Sir, – I was, until three days ago, a member of the SNP.
I resigned from the SNP because of its so called ‘education policy’ and, in particular, the Scottish Government’s intention of giving more powers to head teachers.
Given there is a shortage of classroom teachers, particularly in subjects such as maths and the three main sciences, I would have expected any Scottish Government to focus on recruiting suitably qualified people into the teaching profession rather than wasting time granting powers to head teachers.
I noted Ms Sturgeon did not contradict Alex Rowley or other party leaders when he stated there were 4,000 fewer classroom teachers in Scottish schools than when the SNP first came to power 10 years ago.
I was a teacher for 38 years serving in a variety of schools in Ayrshire, Dundee and Angus reaching the position of depute head teacher from which I retired last year.
I was also a teacher of mathematics.
I assure you there is indeed a serious shortage of mathematics teachers in this part of Scotland and I find it incredulous more thought is being given to giving head teachers increased powers rather than find solutions to this chronic shortage.
I would hope readers would challenge the Scottish Government on this ‘policy’ and I would urge them to pressure the Scottish Government into solving teacher shortages not only in Dundee and Angus but across Scotland as a whole.
Robert Funai.
2 Hazelton Way,
Broughty Ferry.
There are no ‘killer’ roads
Sir, – I find the description of roads as being ‘killer’ roads, totally wrong.
Roads are inanimate objects, they don’t ‘do’ anything except provide a route for people to drive from A to B.
Unless there is a sudden malfunction of a vehicle which is very rare nowadays, or a driver suddenly develops a serious medical problem, such as a heart attack, there is only one cause of an accident and that is the person behind the wheel.
Drivers need to consider road conditions, other road users and so on, but on a daily basis I see many drivers who drive with no consideration to these changeable aspects of road travel, determined to get to wherever they want to be regardless of all these things.
I can guarantee that, if every road was absolutely straight and the road surface perfect, there would still be people killed and injured on the roads through the actions of those inconsiderate and thoughtless drivers.
Dave Brimner.
15 Mearns Drive,
Montrose.
Signs are good for Gaelic fans
Sir, – It never ceases to amaze me how hot and bothered some people become when road signs and now police cars are in English and Gaelic.
Personally I think it is good as Gaelic is a native language that should be protected.
I suspect some of the resistance comes from those who see it as part of the nationalists’ masterplan for world domination.
However, I would remind these British nationalists that as we are still part of Britain it is therefore a British language just the same as Welsh or Irish Gaelic.
Perhaps those complaining haven’t thought of that.
Bryan Auchterlonie.
Bluebell Cottage,
Perth.
A danger to democracy
Sir, – I can’t believe that we’re in a democratic, 21st Century Europe.
Thousands of Spanish Government police have been deployed to Catalonia to ‘oversee’ the functioning of the local Catalan police, while senior local government officials in and around Barcelona have been threatened with fines of £10,600 a day if they dare to take part in an unofficial referendum on whether or not to break away from Spain.
Unbelievably, this has been discussed with, and sanctioned by, the appropriate EU Commissioners.
The Spanish Government does not seem to realise what a counter-productive situation it has initiated.
While the referendum is still unofficial, what Catalan is not now going to vote for a break with such an overbearing central government?
Spain belongs to both the European Union and the United Nations and as such has signed up to allowing its citizens to have the right of self determination regarding the way they wish to be governed.
More than half a million Spaniards died in the Spanish Civil War in the name of democracy and after the dictatorship of General Franco, that nation has only had a representative parliament for 42 years.
Why is the current Spanish Government spoiling it all now using these dubious tactics?
Let’s see what happens on October 1.
Archibald A. Lawrie.
5 Church Wynd,
Kingskettle.
Lack of respect for result
Sir, – So, let’s get this straight: Ms Sturgeon tells the Spanish Government that the process for agreeing the Scottish referendum of 2014 was ‘a shining example’.
OK, there was the Edinburgh Agreement of October 15 2012.
Ms Sturgeon, along with Alex Salmond, David Cameron and Michael Moore signed that.
They all signed a document declaring that the referendum should ‘deliver a fair test and decisive expression of the views of people in Scotland and a result that everyone will respect’. Excellent.
The only problem is that neither Ms Sturgeon nor Mr Salmond has respected the result of that referendum.
Ever since their defeat, they have agitated for another referendum, because they didn’t win the 2014 one and they have therefore decided it wasn’t fair.
To borrow from Ms Sturgeon, I will not take lessons from someone who blatantly and publicly reneges every day on a solemn undertaking that she made.
Brexit is merely her excuse: she was agitating before that vote, and, in any case, she did not say on October 15 2012: ‘We will respect the result unless the UK leaves the EU’.
Does anyone now remember how, during the Scottish referendum campaign, Alex Salmond told David Cameron – the Prime Minister of the whole of the United Kingdom – to ‘butt out’ of Scotland’s referendum? Yet now Ms Sturgeon – who has no role in foreign policy – intervenes in the proposed Catalan referendum.
These SNP people are utterly shameless in the double standards they maintain.
Jill Stephenson.
Glenlockhart Valley,
Edinburgh.
Lack of ‘genuine will’ in Catalonia
Sir, – Nicola Sturgeon has called for the Spanish Government to respect the principles of international law for self determination and cites the Edinburgh Agreement as some kind of template for others.
Yet on both points she is being selective with the points she makes.
The United Nation’s own reviews of how self determination should work recognises the need for there to be a genuine will for separation.
As Nicola Sturgeon is well aware the Spanish Government is in a difficult position because the clear majority in Catalonia continue to want to remain in Spain.
What Ms Sturgeon is really saying is that she sides with the minority that want to break up Spain.
Meanwhile, it is disingenuous for Nicola Sturgeon to put the Edinburgh Agreement forward as an example of how to pursue independence when she has so actively worked against the commitments given there of respecting the outcome of the 2014 referendum.
The First Minister and her party continue to be determined to get their way even when a fair vote has been held.
Keith Howell.
White Moss,
West Linton.
Common sense forgotten
Sir, – Restricting the Forth Road Bridge to pedestrians, cyclists and buses, must represent the largest waste of a transport resource in Britain.
The replacement Queensferry Crossing does nothing to improve the long ago inadequate two lane entry and exit to and from Edinburgh, but estate agents and developers are already hailing it as an increased access, and a reason for Edinburgh people to move to Fife.
This will of course make the traffic problem even worse.
Common sense surely dictates that cars must also use the Forth Road Bridge.
Malcolm Parkin.
Gamekeepers Road,
Kinnesswood.
