Sir, A 17-year-old in England has just won his case against the Crown to force the police to inform the parents of any 17-year-olds arrested and held at a police station.
Not to do so, the court decreed, is a breach of the 17-year-old’s human rights.
At the same time, 17-year-olds are deemed old enough to possess a driving licence and fight for their country.
In Scotland, they could have been married for a year and the Scottish Government reckons they have been responsible enough from the age of 16 to decide on independence for Scotland.
According to the ruling body in one part of the UK, therefore, 17-year-olds are old enough and responsible enough to influence a decision which could change our way of life in Britain forever, yet a court in another region rules that they are too young to be questioned by the police unless Mummy and Daddy have been informed and given the chance to hold their hands!
Meanwhile, a sixth Home Secretary battles grimly on trying to deport an illegal immigrant guilty of crimes here and wanted for trial on terrorist charges abroad, when it is obvious to a five-year-old, never mind a 17-year-old, that she is wasting her time and our money.
Closing down coal mines and power stations, dragging our feet on the construction of nuclear power stations and burying our beautiful countryside beneath forests of monstrous, useless and cripplingly expensive windmills the list of crazy decisions currently being made in
Britain is endless.
It all bears out the truth of the old adage: “Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad!”
George K McMillan. 5 Mount Tabor Avenue, Perth.
Immoral to put beliefs ahead of patient care
Sir, It is a farcical situation that a Scottish court has ruled that two midwives can opt out of doing their job on religious grounds.
This judgment has shown once again that it is possible to get away with the most outrages breaches of truth and morality if you simply dress it up in the pious language of scripture.
How exactly it is moral to refuse to treat vulnerable patients based on the writings of bronze age Palestinian goat herders I don’t know.
When Dr Jenner discovered the cure for smallpox some Christians objected as they saw it as interfering in God’s plan. Jehovah’s witnesses refuse blood transfusions on scriptural grounds and just this week a couple in America let their child die after choosing prayer over medical intervention.
The mentality that says religious faith must trump everything else allows some Jews and Muslims to mutilate the genitals of young children.
If a vegan took a job at a slaughterhouse and then objected to the slaughtering of animals on ethical grounds we would say that person should not have taken the job in the first place.
The same should apply to these two midwives. It is immoral to put your own beliefs ahead of patient care.
Alan Hinnrichs. 2 Gillespie Terrace, Dundee.
Misled over funding
Sir, In his article last Monday Dudley Treffry has misled Andrew Fyall of Ardler and no doubt other readers over the source of the £820,000 allocated by Perth and Kinross Council to, as Mr Fyall puts it, “spruce up” areas of Blairgowrie.
This sum of money was awarded to the council by the Scottish Government from its Town Centre Regeneration Fund which as its name suggests has a very specific purpose and could never be used to fund bus services.
The £820,000 is in fact the remainder of an initial award of £1.5 million by the Scottish Government to the defunct Blairgowrie and Rattray Regeneration Company to build a riverside visitor centre and “cash generator” hydro-electric scheme on the River Ericht, both of which ran into serious problems and eventually aborted at considerable expense.
The Government took back the unspent balance of the award from BARRC and gave it to the council to administer.It is now to be spent on improving the Wellmeadow and Riverside areas.
J W Milne. 15 Birch Avenue, Blairgowrie.
Why no shows for Dundee?
Sir, I attended a fabulous night at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, recently being entertained by the genius Nigel Kennedy with a mixture of Bach and jazz with a little Hungarian thrown in. My next outings will be to the Perth Concert Hall to see Jools Holland, then Sir James Galway, followed by Van Morrison. What a treat.
My daughter and I enjoy our trips to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Perth, attending concerts given by world-class performers but what has happened that I now have to travel out of Dundee to see them? The Caird Hall should easily compete with the other venues due to its incredible acoustics and one of the finest organs in the UK. Encouraging more headline performers can only help Dundee to succeed in the bid for the City of Culture 2017!
George Gavine. The Veldt, Monikie.