This morning our readers discuss audience courtesy, support for new nurses, the relative price of fuel, recent events at Abertay University and the need for a land tax.
Perth Concert Hall audience lacked courtesy Sir, Last Friday evening my wife and I attended Perth Concert Hall to see Vampires Rock. The show was excellent, as usual.
However, the antics of some members of the audience left much to be desired and indeed, detracted from the overall enjoyment of many.
I refer to those people who arrived late, after the show had started, and inconvenienced others while they clambered through the rows to their seats.
But even worse was that group who had very obviously been to the bar before the show started and who found it impossible to sit for 50 minutes without having to leave, presumably to empty their bladders.
This happened all through the first half of the show and and then after the break again, after another visit to the bar.
These people felt compelled to bring more drinks into the show after the break, usually one in each hand and both for themselves and the inevitable happened more toilet breaks and more inconvenience to many others.
I have to say that such rude and inconsiderate behaviour is not peculiar to Perth Concert Hall, but surely people ought to show consideration to all the rest of the audience who have spent good money to enjoy the show.
Tom McDonald.57 Durham Street,Monifieth.
Support for new nurses
Sir, Further to your article Scandal of jobless nursing graduate Sasha Munns (February 3) student nurses and newly qualified nurses should be reassured to know that the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is working with the Scottish Government to develop a new one-year job guarantee scheme.
This is because the existing scheme cannot meet the demand from the large number of people applying.
This uncertainty is resulting in stress for newly qualified nurses and we are organising career workshops across the country. These workshops will give students and newly qualified nurse RCN members practical support and advice.
I would urge all those newly qualified nurses who have not yet applied for the one-year job guarantee scheme to do so and would seek to reassure those who have applied of the Government’s commitment to this scheme.
Newly qualified nurses struggling to find jobs is just one of the many consequences of health boards’ decisions to cut jobs.
We will continue to press health boards such as NHS Tayside to make sure they have enough registered nurses to deliver high-quality patient care.
Ellen Hudson.The Royal College of Nursing,42 South Oswald Road,Edinburgh.
Were the old days so good?
Sir, Your correspondent Ian Wheeler (February 5), who wrote about the price of fuel, does not tell us what he was earning in 1966. It was probably around £30 per week.
So the £2.86 worth of petrol that took him from Manchester to Elgin was almost 10% of his gross weekly wage. And he says he got 40mpg out of a Morris Minor?
Ah yes. The good old days.
Malcolm Parkin.15 Gamekeepers Road,Kinnesswood,Kinross.
Dispute brings Abertay disgrace
Sir, I am dismayed by the news of the present turmoil surrounding the suspension of Abertay principal Professor Bernard King and vice-principal Nicholas Terry.
As an ex-employee of the University of Abertay, and having held positions of head of the School of Construction and Environment and dean of the Faculty of Engineering, I had the pleasure of working with Professor King.
This episode is providing the ideal backdrop for insincere, disloyal and disaffected individuals to surface and wash dirty linen.
From my experience of being a member of the court I know that there always is an element of politicking and manoeuvringl, but I would never have dreamt of this kind of disgraceful behaviour of an academic body.
In spite of having differing views on some decisions while I was at Abertay, as can be expected in any intellectual and academic environment, I have always admired the vision and stamina of Professor King in leading the university.
Susanta Sarkar.Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering University of Abertay Dundee,11 Church Street,Monifieth.
Land tax can ease pressure
Sir, I would like to remind your correspondents who have written about house prices and rents in St Andrews that it is not the value of the buildings that is at the core of the problem but the desirability of the land on which they stand.
That land, whether created by a deity or the Big Bang, had no production cost and no invoices were issued at its initial occupation. It therefore has no capital value at all.
What we call capital value is actually a chronological compression and expression of a site desirability factor by the rest of society.
The site’s desirability can be expressed more accurately by the potential annual rental value. Two identical properties in St Andrews owned by the same landlord should attract the same rent but if one stands in a rundown area and the other in a well- to-do suburb, it is the latter that attains the greater rent.
This has nothing to do with the value of the bricks and mortar, just the land beneath.
The pressure in the housing market could be alleviated, indeed obviated, alongside a rejuvenation of employment and business activity, by collecting an annual land rent charge to replace most other taxes including council tax.
Ron Greer.Armoury House,Blair Atholl.
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