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Dundee not suitable for decommissioning

Oil installations berthed at the Port of Dundee.
Oil installations berthed at the Port of Dundee.

Sir, – I see Jenny Marra MSP is again on her soapbox calling for Dundee to become the centre for decommissioning in the North Sea.

I am afraid Ms Marra is a little late and less than well informed.

Dundee is not a suitable site to decommission platforms, whether made from steel or concrete.

Such activity requires deep water and major facilities.

Dundee has neither of these advantages. It can take alongside a harsh environment jack-up with difficulty.

Dutch, Norwegian and Italian companies have already built or are building specialist dual-hull heavy-lift vessels to remove all the old structures in the North Sea.

They will require deep water (fjords) and dockside facilities to park and deconstruct the units moved from their offshore sites.

Norway has the only sites already in operation. The two sites in the UK were allowed to close and are no longer viable.

There will be a little spin-off for the United Kingdom in removing some of the topsides before the big lifts but this will be mostly offshore labour (badly needed at present) and will mostly be serviced from the existing infrastructure in Aberdeen.

George Sangster.
Woodlands.
Logie,
Montrose.

 

Alex’s errors about Ypres

Sir, – Alex Bell’s column about Field Marshal Haig and Third Ypres (November 3) was error-strewn.

He claims that those who died at Third Ypres lost their lives for “no good reason”.

Wrong. They made the ultimate sacrifice for the very good reasons of attempting to overrun the u-boat pens on the Belgian coast, at a time when the British people were facing starvation due to the u-boat blockade of the British Isles; and for taking pressure off the French army, which was on the verge of collapse.

These reasons were not “strategic incompetence” as Mr Bell claims, but strategic common sense.

Mr Bell also suggests that Britain was under a “ruling class unchecked by democratic accountability”. Wrong again.

Britain was a democracy, and, as such, Third Ypres had to be approved by Parliament in the form of the War Cabinet.

After the war, the head of the War Cabinet, David Lloyd George, had to answer for that decision.

He was re-elected both to his seat and as Prime Minister by landslides, so the British people evidently did not believe Third Ypres to have been the disaster that Mr Bell reckons it was.

Also, Mr Bell makes the unforgivable mistake of equating deaths with casualties.

The number of British and Empire troops killed at Third Ypres is estimated to be between 60,000 and 80,000, nowhere near the quarter of a million he claims.

Finally, Mr Bell describes Haig as “inept”. That is arguable. Under Haig’s leadership, the British Army, under terrible strain, halted the German advance in early 1918, then smashed the hitherto invincible German Army in the Hundred Days. If that’s ineptitude, I’d take it.

Jack Konstant.
Airlie Street,
Brechin.

 

Incorrect assumptions

Sir, – In my letter (October 27) I did not express any opinion on the merits of another independence referendum except that there were many substantial arguments on the unionist side but these did not include those in Angus Brown’s letter (October 22).

Mr Brown and Derek Farmer (both November 20) have read my letter carelessly and jumped to unwarranted conclusions.

Mr Brown accuses me of “ignoring the message but personally attacking the messenger”.

All I knew about him was his message that he considered the Scottish Government anti-democratic and dictatorial. These were very serious charges indeed.

My view was that these were based on factual inaccuracy, as summarised in my letter.

In making these particular unfounded accusations and in associating them with dictatorship, Mr Brown was, wittingly, or I hoped, unwittingly, undermining democracy.

Thus, far from ignoring the message, I based my conclusions exclusively on it.

Gordon Dilworth.
20 Baledmund Road,
Pitlochry.

 

White poppies are solution

Sir, – Why does the FA and the SFA get themselves embroiled in an argument about whether or not to go against a FIFA ruling that they should not wear poppies at the England-Scotland match tomorrow?

The subject is so petty, politicians have even been debating it.

Politicians should be kept as far away from football affairs as possible.

The football governing bodies could resolve the problem themselves effortlessly by either ruling that the players will not wear poppies during the game or by wearing white poppies.

No one here or abroad could argue that white poppies are political emblems because they represent remembrance for all victims of war, a commitment to peace and a challenge to attempts to glamorise or celebrate war.

White poppies would keep everyone happy.

William Burns.
41/8 Pennywell Road,
Edinburgh.

 

Right that MPs discuss Brexit

Sir, – What is at stake over the High Court judgment on Brexit?

It is not an attempt to overturn the verdict of the majority who voted in June’s referendum.

It is about the right of MPs to have a say on the terms on which the UK will withdraw from the EU.

MPs have a key role in scrutinising the plans of the Cabinet when it does decide to produce them.

Over the centuries, the divine right of kings as a civic code has been replaced by the right of Parliament to call the monarch to account.

It is unwise for Prime Minister Theresa May to posture as some form of modern autocrat.

Many voters know a compromise will have to be reached over withdrawal. That will centre around the issues of tariff-free trade and the control of immigration.

Our MPs are already facing questions from businesses about access to markets, citizenship, travel arrangements, research grants, wages and salaries, problems over uncertainty and so on.

They are not disrespecting the result of the referendum by taking them up. They are playing the part they ought to play in a parliamentary democracy.

Bob Taylor.
24 Shiel Court,
Glenrothes.

 

Low interest rates misery

Sir, – Last week newscasters were happily discussing the benefits to our economy which would arise from a cut in the bank rate to one quarter of one per cent.

They did not seem to be aware that many of us rely on income from investments and bank interest to supplement our pensions. We are not excited by a further cut.

AA Bullions.
6 Glencairn Crescent,
Leven.