Up for discussion this morning are a different take on business efficiency, alcohol pricing, old age, MSPs’ foreign trips and a defence of Churchill.
Will business leaders employ more workers? Sir,-I note the cry of horror from the leaders of British business about the proposed increase in National Insurance contributions.
While I do not want to debate merits, or otherwise, of the proposed increase, I do wonder how many of those who are crying out in horror would be willing to forgo huge salaries and bonuses to employ more people in their business or is that not modern efficiency?
Malcolm Rooney.20 Strathmore Avenue,Kirriemuir.
MSP ‘wrong’ on alcohol pricing
Sir,-Murdo Fraser MSP is ill-informed if he thinks (April 1) that minimum pricing wouldn’t target “problem” drinks such as strong cider. It is such drinks that will be affected by minimum pricing, with moderate drinkers noticing little difference.
Currently, supermarket’s own-brand strong white ciders sell for around £1.21, which is only 14p a unit. A minimum price of 40p a unit will see this drink increase by 177.7% to £3.36.
The drinks industry’s assertions of job losses have been shown to be misleading after questioning by the Holyrood health and sport committee, where they admitted that a 40p minimum price would result in no job losses in Scotland.
Cheap alcohol costs us dear, £3.56 billion in fact, and people are fed up paying the price for the damage inflected on families, communities and society generally.
Minimum pricing has worldwide support including many children’s charities, health groups and churches who understand that the low price for alcohol has a damaging effect on others. The main opposition to minimum pricing comes from the drinks industry and supermarkets who appear to put profit before the nation’s health.
We would be delighted as Scotland’s national alcohol charity to clarify certain misunderstandings around minimum pricing with Murdo Fraser, particularly as this issue will be debated as part of the wider Alcohol Bill in the Scottish Parliament very soon.
Jack Law.Chief Executive,Alcohol Focus Scotland,166 Buchanan Street,Glasgow.
Deciding our own destiny
Sir,-After spending my youth obsessed with sport and dreading the waning powers of old age, I was surprised by the amount of fun to be had in later life.
But, with my three score years and 10 nearly over, I am increasingly aware that the next great challenge is how to maintain dignity and fulfilment in the end game.
In my 35 years as a parish minister in Broughty Ferry, death was my profession so it holds no terrors but the desperate road some people have to travel is another matter.
Once mobility is gone, once the simplest actions of daily life become dependent upon others, it is hard to sustain self-respect. Medical science is constantly extending our lives without offering any notion how to improve their quality, so I believe that we should be given a choice about opting out.
(Dr) John Cameron.10 Howard Place,St Andrews.
MSPs should show restraint
Sir,-Our MSPs are heading to America on a week-long tour as part of the annual Scotland Week, at a cost of £30,000, yet we are cutting back on almost all services.
Like the wartime slogan is their journey really necessary? and what are the benefits to us?
John McDonald.14 Rosebery Court,Kirkcaldy.
Churchill did not betray 51st
Sir,-Your correspondent Kenneth B. Singer took a side-swipe at Churchill and the English in his campaign to restore the Scottish regiments. I agree with him on regiment restoration as I cannot see why regimental traditions could not have been maintained on a smaller scale within a Royal Regiment of Scotland, ready for these units’ expansion into separate regiments again in the event God forbid of another national emergency.
What I object to is his take on what happened at St Valery. Why blame Churchill? If the pacifists had listened to him in the early 1930s, we would have kept our guard up, resisted Hitler’s advances into the Rhineland, Austria and Czechoslovakia and there would have been no second world war because the Nazis would have had their wings clipped.
The 51st Highland Division and the BEF would not have been in France in a vain endeavour to halt the German advance because there would not have been an invasion, if we had listened to Churchill’s warnings.
And why blame Churchill for the 51st’s surrender at St Valery? When he became Prime Minister on May 10, the British and French armies were already in retreat, the Belgians were on the verge of collapse and, when Churchill met the French generals, he was dismayed to learn that they had nothing in reserve.
Later, when British leaders saw the perilous position of the 51st near St Valery, they ordered General Fortune to withdraw to avoid encirclement.
Unfortunately, the French general in overall command in the sector refused to allow this and continued to refuse urgent requests from the British army and Churchill until it was too late and the 51st and its French comrades were trapped at St Valery.
Attempts at evacuation were thwarted by thick fog, close-range artillery fire and the arrival of German armoured units lining the cliffs.
Until recently, Scottish troops were proud of their prowess fighting for King (Queen) and country and that country meant Great Britain, not just Scotland.
This growing tendency on the part of Scots such as Kenneth Singer to highlight the casualties suffered by the Scots as compared with the English, Welsh or Irish is deplorable.
George K. McMillan.5 Mount Tabor Avenue,Perth.