Sir, The felling of the Scots pine at Perth Academy was more, much more, than just the loss of one magnificent 200-year-old tree.
In the minds of the pupils who felt so emotionally attached to it, it will be remembered as the day they were betrayed and not listened to. The day many of them will probably have decided not to even bother to use words like “discuss”, “liaise” or “negotiate” ever again. The day they gave up bothering to fight for what they believed in because,certainly where Perth and Kinross Council is concerned, what is the point?
In what seems to have been a cloak-and-dagger operation, at 9am on a Sunday, the chainsaws were in action and any window of opportunity to continue discussions about alternative solutions was slammed shut.
It is a complete shock to people who still believed in a local democratic process.
What message does this give to the younger generation indeed, to anyone living in our so-called “Big Tree Country”? It’s too late now, the damage is done the tree has gone but I suspect its legacy will linger.
Perhaps the next great tourist attraction should be called The Disenchanted Forest?
Lou Radford. Altchoaran, Acharn, Perthshire.
Need to be taken to task
Sir, How I agree with Henry Topping’s letter in Saturday’s Courier. Cyclists really do need to be taken to task about obeying the Highway Code. The number of times, when sitting at traffic lights with two lanes of traffic stopped, I have seen a lone cyclist pedal between the two rows of cars, then carry on over the junction.
Also, why is it that adult cyclists seem to think it is OK to cycle along the pavement with pedestrians dodging them after suddenly hearing a cycle coming up behind. If they aren’t confident on a main road, they should not be on a bike.
Come on, cyclists, stop annoying the motorists!
Fiona McMillan. 6 Ethiebeaton Terrace, Monifieth.
Grateful for walk help
Sir, I would like the opportunity to say thanks through your columns to a very kind lady who lives north of Dundee. I am not able to contact her in any other way. I know she will recognise herself.
She and her companions, on a walk in Tentsmuir Forest in October, saw my walking companion having difficulties with mobility. She very thoughtfully gave him her walking pole and then, later, sent a message by another walker that she would meet us with her car at the end of the path. Both the pole and the message were extremely important in helping my companion along. However, our progress had become increasingly slow and I fear she had to leave the area long before we were even in sight of the meeting point.
My companion has now recovered well but is concerned that he still has the walking pole. I think it is unlikely he will be able to return it and so he intends to make a donation to a charity as a “thank you”.
Whoever you are, we hope that this meets with your approval.
Thank you so much for your very practical help and your thoughtfulness. They were an absolute godsend. Bless you.
Ruth Beddall. 17 Abbots Mill, Kirkcaldy.
Happy life as an atheist
Sir, A letter in your November 1 issue stated some good things done in the name of Christianity. This, however, does nothing to prove the existence of God.
Teaching the Bible to children to learn about love, respect etc is typical of someone who cherry-picks the good parts and omits the bad parts.
Secularism and moral philosophy are the reasons we live in the kind of society we have today. It is insulting to suggest that those who have a lack of belief in the supernatural are soulless and lead empty lives.
Being an atheist does not prevent you from being a good person and living a happy life.
There is nothing wrong about having no faith. Faith is the belief in something without evidence and that is just plain silly.
Chris Gibb. 30 Dunholm Road, Dundee.
Drunken mob of students
Sir, On Sunday morning in St Andrews I saw an elderly lady on her way to church knocked down by a mob of drunken students from our “elite” university who ran heedlessly on.
Girls who a few weeks ago were at school became so inebriated they lay in the street, in spite of Barbara Hewson’s warning to women about putting themselves in harm’s way.
On Raisin Monday a monstrous “foam-fight” took place in the Quad not in memory of a great medieval event but, rather, recalling a Club-Med “Wet T-shirt” competition.
When I went up to St Andrews in 1960, only 5% of school leavers were thought capable of benefiting from a university education and the rest went out to work.
Nothing I saw this weekend would make me believe the ratio used by educationalists half a century ago was in any way mistaken.
Dr John Cameron. 10 Howard Place, St Andrews.
