Today’s letters to The Courier.
Sir, – The Boundary Commission have issued proposals revising the Westminster Parliamentary Boundaries for Scotland. Their remit was to reduce from 59 to 52 the constituencies in Scotland settling between 72,810 and 80,473 voters in each area.
It was also incumbent on the commission to give close consideration to the geographical, historical and natural affiliations of neighbouring communities. The results show that the division of voters has been achieved but the historical connections and established affiliations of the proposal regarding Longforgan and extended areas of the Carse of Gowrie have been ignored.
A new constituency is to stretch from the northern Glens of Angus, bounded in the west by a line drawn between Perth towards Newburgh with a large section of East Dundee, Monifieth and Carnoustie added to the eastern section of this new area and named the Angus West and East Perthshire Constituency.
From 1990 onwards Longforgan and surrounding areas fought hard to be restored to their native home in Perthshire and eventually achieved that aim for both local council and parliamentary voting. The remainder of the Carse of Gowrie has always been in Perthshire.
It is totally illogical, other than arbitrarily combining 77,152 voters, to see what the Angus Glens, Eastern Dundee, Monifieth and Carnoustie areas share in local allegiances, historical or geographical affiliations with villages along the Perthshire Carse of Gowrie. The inclusion of East Perthshire in the new name is meaningless and almost an insult.
Action by Perth and Kinross Council, local community councils and residents is needed urgently as the boundary proposals remain open for public consultation until November 7.
Angus Brown.The Orchard,Station Road,Longforgan.
Not just about saving nature from man
Sir, – Jim Crumley’s sense of frustration is palpable as he tries to achieve the impossible feat of disassociating man from nature (This is simply politics with a shotgun in its hand, September 24).
Scotland’s wildlife reflects our rich history of land use as much as it does a natural response to climate and geology.
Animals and plants flourish or perish by interacting with one another and with man’s activity. Our natural heritage is not and cannot be a ”balance of nature” in the commonly used sense, but an outcome that is largely contrived and part luck.
Thus on a small, crowded island conservation cannot only be about nature reserves protecting nature from the hand of man. It must be about economic land-use and how this can be made to support increased biodiversity.
Grouse management does this on our moors and the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s Allerton Farm Project demonstrates too what can be achieved on a typical lowland farm if managed with productive farmland and gamebirds in mind.
Dr Adam Smith.Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust,The Control Tower,Perth Airport,Scone.
Cannot ignore scientific advice
Sir, – Jim Crumley’s biased ill-informed rant on badgers and geese asserts it is only politics behind the culls, ignoring the huge health concerns driving the need for a solution.
Numerous government ministers have ignored scientific advice to consider a limited cull of badgers in the TB hotspots because they considered the voters’ backlash over the issue far outweighed the farmers’ plight.
He says the badgers are healthy when tests show otherwise and ignores the fact that the areas with the greatest incidence are those where the cows are outside for the longest, where they pick up the disease from the badgers.
The cows are tested and are healthy, then acquire the infection from a known source. Surely if 50,000 are to be culled in a small area, this shows how many there are around. We have only a small population of badgers in Scotland and are TB free.
If he bothers to go and see the damage that uncontrolled geese populations do to valuable grazing in the islands, as I have done, he would realise that geese per se are not a problem if they stay away from the in-bye ground and numbers are kept under control.
By shooting some, the rest might be kept where they do no harm.
Peter Stewart.Urquhart Farm,Crossford,Dunfermline.
Send supplier a message
Sir, – Further to the letter from Ms Sutherland re the price increase by SSE, I too have received a letter from this supplier but tellingly it does not indicate the rise in percentage terms which in my case is nearly 11%. I think this is outrageous and well above the rate of inflation considering rail fares are only going up by 6%, which is bad enough.
What a coincidence that in the business section there is an announcement that the person who signed the letter is going to be the new deputy chief executive, no doubt at a substantial salary increase.
It would seem that the only way forward is to change supplier. If enough SSE customers do this it might at least send the message that this rise is not acceptable.
JR Halliday.Redhills,5 Arbirlot,Arbroath.
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. Letters should be accompanied by an address and a daytime telephone number.