Up for discussion today: fruit growers, renewable energy subsidies, nuclear power, Israel and Gaza, and hospitals.
Fruit growers suffering serious disadvantage
Sir,-Following the reports on the recent Scottish Agricultural Wages Board (SAWB) decision and politicians linking this to the recent storm damage to soft fruit tunnels, some of our growers have asked me to put their points of view.
The wages problem has been gnawing at us for a few years now and will be even more acute next year when the English wages board is disbanded.
The soft fruit sector employs a far bigger work force per acre than most farm enterprises, so the extra cost of employing fruit pickers in Scotland compared to England will hit the industry very hard.
Scottish growers are more than willing to, and do, pay a good wage but we do not believe the current SAWB agreement is right for the situation.
We pay one penny more per hour than our English counterparts and next year this will rise to three pence.
Scottish growers will also still be required to pay overtime rates to seasonal workers, while this will no longer be the case in England, adding over £3 per hour to our rate compared to that south of the border.
On top of that, under the National Minimum Wage regulations, English growers are allowed differential pay rates for young workers.
These age-related pay scales were disbanded by the SAWB here in 2006.
To each of these wage differentials we have to factor in national insurance contributions and additional holiday pay.
Relative to other agricultural enterprises, these burdens weigh disproportionately heavier on us.
Many of our workers return year after year because we do pay them properly; our pickers are not downtrodden “poorly” or poorly paid workers.
William Houstoun.Angus Growers,Arbroath.
Subsidies go to the well-off
Sir,-It seems astonishing to me that Finance Secretary John Swinney has complained to ScottishPower about its 10% electricity bill hike when he knows full well that it is his government’s ludicrous renewable energy policy that is really to blame here.
Its wind “religion” is funded by massive subsidies which all have to be paid for by beleaguered consumers.
The Renewable Obligation Certificates and feed-in tariffs will continue to pour money into the pockets o
f landowners, the Crown Estate and greedy power companies for years to come, until Scotland is bristling with 6000 turbines and our electricity bills have trebled.
By that stage the Scottish Government will have presided over the greatest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in Scotland’s recent history.
Scotland will still need to build new gas-fired power plants or import nuclear-generated electricity from England and France to provide base-load backup.
Struan Stevenson MEP.Strasbourg.
Wind power is creating job
Sir,-Your correspondent Mr McMillan’s comments about renewable energy targets (June 13) are wholly negative and identical to that of the unionist political parties in regards to all things Scottish.
Mr McMillan’s desire to fill our country with nuclear power stations reflects a wish to make Scotland a nuclear repository to provide our masters with the power they need to keep England’s lights on.
He no doubt visits the countryside and waves a sword at the wind turbines in protest like some modern-day Don Quixote, ignorant of the fact that their construction is providing hundreds of jobs, mine among them.
Germany, Italy and Switzerland are all coming out against nuclear power. Wind turbines are the 20-year stopgap to meet a need until tidal power begins to power parts of Europe as well as Scotland.
C. Laing.44 Moness Crescent,Aberfeldy.
The unsavoury record of Hamas
Sir,-Councillor Fraser Macpherson claims those who disagree with him about Gaza are in denial. The facts prove otherwise. He is in denial.
He decries a blockade of general goods to Gaza. Not so, there is a legal blockade against weapon materials. The last ship caught trying to smuggle in weapons was caught with 50 tonnes of the stuff. That would reduce the amount of rockets recklessly and indiscriminately fired into Israel from Gaza on a daily basis.
The Mavi Marmara, the ship on which eight Turkish terrorists were killed after attacking Israeli troops, carried no aid except out-of-date medical supplies. MSP Joe FitzPatrick has booked for the next ship. He should check the cargo or he could end up as a gun-runner in an Israeli jail.
Unfortunately, innocents get hurt in all such conflicts. No-one was more innocent than the Fogel family, slaughtered in their sleep, including an infant.
They are not the only Jewish innocents who have been murdered outwith any combat situation.
Hamas, a terrorist group, became the government of Gaza after slaughtering their Fatah rivals. Fatah, no less committed to the destruction of Israel, controls the West Bank.
A letter in The Courier (June 11) notes Gaza is well endowed with modern shopping malls.
Councillor Macpherson and Mr FitzPatrick should know that not so long ago the problem was not a shortage of goods but a shortage of cash when Hamas was dilatory in paying out aid donations.
Would Councillor Macpherson have Dundee City Council imitate Dumbarton Council and ban Israeli books?
Andrew Lawson.9 MacLaren Gardens,Dundee.
Saving lives took precedence
Sir,-I cannot agree with David Trudgill (June 7). I worked in coronary care unit in DRI and Ninewells for 30 years.
At Ninewells we did 12-hour shifts and often we went without a break. Why? Saving lives, that’s why.
(Mrs) Irene Watson.16 Martin Street,Dundee.
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.