Father, son and no gadget
Sir, I read the article by Caroline Lindsay, Give dads a chance, in Monday’s Life Matters section and it made me think about a father and son I saw in one of the food outlets in the Wellgate Centre recently.
The child was 14 months old and he and the father were interacting and obviously happy to be with one another. There was no electronic item to be seen, something some mothers should take note of because it seems to be an extension of their hand in many cases and this gadget seems to be more important than the child to them certainly not the case with this father. The affection was plain to see to anyone who saw them together.
June Reid. 12 Findhorn Street, Dundee.
Of Marxist meddling
Sir, John Swinney’s reported approval of employee representation on boards of industrial directors shows how naive some politicians are. If John Swinney imagines that a placeman from the shop floor at Grangemouth would have helped solve the failing fortunes of Ineos there, he needs to sharpen up.
From the word go, any employee representation on industrial boards of directors will be filled from that class of trade union activists which has oozed a destructive element into Scottish industrial relations over the last century in the shape of Marxist extremists, in their varying guises.
Marxism fundamentally opposes the interests of the nation state and private enterprise and its activists, hypocritically parading the interests of employees, sabotage the fortunes of private industry whose collapse will result in the corporate control of the successor enterprises which they calculate they can then achieve. Such was the classic case of Ineos Grangemouth.
The advent of cheap American frack gas and oil feedstock offers the chance of profit, not only to redress the daunting losses but to upgrade the rust bucket which Grangemouth had become. The last thing that any Scot wants to see is the approach of a McLuskey-type union spanner near the works of a reviving Grangemouth.
Alastair Harper. House of Gask, Lathalmond, by Dunfermline.
Independence, if you please, not separation
Sir, Jenny Hjul (Courier, 30/10) tries to convince us that a recent poll proves that Scotland and England are too similar to justify “breaking apart”, as she terms it.
Ms Hjul makes an unfortunate reference to “balancing the budget”. While George Osborne staggers from one disaster to another, with all of the UK’s resources at his disposal, John Swinney uses his restricted budget with a skill his London counterparts are totally incapable of.
Voters who care about a balanced budget should take this into account, especially as the various unionist parties are making loud noises about scrapping the Barnett formula in the event of a No vote.
If Scots choose, in 2014, to have a government that has total control over their own affairs, what is so wrong with that? This will not be “separation” or “breaking apart”. There will be no great rending or tearing of the British landmass at the border, with Scotland drifting off in self-inflicted isolation.
Ken Clark. 335 King Street, Broughty Ferry, Dundee.
Potholes and politicians
Sir, As I drove from Perth to Arbroath via Dundee city centre and Broughty Ferry, I began to wish I was driving a tractor or a tank, the potholes and rutted road surfaces were so bad.
Our councils complain they are cash-strapped because they have had their central government funding frozen, but they prefer to neglect essentials like road repairs, while they continue to create new, promoted posts at high salaries and award golden handshakes and fat pensions to staff retiring far earlier than in the private sector.
Nor are our councils willing to cut back on very expensive pet projects like Dundee’s waterfront development and Perth’s plans for a new square where the City Hall now stands. Their priorities should be to get the essentials, like road repairs, right first then see what is left in the kitty for non-essentials.
George K McMillan. 5 Mount Tabor Avenue, Perth.
Beware the hanging chad
Sir, Having heard the latest statistics published by the SNP, I have a sudden feeling of awareness of the Scottish National Party’s tactics at the upcoming referendum on independence.
While it is true the opinion polls show a predominance of voters against independence, the finance minister, John
Swinney, is confident they can repeat the result of the Scottish elections in 2011, defying all the pollsters and pre-election predictions to carry off a resounding victory.
I understand all that is required would be to design a voting paper that is complicated and can be misunderstood. Then, subcontract a computer software firm incapable of counting the voting papers accurately. Should around a quarter of a million votes be lost, and with the addition of the votes of children and visitors, the pundits may indeed be surprised.
I recommend most strongly that anyone in the country who wishes to save Scotland from being hijacked and taken to Brussels goes out and votes.
Alan Bell. Roods, Kirriemuir.