Sir, – Spot fines for wolf whistles? What next? (“Call for wolf whistle on-the-spot fines”, The Courier, December 7).
Are those who have raised this aware of what they’re suggesting, or are they simply looking for any scrap which would give emphasis to the “Me too” movement?
I know several attractive women – the one I know best would have laughed at the idea that such behaviour should be seen as abusive, and seen it as rather a compliment.
However, there is a serious point to be made here. I am a “super-feminist”. I totally abhor the idea of women being abused in any way, or of their being regarded as in any way inferior to males, other than in physical strength in most but by no means all cases. There is a totally justified case to be made for women to feel free from all kinds of gender abuse.
To suggest that the good and fully justified case for strong measures to be taken against abusers of women is now being asked, by some, to include wolf-whistling, simply trivialises the case against real abuse, which must certainly be rigorously dealt with.
The case against abuse of women is serious for most of us, so why dilute it with such nonsense as wolf-whistling?
On this matter, I, who have never wolf-whistled in my life, would advise, get real, folks, and don’t prejudice an important social campaign by bringing this triviality into the mix. By so doing you run the risk of having the real issues set alongside it and treated as equally trivial. Which they certainly are not
James Thomson,
Vardon Drive,
Glenrothes.
When banter did the job
Sir, – Oh for those halcyon days when the sound of a wolf whistle was greeted with an acknowledgement, a laugh and sometimes with a bit of banter from the recipient.
Marion Lang,
Westermost,
Ceres.
Echoes of a simpler time
Sir, – You say in your Courier editorial the only people who can truly judge are those who have been “subjected to wolf whistling” when going about their daily lives.
I am a very old lady now, but still remember the pleasure I had when passing some workmen taking their break one summer day many years ago. I had made myself a new dress and these workmen whistled at me. As I passed I said with a smile, thank you, and they, in unison, said no – thank you.
Simple pleasure was had by all. It was normal life and when, as sometimes happens, the comments are derogatory, you just ignore them.
I find it unbelievable and almost laughable that some people are suggesting actually fining people “on the spot” – how ridiculous.
With all these new regulations applying to almost everything these days, we are not far off from the reality of the “Big Brother is watching you” warning which was predicted in the film 1984 long ago.
So my experience still remembered, didn’t “achieve nothing” as suggested in the Editor’s comments column.
Betty Bowman,
West Park Road,
Newport-on-Tay.
Show showed how it’s done
Sir, – As a regular theatre and concert goer I had the privilege of being in the audience for Kilgraston school’s presentation of Portraits of Christmas on December 7.
The whole production was really glorious with the story of the Nativity running throughout along with marvellous music from the orchestra and choir.
The highlights for me were the solo singing performances, while the moment when King Herod died was really magical.
I am sure that many a professional company could not have done better.
Thank you all at Kilgraston for a memorable evening.
Jim Balneaves,
Tayside Place,
Glencarse.
Climate concern is a precursor
Sir, – Here in Australia, I try to keep up with climate change sentiment in the UK by reading online all the letters I can and your correspondent, Angela Rennie (“No more climate change scaremongering”, Letters, December 8) has written one of the more poignant, questioning responses to all the hullaballoo we are subjected to daily. This happens all over the world from fanatics who allow their scientifically uneducated emotion to drive their enthusiasm for what is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on humanity.
At this moment, thousands of misguided souls are pouring their heart and soul into the verbiage we are hearing out of Katowice in Poland, in an effort to have the global population commit to economic suicide because one man, Al Gore, misunderstood a science lesson when he was a very young student, and has refused to acknowledge his ignorance of the subject ever since.
If humankind is at all worried about its future it should immediately start questioning the attempt by politicians of the left to impose a globalised control over nations of the world, of which climate change is simply a precursor.
Thank you for such calm introspection, Angela.
Bill McCall,
Waikiki Rd,
Bonnells Bay, NSW.
High time we accept facts
Sir, – So, Angela Rennie, you don’t think that more than seven billion humans can change the weather?
Your comments about the ozone layer expose your lack of knowledge of the subject.
We humans were unknowingly destroying the ozone layer with CFC chemicals used mainly in the refrigeration and dry cleaning industry.
It took years to prove and get a world agreement to stop CFC use and begin to reverse the damage.
World pollution by plastics, chemicals, massive deforestation etc, due to human activity, have never been higher.
Burning billions of tons of fossil fuel releases 21.3 billion tonnes of CO2 per year and this has changed much faster than the ancient historic norms.
The result is that half the CO2 is naturally absorbed and the rest is accumulating in our atmosphere every year.
It is now widely accepted by world wide scientists using modern technology that our planet is warming rapidly due to this process, causing rising sea levels and increasingly severe weather events.
It’s almost midnight and you still choose to ignore the latest hard scientific facts.
As individuals we can’t begin to solve this problem unless we accept it exists.
David Niven,
Elie Avenue,
Barnhill.
Process shows lack of care
Sir, – Willie Rennie is right to emphasise the fact that staffing shortages at St Andrews Hospital were not the sole or overriding reason for the sudden and continued closure of the overnight out-of-hours service in April (“Don’t use shortage of staff as excuse to cut GP cover, MSP warns, Courier, December 7).
Much worse staff shortages at the other OOH centres were to blame, and the thinking was that cutting demand (the number of centres looking for staff) in one part of Fife would up supply (the number of staff willing to work) in the rest of Fife.
This might have looked plausible to a desk-bound manager in Glenrothes, but it ignored local factors.
A number of doctors who worked in St Andrews were not willing to add two hours travel time to night shifts at Kirkcaldy or Dunfermline and have therefore not swelled the ranks of available OOH staff.
It also ignored the bond to their patients and community hospitals which motivates some GPs to keep their local OOH service going.
Indeed, several GPs who had been working in the midnight OOH service in St Andrews have subsequently trained for and transferred to the OOH service in Dundee, and so are now wholly lost to Fife.
This means that re-opening the midnight OOH service will be that much harder, as will keeping open the rest of the OOH service which Fife Health and Social Care Partnership also wants to close.
An emergency, contingency closure of part of a service occurred without consultation and made keeping the whole service open less feasible.Then the permanent closure of the whole service was proposed on the grounds that keeping it open wasn’t feasible so it couldn’t feature as an option in the statutory consultation.
Anyone smell a rat here, or just sheer incompetence?
James Glen,
Dreel House,
Pittenweem.
