On the agenda today: Labour’s record in Fife, monogamy, climate protesters, local taxes, and Tony Blair.
Labour did not have untarnished record in Fife
Sir,-Councillor Alex Rowley is right to highlight (August 24) the ludicrous situation whereby Fife Council are training staff in how to complete application forms to win awards for the council. At the same time, the council are having to fork out £155,000 in compensation for having botched up a contract for Christmas lights.
However, the shortcomings in Fife Council’s procurement procedures did not simply appear overnight and, in the main, were inherited from the previous Labour administration. That administration decided that it was not necessary for councillors to vet tender submissions for council contracts.
If ever there was an invitation for corruption and inefficiency that was it.
I complained of this decision to my Labour councillor and was told that it was better to leave such matters to the officials as they knew best. So much for our elected representatives ensuring best value for the ratepayer.
Mr Rowley may also have highlighted the council’s appalling record in dealing with the common good, which was highlighted in a report by Audit Scotland in 2007 but the findings in this report related to the mismanagement of assets belonging to the people of the former burghs during a long period of bad stewardship by the Labour-controlled council of which Mr Rowley was a prominent member.
Things in Glenrothes may well be rotten but it didn’t just happen overnight.
Tom Minogue.94 Victoria Terrace,Dunfermline.
Marriage needed more than ever
Sir,-Murray Duncan (August 24) makes the point in discussing Tiger Wood’s example that primates are not monogamous and that perhaps we should return to a state which is more natural to humanity. Mr Duncan suggests that declining moral standards could be the result of the morality of monogamy rather than the rejection of it.
Several readers have been very supportive of Church of Scotland minister Mike Erskine and the general feeling seems to be that he has been harshly dealt with in being suspended from his job because of his two-year adulterous affair.
There has been no mention or compassion expressed regarding all of those who have suffered disappointment, humiliation and hurt because of these two men, prominent in their own spheres.
The fall-out of following our natural instincts is clear in the statistics of teenage pregnancies, abortion, sexually-transmitted diseases, rape, divorce, emotional damage, mental health problems, economic insecurity, domestic violence and child abuse.
To suggest that declining moral standards are as a result of marriage and monogamy is to bury one’s head in the sand.
Monogamy outdated? It was never more essential.
Sylvia Brown.9 Beech Avenue,Ladybank.
Crisis in climate faith sparked riot
Sir,-The long-suffering faithful who still believe that global warming will destroy the planet must be in despair at the antics of rent-a-mob international in Edinburgh.
In recent years, the hypocrisy of leaders of the movement, such as Al Gore, made obscenely wealthy by their salesmanship of doom, has become a major problem.
Then came the outing of dodgy activity by a whistle-blower at the key Climate Research Unit, casting doubt on the basic science which no amount of whitewash could cover.
Finally, the Stern Report demonstrated how economically insane would be any AGW solution and the United Nations’ Climate Report was shown to be full of errors and hysteria.
I can understand the frustration of long-held beliefs being undermined but having our unemployables fight with the police and smash up cities is hardly the answer.
(Dr) John Cameron.10 Howard Place,St Andrews.
Protecting their own
Sir,-UNISON official George McIrvine thinks it is quite agreeable to increase the council tax, adding yet more straw to the camel’s back.
This is to save supposedly frontline services when, in fact, all it will do is save the layers of bureaucracy created by the last government his union backed.
In every council and hospital we have an upside-down pyramid too many at the top in high-salaried positions and too few at the bottom to carry out the frontline services he purports to save.
What we require is a complete assessment of local government, health services and quangos such as Scottish Enterprise that seems to have a proliferation of directors being paid for doing nothing.
He may find then that it is possible to lower local taxes and increase the staff who genuinely look after our less fortunate citizens.
Bill Duthie.25 St Fillans Road,Dundee.
Uncharitable view of Blair
Sir,-Stefan Morkis’s piece about Tony Blair (August 20) strikes me as spite, which much political comment now amounts to.
So far as I am aware, even the media has not seen Mr Blair’s book, so Mr Morkis has to hang his character assassination on the title, A Journey.
Frankly, that is pretty innocuous and one will have to wait to read the book before knowing how appropriate it is.
Anthony Garrett.1 Royal Terrace,Falkland.
Get involved: to have your say on these or any other topics, email your letter to letters@thecourier.co.uk or send to Letters Editor, The Courier, 80 Kingsway East, Dundee DD4 8SL.