincerely advocating truly democratic representation. Perhaps if Ms Stephenson and others are not prepared to support fundamental change to the current highly flawed UK electoral system, she will now support a constitutional referendum ensuring the end of devolved governance in Scotland by giving the electorate here a simple choice of real change. Either direct Westminster rule or independent Holyrood rule – I look forward to reading Ms Stephenson’s arguments promoting a revised Independence Referendum. Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian And finally… Evan if Iran did develop a nuclear bomb, it could never be delivered. They have a rotten postal system. Malcolm Parkin, Kinnesswood, Perth and Kinross Write to The Scotsman We welcome your thoughts – NO letters submitted elsewhere, please. Write to lettersts@scotsman.com including name, address and phone number – we won’t print full details. Keep letters under 300 words, with no attachments, and avoid ‘Letters to the Editor/Readers’ Letters’ or similar in your subject line – be specific. If referring to an article, include date, page number and heading.