Sir, – At last the long awaited and much anticipated V&A is up and running, hopefully to become the success intended.
Can we now have every single councillor, MP and MSP working to address this total farce about our dock area?
Rigs have been repaired here for years and a huge amount of money spent on ensuring the dock was fit for purpose for dismantling old platforms.
This rubbish about it not being deep enough reeks of a set up (“Dundee decommissioning bid runs aground over water depth”, The Courier, September 28).
The Scottish Government has put a lot of money into the waterfront, including the V&A, but let’s not be distracted by this.
Dundee is a far more sheltered port than anywhere in the Shetlands.
We have an abundance of skilled oil field workers who are currently in a precarious position as far as long term work is concerned.
I am quite certain that it would be a more popular place to work than the Shetland Isles – and a lot more accessible for the workforce.
Dundee also has an enviable amount of good accommodation, plenty of restaurants and all sorts of high quality facilities.
All we lack are good, permanent and well paid jobs to help ensure all these great services and facilities are used.
It is to be hoped that, by using the same drive and energy to get the waterfront, we can build a secure future for this great city of ours.
Bill Duthie.
25 St Fillans Road,
Dundee.
Number plates the way forward
Sir, – There has been plenty of debate of late about the roles and responsibilities of motorists and cyclists.
One night last week at about 5.30pm a cyclist decided to come through the Claypotts junction in Dundee while the lights were red, forcing me to slam my brakes on as I had no idea where he was going.
This idiot looked well prepared for his journey and looked to be a seasoned cyclist.
This is not a one-off event to me and it appears that some cyclists think they are above the law.
Rather they believe that not stopping at lights or bumping up on to pavements is their right.
I agree that better provision should be made for them but I think some sort of number plate should be introduced to get these morons off the road.
If I had hit that guy I am sure I would be seen as the one to blame in this day and age.
Not all cyclists are the same but it is the same as driving – some bad eggs spoil it for all.
Let’s get bad cycling stamped out as well as bad driving.
Identification plates and fines would be a good start.
Murray Brown.
7 Nevis Place,
Dundee.
Go along to a council meeting
Sir, – I fully agree with your correspondent Martin Dibley (Letters, September 28) with regard to the value of Anstruther Community Council.
As someone who has lived in Peterhead since April 2001 and whose parents are both now dead, the St Monans Community Council agenda and minutes which I receive by email allow me to keep in touch with what is happening in my home village.
Whether or not the likes of Brexit or Indyref2 feature in private discussions at a community council meeting I do not know, but they are certainly not part of official business.
However, in the same way that people wanting to know what goes on in a church both on a Sunday morning and during various activities throughout the week, such as prayer meetings and bible study groups, are free to attend if they wish, community council meetings are open to the public.
If you want to find out what goes on, why not go along?
The date and time of the meetings are readily available and gatherings are usually on the same day and week of every month.
Peter Ovenstone.
6 Orchard Grove,
Peterhead.
What freedom is all about
Sir, – Like Willie Robertson, (Letters, September 28) I can also agree with your correspondent Jamie Buchan about the words “gay” and “pride” being “hijacked”.
However, I also note a wider implication in the “gay pride” event in that it is an example of how vocal pressure groups can shout louder than their numbers would suggest and can do so regardless of their minority status in society – now isn’t that what freedom is really all about?
Andrew Lawson.
9 MacLaren Gardens,
Dundee.
Motivation open to question
Sir, – Purporting to speak on behalf of Scotland, Police Scotland accuse “transphobes” and “homophobes” of spreading “hate” and use their allegedly scarce resources to emblazon bus shelters with this message.
If the police wish to inform people that certain behaviours are criminal, that’s fair enough, but they need to focus on the criminal behaviour without wading incompetently into politicised philosophical questions.
My personal views are that it is not possible to change sex and divorcing gender from biological sex is unhelpful.
Also, I do not believe that engaging in homosexual sexual activity is a positive choice.
Those views are routinely labelled as “transphobic” and “homophobic” in our society.
Yet I strive not to “hate” anyone and wouldn’t dream of engaging in any aggressive behaviour.
So there’s the problem.
Police Scotland endorse the “phobia” appellation, and link it with hatred and criminal aggression.
The police should not adopt derogatory terms concocted by one side of a perfectly valid public debate.
What are Police Scotland really doing here?
Fighting crime, or just obeying their political masters by being so excruciatingly on-message?
Richard Lucas.
Leader of the Scottish Family Party,
272 Bath Street,
Glasgow.
Labour position is muddled
Sir, – Jeremy Corbyn told the World Transformed rally at the Labour Party conference that he was going to “free Britain from the neo-liberal ideology that took over the world in 1980s”.
I understand that, as opposition leader, he wants to oppose everything currently being done but in practice this ideology has resulted in the greatest reduction in absolute poverty in history.
Even the UN, hardly a preserve of the extreme right, agrees this socio-economic policy has been extraordinary successful.
So it would seem an odd thing for a party which claims to champion the poor to march off into the night with the likes of Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
Rev Dr John Cameron.
10 Howard Place,
St Andrews.
Scotland must escape Brexit
Sir, – When she was still Home Secretary Theresa May gave a secret speech to Goldman Sachs.
In it she warned of the catastrophic effects that Brexit would have on the UK economy.
She warned that businesses would leave.
The predictions Mrs May made are coming to pass but she has never been asked when she ceased to believe the warnings she gave.
The Brexit process has been chaotic from the start.
Now it is farcical beyond a Carry On movie and far beyond shambolic.
Tory mis-government gets worse with each passing day.
May tries to placate all sides, and of course ends up pleasing none.
Ministers no longer leak surreptitiously against each other, since this has been superseded by denunciation and threats made brazenly in public by Tory Brexiteers and Remainers alike.
The most recent manifestation of this farce was Jacob Rees Mogg.
His group, Economists for Free Trade, launched a paper on the so-called “benefits” of Brexit.
This group had only one actual economist – no one thinks Mr Rees Mogg’s analysis is anything other than preposterous madness.
Brexit occurred because a few million bigoted voters got scared that their country was soon about to be invaded by unkempt hordes of refugees.
Brexit is the Titanic.
Independence is the endpoint for Scotland to get a lifeboat off.
Alan Hinnrichs.
2 Gillespie Terrace,
Dundee.
