Sir, – When your house phone rings you probably, like me, think it could be something important and rush to answer it.
However, also like me, you may very well find out that in many instances it is in fact a complete waste of your time.
I am sure that everybody is completely and utterly fed up with the continual phone calls regarding PPI (can the August 2019 deadline come quickly enough?).
However, surely even more annoying are those pre-recorded calls, supposedly from the government initiative scheme, advising you of the benefits of replacing your windows, replacing your boiler, or installing solar panels.
According to the tape, all you have to do to opt out of these phone messages is to press nine.
Sadly, as most people will all too soon realise, this doesn’t actually make a blind bit of difference.
As a result you will most likely still be continuously bombarded with a variety of calls at dinner and tea time (or, if you’re posh, lunch and dinner.)
Various companies advertise that they can screen these calls, although this service comes at a considerable cost.
In theory, of course, this should prevent us from being continually contacted, but it would appear none of them are even close to being 100% successful.
Surely there should be something put in law that can stop these companies, especially as when they can’t reach you at home they’ll start pestering you on your mobiles.
Everybody has the right to contact OFCOM if they feel they are being harassed.
I believe that far more people should be encouraged to do so.
Eric Travers.
38 Gellatly Road,
Dunfermline.
Obscuring a Dundee jewel
Sir, – Having recently moved into Dundee from the scenically wonderful countryside of Angus, I was so impressed by the newly constructed V&A building, and especially enchanted by the beautiful area of grass in the foreground.
I thought, what vision by the city planners to use that wonderful clear area to such advantage.
Now, we see the whole area being dug up and lost and plans for a vast hotel block, dwarfing and obscuring the new V&A building, which was designed specially to put Dundee at the forefront of architecture worldwide.
Even already, it is hidden into obscurity in a corner, along with the ship, the Discovery, which lent its name to the City of Discovery and is now also hidden away like an old moulding fishing boat.
All this for a monstrous towering hotel with not even car parking space.
With friends like these Dundee does not need an enemy.
W Gregor MacGregor.
Sidlaw Gardens,
Dundee.
Reminder to ‘think bike’
Sir, – I am delighted by reports suggesting that the police are backing a new training initiative for motorcyclists (Motorcyclists offered chance to improve their riding and safety, April 26).
I wholeheartedly welcome ‘Rider Refinement North’ which was launched this week.
The number of deaths on our roads is shocking and all such safety programmes are to be applauded.
This one-day course will hopefully encourage more motorcyclists to participate in advanced training.
In the past, initiatives like BikeSafe and Operation Zenith have been well received, plus the IAM continue to focus on improving motorcyclists’ riding skills using a system called IPSGA (Information Position Speed Gear Acceleration) which is at the core of advanced riding.
However, isn’t there something missing?
Where is the further instruction and training for motorists to help prevent these fatalities?
Cases include collisions where cars have veered into the paths of experienced motorcyclists.
Let’s see initiatives that challenge how driver actions and behaviour on the road makes them more aware of motorcyclists.
As motorcyclists, we can do courses to improve our skills and awareness but, if drivers don’t ‘think bike,’ we often don’t stand a chance anyway.
Brenda Mitchell.
1 Berry Street,
Aberdeen.
Please change the record
Sir, – For years now (although it seems longer) Jenny Hjul has provided a column entitled “As I See It”.
Week in, week out; some 600 words approximately.
Of course, Jenny only needed one column and it would only have required four words: “I hate the SNP.”
This simple solution would have saved DC Thomson paying her a wage and stopped inflicting your readership with her tiresome repeated diatribes.
Without fail, this week is again a personal attack on an SNP cabinet member.
Ms Hjul’s views on our First Minister are well known and this week she attacks Shona Robison MSP as “hapless”.
Not too long ago Ms Hjul described another female minister as “promoted beyond her ability.”
I wonder what it is about strong female role models in politics that so offends Ms Hjul?
However, even the BBC recently concluded that out of all the four nations, hospitals in Scotland seem to have fared the best and that spending per head in Scotland was higher than that in Wales, England and Northern Ireland.
The continuing popularity of the SNP in government is clearly galling to Ms Hjul but no matter how much mud she slings, people’s everyday experiences show they are correct to trust the SNP and their support for its ministers is justified.
Henry Malcolm.
331 Clepington Road,
Dundee.
A truly shocking state of affairs
Sir, – It was with admiration that I read your article about the brave Angus woman who fought off two attackers with karate moves after they pounced as she walked home.
However, as I continued to read the article I was amazed and extremely concerned that the wicked, cowardly attackers were both illegal immigrants.
They were, it seems, allowed to come and go as they please.
Why had they not been deported already?
I fear that this situation may be symptomatic of the soft touch approach by the authorities responsible.
Mike Rogalski.
82 Feus Road,
Perth.
Rethinking old attitudes
Sir, – A major survey has found almost a quarter of hospitals across the UK routinely refuse to perform caesarean sections on expectant mothers unless they or their child are in serious danger.
Such refusals are a direct contradiction of NICE guidelines which state that “maternal requests” on the grounds of anxiety or personal factors must be granted.
It is the inevitable outcome of the deadly turf-war between midwives and obstetricians and such vile slogans as “too posh to push”.
But women usually have good reasons for requesting a planned caesarean.
Often they or a family member has experienced a traumatic birth and they want a safer and less frightening experience.
Above all it is their right.
Today’s mothers are older, heavier, have fewer babies and their babies are larger.
Parish priests and those involved in pastoral work are aware of nightmare situations created by obstinate mid-wives.
The fact is most female obstetricians choose a c-section for their own births so perhaps it’s not so much being “too posh to push” as being “too smart to push”.
Rev Dr John Cameron.
10 Howard Place,
St Andrews.
We must train our own doctors
Sir, – The NHS is short of doctors and they say it is because of us voting to leave Europe?
Balderdash.
I served my time in Burntisland shipyard and we were never short of tradesmen because the yard trained them.
Can’t our politicians or their army of managers do the maths?
Are we to believe people from working class backgrounds with the correct qualification are not prepared to train as doctors if given the chance?
Money should be spent on educating people who will use there skills for the good of the country.
John G Phimister.
63 St Clair Street,
Kirkcaldy.
