The nation’s financial priorities again come into question, as does its approach to alcohol, and the fascinating debate over the ancient tsunami continues in today’s letters.
Banking bail-out diverts money from needy Sir Today (March 23) I read that a 70-year-old lady is planning to jump out of an aeroplane, granted with a parachute, in order to help raise £80,000 for a family to send their twins, both suffering from cerebral palsy, to America, to receive surgery to allow them to escape from a life of immobility.
Surely something is going wrong here?
Do we not have the medical expertise in this country?
Can we as a nation not afford to pay for the surgeon to come over from America?
Even flying him first class and putting him up at the Ritz Hotel would be a very small percentage of the kind of money we in the United Kingdom seem to be paying for the incompetence of the banking industry.
Stephen G. Gilham.Grange Road,Errol.
Tsunami did hit Cupar
Sir I thank Drs Dawson and Kirkbride for their response (March 23) to my article on the Fife tsunami and for confirming its existence.
While the lowest beds of sand to be found in the Howe of Fife were undoubtedly left behind when the glaciers retracted, such sands are easily identifiable because various gravels and stones are mixed in with them.
The sand brought in by the tsunami is of a different character because there are not even tiny stones to be found in that layer.
Indeed, as I stated in the article, the sand particles are of identical size throughout the nine-foot deep layer.
I would be pleased to hear how any layer of such uniformity of particle size and depth could be laid down (20 miles inland) without a phenomenal wall of moving water being involved.
Perhaps they could also tell us how fine-running sand of that same type and depth can be found in vast quantities between Leslie and the Lomond Hills and along the cutting of the elevated railway line between New Inn and Markinch?
I am sure your readers would also like to hear their ideas about how that group of seals ended up in those sand beds at Cupar (eight miles from the coast) if not taken to that spot by the tsunami?
To overwhelm and embed a group of swimming seals, that sand must have been raining down upon them in truly vast quantities
Archibald A. Lawrie.5 Church Wynd,Kingskettle.
Politicians’ drink culpability
Sir In view of his wife’s unfortunate experience with drunken behaviour by accident and emergency patients, your correspondent Brian Macfarlane (March 22) asks for government action to support and protect hospital staff.
The retiring Lord Advocate, Elish Angiolini, stated recently that alcohol plays a major part in most crimes of violence but, despite support from the police, doctors and health workers, the opposition at Holyrood during the last parliamentary term seemed determined to throw out the unit pricing of alcohol as part of a package to curtail alcohol-fuelled behaviour in hospitals, on the streets and in the home.
John Crichton.6 Northampton Place,Forfar.
Scotland held back by attitude
Sir As usual I see George K. McMillan (March 23) has found another platform to complain from.
Unlike Mr McMillan, I find scientific explanation inspiring.
Everything we discover leads us on to further discoveries in some way or other.
Again, unlike Mr McMillan, knowing that we are but a small part of a much greater enterprise gives me hope for the future that perhaps there are other populated worlds out there in the universe, worlds, which, perhaps, are not perpetually at war with each other.
Such thoughts give me hope that we will not annihilate each other, that perhaps we will eventually learn to live in harmony, enjoying what makes us unique rather than constantly searching for a reason to fight.
Scotland has a bright future if only we strive to be the best.
We must look forward to what could be, rather than what was, and culturally drop the “not-for-the-likes of-us” attitude which results in the continuation of the poverty cycle, a loss of aspiration and, for some of us, the inevitable decline into violence, drink and drugs.
Perhaps I am being too optimistic, however, having travelled to many other small nations, I see that, in many ways, the only thing holding Scotland back is her own people and their attitudes towards life.
(Mr) J Phillip.3 Lyninghills,Forfar.
Dangerous level of defence cuts
Sir I applaud your highlighting of the battle to save RAF Leuchars.
It is an honest venture giving local people a voice they sorely need in order to catch the ear of the coalition government.
But what is the score with the coalition’s local politicians?
They traipsed happily arm in arm to Downing Street Campbell, Smith, Brett, Caird all paid-up supporters of the coalition government.
Not one of them has distanced themselves from the defence cuts. They want to save face and votes. They seem not to care that the RAF is being reduced to only six fast-jet squadrons.
Politicians campaigning to save one base miss the real point.
We need to save the RAF and the navy and army.
The local politicians should all withdraw their support from the coalition unless the government increases our defence budget and I’d say, by 100%.
Mike Scott-Hayward.Sawmill House,Kemback Bridge.
Get involved: to have your say on these or any other topics, email your letter to letters@thecourier.co.uk or send to Letters Editor, The Courier, 80 Kingsway East, Dundee DD4 8SL.