Sir, – We will always have rain.
And, unfortunategly, every few years we will have periods of exceptionally heavy rain.
Recent scenes from Doncaster, Sheffield and Yorkshire are stark reminders of what can happen to communities built next to rivers when those who are paid to maintain land drainage don’t carry out their tasks efficiently.
We in Scotland are not exempt from such flooding disasters, as the householders of Bankton Park, Kingskettle, know only too well.
Some years ago the River Eden spread out widely to either side until householders found several feet of muddy water in their bungalows.
So far this year the River Eden has flooded across the fields at Ladybank.
But it has not yet reached local housing, although it has been of benefit to more than 130 swans who now reside on the “new loch”.
The speed of drainage in any landscape depends on two main factors: the average depth of the river and its width.
Silting up has to be controlled and countered.
I have not seen any dredging of the River Eden for many years and, for that reason, the river channel is getting visibly narrower.
Unless something is done, it is only a matter of time until damage to property occurs.
It’s time for Sepa (Scottish Environmental Protection Agency) or Fife Council to recommence dredging before the Howe of Fife begins to resemble the Doncaster area once again.
Archibald A. Lawrie.
5 Church Wynd,
Kingskettle.
Cash pledges are pie in sky
Sir, – Isn’t it strange how a forthcoming election can produce so many wonderful promises?
Promises of increased pensions and improved wages for the lowly paid, additional cash to provide more GPs to help our struggling surgeries and a whacking load of money to help our toiling NHS.
There’s more cash to aid the disabled and, of course, an additional funding boost to our underfunded police force and fire brigades and so I could go on.
What I ask though is: if all this money is available now, why hasn’t it been already spent on these desperately needy causes which have been so neglected of funding for so long and not just to increase a political party’s popularity in the hope of persuading voters now.
Some national newspapers are also having a field day with their attempts to woo the voters by the use of language that can only be described as abusive, inflammatory and to my mind complete libellous at times. It is most unbecoming to put it mildly.
However, I am delighted to see The Courier has maintained its usual impeccable standards of reporting which I consider sets a standard to all the media in general.
Well done.
Ron Blanchard.
177 Kinghorn Road,
Burntisland.
Let specialists map out future
Sir, – As Brexit has shown, it was never a simple leave or remain, as will be the case for Scottish independence, it is not a straight Yes or No.
Before any more referendums or further debate, we deserve to know exactly what trade and people movement agreements there will be between Scotland, the remains of the UK and the rest of the world.
Will there be a hard border with customs and passport checks; will there be tariffs on goods moving over the border and what currency will we be using?
If a new currency is the result, what reserves will we hold to support it?
The majority of goods and materials Scotland exports and imports are carried around the world in shipping containers upon enormous vessels.
The economics of operating container ships means they deliver to one port per country, more often, to one port per continent.
Consequently, even if Scotland had a suitable container interchange between ship, road and rail, there is no likelihood of ship owners and charterers using Scottish ports due to distance and other cost considerations.
Therefore, Scotland will be fully dependent on inward and outward goods crossing the border by road and rail.
If tariffs are imposed and customs checks take place, there can be no doubt the price of imports will dramatically increase, and our exports will become very expensive.
We deserve to see a full and detailed business plan and what customs, passport and trading agreements there will be between Scotland, the remains of the UK and the rest of the world before any further discussion on independence.
Not half-baked unresearched promises made by politicians to win votes, but by specialists in their fields.
Colin Topping.
Glenrothes,
Fife.
‘Schrodinger’s cat’ parliament
Sir, – Derek Farmer, in his response (Power games being played, Courier, November 11) accuses me of glossing “over facts in favour of spin and propaganda that has nothing to do with reality”.
He asks: “In what sense the 2014 result had been “ripped up”?
EU membership, frigate orders, HMRC jobs, pensions and credit ratings spring readily to mind, but let us consider just one.
Respect.
Not only Scotland’s devolution settlement, but our voice as a “respected” partner.
Does Mr Farmer honestly believe the “Vow”, “signed” by Cameron, Clegg and Miliband, on September 16 2014 has been honoured?
We now find ourselves in 2019, with an EU power grab, a rebranded ‘UK Government in Scotland’ hub open in Edinburgh, calls from Scottish Tories to have an unspecified part of our budget spent by that agency, thereby circumventing Holyrood, a prime minister threatening to take control of our NHS, and, topping it all off, that same prime minister pushing through a Withdrawal Agreement Bill allowing him to amend or repeal the Scotland Act without our approval.
The only “spin” I see are the gyrations performed by unionists attempting to convince us we have a legislature simultaneously existing as “the most powerful devolved parliament in the world” and, in Mr Farmer’s own words, a “regional” assembly subservient to Westminster.
Truly, the Schrodinger’s cat of parliaments.
Ken Clark.
c/o 15 Thorter Way,
Dundee.
Demonstrators are cowards
Sir, – Lord Justice Dingemans at the High Court ruled that Scotland Yard banning demonstrations by Extinction Rebellion was illegal.
This could lead to up to 400 Extinction Rebellion protesters getting compensation payments totalling £2 million.
The law is an ass since those who disrupted the public’s right to go to work are getting paid for doing so. It also gives the green light for more demonstrations.
The cost to taxpayers of these demonstrations has been in excess of £31 million.
Unless this legal ruling is revoked the public will decide enough is enough and will turn on the demonstrators.
These demonstrators are cowards since they avoid going to China, India, Russia and Chile and the top ten oil producing countries where they would get jail, not compensation.
Clark Cross.
138 Springfield Road ,
Linlithgow.