Sir, – What a brilliant piece of journalism your Impact 200 series on the men and women of Tayside and Fife who have inspired, challenged and influenced us in the past 200 years, has been.
It was fascinating to see and read about who was on it and what they did.
Such talent from such a small area of the world.
Of course, there will be arguments about who is on and who has been left off.
For example, it was good to see Rev George Gilfillan in at number four but why no mention of his more famous compatriot, Rev Robert Murray McCheyne, whose memoirs sold by the million and whose grave, even today, is visited by people from all over the world? Some people regard him as being one of the key figures in the Balfour Declaration which in turn was key in the formation of the modern state of Israel.
He was the minister of St Peter’s Free Church of which your number 23, William McGonagall was a member.
Another minister of note was Islay Burns who is considered one of the founding fathers of the modern Chinese church, the largest in the world.
Another missing Dundee hero from the 19th Century was the soldier Robert Annan who became a folk hero in Dundee and rescued nine people from drowning in the Tay, before himself drowning. He was the first commoner given a civic funeral in Dundee and until the 1950s was commemorated by an Annan memorial service.
The famous Annan eternity stone can still be seen outside the newly refurbished St Peter’s. Thanks again for a superb series.
Rev David A. Robertson.
St Peter’s Free Church,
Dundee.
Lack of Tayside opera singers
Sir, – It was a delight to see international baritone Donald Maxwell in your Impact 200 series.
He is the honorary president of Tayside Opera now and one of several singers who turned professional after singing with us.
However, this option may not be available in the future as Tayside Opera with Fife Opera are the only two amateur companies in Scotland that specialise in grand opera and the lack of singers is a major factor in deciding the future.
This has been especially noticeable since the 1990s and seems to have coincided with secondary schools moving away from choral singing to instruments, singing with a microphone, and group bands.
Dundee Schools Theatre Group run by the education department has excellent singers in its productions, so the good voices still exist.
Producing the voice naturally in a choir or company is excellent for your health but the main reason for the lack of support may be that opera singing is seen as for the elite. Chorus members do not need to have a trained voice: we do exercises at our sessions to improve the breathing.
If Donald Maxwell had not joined Tayside Opera, would he have left teaching to train his voice?
If there is no amateur company based in Dundee this will not be an option for young singers to try it out before embarking on their career.
Philip Kearns.
47 Grove Road,
Dundee.
Contribution of Herbert Bonar
Sir, – I enjoyed your choice of persons featured in Impact 200 and I know that the list had to be subjective.
I would comment that perhaps Sir Herbert V. Bonar should have been included. As chairman of Low and Bonar and Bonar Long, his various companies in the jute trade and engineering gave many Dundee people employment for many generations.
His father was instrumental in the setting up of the school of economics and the Barns of Claverhouse smallholdings.
Bonar Hall was one of Sir Herbert’s philanthropic donations.
Jim Balneaves.
4 Tayside Place,
Glencarse.
Proven record of Abertay
Sir, – The City of Dundee has an even better story to tell about its contribution to widening access to university than your article about Dundee University (June 10) suggests.
The same Ucas data as quoted in your story shows that Abertay University too has increased the number of students it recruits from deprived backgrounds, against the national trend.
New enrolments at Abertay from the most deprived 20% and 40% areas (MD20 and MD40) rose by 26% from 265 in 2014 to 335 in 2015.
Three out of four applicants to Abertay from MD20 areas won places on our courses in 2015.
It is worth mentioning, too, that universities are not only recruiting 17 to 18-year-old school-leavers. At Abertay, for example, some 35% of our new students are aged 21 or more when they join, and more than 30% come from further education college straight into second or third-year of our degree courses with full recognition of their college qualifications. This method of entry, known as articulation is an often under-reported aspect of widening access to university, and Abertay can claim one of the best rates in Scotland.
Indeed, we have proportionately many more such students than most other Scottish universities.
Dundee as a city can be rightly proud of the achievements of both its universities in ensuring that all who might benefit from a university education get the best chance of receiving it.
Professor Steve Olivier.
Vice-Principal (academic),
Abertay University,
Dundee.
No return to hitting children
Sir, – Richard Lucas (June 10) knows there are punishments in schools. What he is alluding to but perhaps unwilling to admit is that he is advocating corporal punishment.
It is perhaps no surprise that as a devout Christian, Mr Lucas seeks to restore it.
Demands persist from Christian individuals and groups to be allowed to punish children physically.
In 2005, some independent Christian schools in the UK had their attempt to overturn a smacking ban rejected.
Teachers and parents claimed the ban infringed their religious freedom to provide a Bible-based education.
If society is to progress and leave behind religiously-motivated violence, it might start by not teaching children that physical violence is the way to regulate the behaviour of others.
Apart from anything else, the horrific tales in the last few years of all manner of abuses perpetrated against children by adults in positions of authority should be enough to convince everyone that corporal punishment is not the answer.
Alistair McBay.
National Secular Society,
5 Atholl Crescent,
Edinburgh.
We must protect young drivers
Sir, – A teenage driver, who had just passed her driving test, and her passengers were injured, one seriously, in a recent accident where the car collided with a tree.
I make no comment on this except that there are far too many accidents and fatalities involving young drivers.
These sad incidents are reported far too regularly. Figures show that 2,088 young drivers and passengers aged between 17 and 24 were killed and seriously injured in just one year.
A third of the drivers killed were under the age of 25.
Young drivers aged between 17 and 19 are 1.5% of licence holders but are involved in 9% of fatal crashes.
One suggestion was to consider a restriction that a new young driver could not carry passengers, other than family, for nine months after passing their test.
Another was an evening curfew.
Countries that have introduced restrictions have seen big drops in accidents and death and injury rates.
It is time for action to protect our young from themselves.
Clark Cross.
138 Springfield,
Linlithgow.
