Sir, The loss to Britain of its AAA rating should sound as an alarm clock and awaken from slumber a chancellor dreaming that out-and-out austerity is the answer to our outrageous deficit.
A meaningful reduction of this deficit can only arise from sufficient tax revenues and that can only arise from a robust and fair collection.
There are so many ways that this eludes the taxman: the rich with their tax havens, the accountants with their smart dodges and international companies able to choose the country to which they pay tax.
Then there is the loss of spending power to this country, with all of its tax generating consequence, by working immigrants justifiably sending meaningful amounts of their hard-earned cash home, or the out-placing by profit-hungry firms of once British posts to far flung eastern lands and the waste of thousands of unemployed young, with no experience, having little hope of a job when competing against well experienced and highly-qualified immigrants.
It’s not hard to see what must be addressed, but it is hard to see how it can be.
The first step, though, I should think, is to ascertain just how much all of the aforementioned is costing our nation and, armed with that knowledge, a righteous resolve should invigorate our policy makers and push them to earnestly seek ways to put things right.
But, will they do the necessary research, or continue in ignorance of how much is truly lost, when failing to do so will make them lack the needed resolve to cure our ills?
Leslie Milligan. 18b Myrtlehall Gardens, Dundee.
We really will need candles
Sir, What a brilliant idea of Mike Scott-Hayward’s to mark Alex Salmond’s birthday with a 24-hour 100% reliance on renewables!
The First Minister and his cronies live in cloud-cuckoo land and are steering Scotland to powerless, economic disaster with their hare-brained schemes for wind and wave power and dependence on those and other renewables.
It is now too late to build new nuclear power stations or even traditional oil, gas and coal-fuelled power plants. Meanwhile, the axe is about to fall on several such plants in the UK and the Westminster government dithers over the extraction of oil from shale.
If Alex and the Westminster government airy-fairy ditherers have their way, soon every day will be an Alex Salmond birthday!
Schadenfreude and my opposition to independence for Scotland make me wish that massive power cuts and their disastrous consequences could be felt north of the border before the referendum in 2014! Now, where did I put those candles?
George K McMillan. 5 Mount Tabor Avenue, Perth.
Not grasping the reality
Sir, Mike Scott-Hayward’s petulant rant against Alex Salmond and the renewables industry does not grasp the reality that the UK will not be able to keep the lights on without further investment in wind, wave, tidal and other renewable energy sources.
The UK Government has run away from investing in carbon capture which could have made Longannet a world leading centre for this technology and secured coal fired generation in Fife and beyond. It has also been unable to secure a developer for any new nuclear to replace much of the soon to be decommissioned nuclear capacity.
Only last week they admitted that unless the renewable sector is supported or we start to burn more gas, which will increasingly come from unreliable and more costly sources, then the UK’s lights will go out by early in the next decade.
As for Mr Salmond, his popularity ratings continue to be very positive, which after six years as our First Minister is commendable and is probably unheard of in any western democracy. In contrast, after five years on Fife Council, Mr Scott-Hayward was rejected by the electorate.
Enough said!
Douglas Chapman. 38 Pitbauchlie Bank, Dunfermline.
Can’t have it all their own way
Sir, I see that the National Secular Society is on the march again. Not content with browbeating Edinburgh councillors into abolishing prayers before council meetings they have now turned their attentions to prayers at assembly in Edinburgh schools.
In a society that seems to worship diversity why is one organisation allowed to bully and harass to get its own way. They can hardly argue that human rights are being infringed.
If they do not wish to say prayers why not just treat it as a moment of quiet reflection?
The NSS would have you believe that they are akin to caped crusaders freeing us all from the shackles of the imposition of religion in public life but many people, who may never set foot in church from one year’s end to another find a moment of prayer apt in such circumstances and a way of focusing on the business to follow.
Like other pressure groups, the NSS has been allowed, through the apathy, and sometimes cowardice of local authorities and other bodies who should know better, to become far too powerful for the general good.
I would not ask for the NSS or their ilk to be banned (unlike them I am a liberal) but is it not time that officialdom and we, as individuals, stood up to them and told them that in a diverse, multi-faith democracy they cannot have it all their own way?
John Robertson Nicoll 7c Queen Street, Broughty Ferry.
This result is meaningless
Sir, The Better Together campaign is making much of their victory in the Glasgow University mock independence referendum, but little should be read into the result. As an indicator of the probable outcome it is as reliable as one of George Osborne’s economic predictions.
The turnout at the polls was a little more than 11% of the electorate; even the worst of council elections easily exceeds this.
The electorate in this and future student mock elections is in no way statistically representative of the electorate who will go to the polls in autumn 2014. Further, it is certain that the result of this fun election is highly skewed by a substantial number of “voters” who will not be available to vote in the actual event.
What surprises me is that so many have been taken in by the “no” campaign, a campaign which has been negative in approach and has raised the art of scaremongering to new heights. It has failed entirely to justify why we should retain this unequal and exploitative political union.
M Duncan. 100 Craigie Road, Perth.
Survey answer unacceptable
Sir, I would like to raise some questions with regard to Perth and Kinross Council’s answer re the recent controversial survey placed before our children. They state 86% of parents agreed to the survey being taken, I would like to ask which parents and in what numbers, because neither myself nor my wife were asked for consent. If you ask 10 parents and eight say “yes” than you get your % result.
These children were told to keep this survey secret yet asked to supply personal information. This is a clear breach of parental consent and the council has displayed a total disregard for parents’ wishes when gathering this information. Further, they display total arrogance by refusing to suspend the survey results.
Perth and Kinross need to come clean about the content of the survey, what it is being used for and who paid for it, but most of all, did they receive payment for holding the survey against parental consent?
My wife and I would not have given consent for our children to take part had we been provided with a copy of the survey prior to it taking place and never again must this council be permitted to approach our children to take part in secret surveys. The children are minors under the age of 16 and neither the council nor the school should be allowed to circumnavigate parental consent.
These survey results need to be destroyed now and a select group of parents should be present when it is done.
Alastair and Elaine McLean. Ar Tigh Ciether, 4 Fletcher Place, Crieff.
Too ready to criticise Sir, I was sad to see the aggressive, negative comments about Ninewells Hospital in The Courier, February 25. I have very recently returned from Ninewells Ward 9 after an unexpected stayfollowing day surgery.
The nurses and doctors were, without exception, hardworking, efficient and caring.
I and the friends I made in the ward were all of the opinion we were lucky to have Ninewells to help us when we were in difficulties.
The headline statement Patients are coming for you could dispirit a very praiseworthy group of staff at Ninewells.
We should be grateful for the enormous contribution to our health made by the outstanding staff at Ninewells and not be so ready to criticise them.
John Grinyer. 81 Dundee Road, Broughty Ferry, Dundee.