Sir, Your excellent coverage of Willie White’s survey (March 20) quotes this from the letter sent to him by Councillor Alan Grant: “It (City Hall) is a reinforced concrete building, the ‘stone’ walls are built of reconstituted stone, not quarried stone.”
That is pure invention. As anyone who climbs into the roof space can see, it is a solid stone structure, which is obvious even at pavement level from the slight variations in colour and from the still-visible saw marks.
The ultimate authority is the Perth and Kinross volume in the Buildings of Scotland series, published by YaleUniversity Press as recently as 2007, which describes it as “a box of polished ashlar”, with no mention of concrete, and defines ashlar as “masonry of large blocks wrought to even faces and square edges”. They are, in fact, massive blocks with a girth of 2ft 6in, which provide the load-bearing structure.
City Hall is one of the very few examples of a large publicly-owned building, still intact and in near-perfect condition, surviving from the golden era (pre-Great War) of Scottish stone masonry.
I trust that, despite Councillor Grant’s misinformation, the council fully appreciates these facts.
Councillor Grant is also mistaken in arguing that “if the space was vacant today and planning permission sought to build it, Historic Scotland would refuse it out of hand”, since precisely the same would apply to Stirling Castle or most major listed buildings.
Vivian Linacre. 21 Marshall Place, Perth.
Love, marriage and the Bible
Sir, I am always interested when Christians such as David Robertson (Letters, March 27) make claims about marriage and who has a right to define it. The Bible does not speak on the topic clearly and consistently.
Not only did Jesus choose not to marry, he encouraged his disciples to abandon household and domestic concerns in order to follow him (Matthew 19:29; Mark 10:28-30; Luke 9:57-62).
Paul, likewise, encourages male believers, if not already married: “Do not seek a wife” (1 Corinthians 7:27), advice Paul took for himself.
If neither Jesus nor Paul preferred marriage for their followers, and presumably therefore not procreation, it begs the question as to why some Christians maintain the Bible enshrines 19th-century Victorian family values.
Alistair McBay. National Secular Society, 5 Atholl Crescent, Edinburgh.
Tale of a wing and a prayer
Sir, In many countries praying (Courier, page 29, March 29) is as instinctive as breathing and, apparently, necessary for both physical and mental wellbeing.
However, it would seem many of us resort to praying only when subjected to extremely stressful situations. I recall being on a flight from Delhi to London when a serious technical problem resulted in parts of one engine falling off the aircraft.
This alarmed passengers to such an extent that many started praying, yours truly included. As to what or whom our individual prayers were directed each to his or her conceptual image of God was of secondary importance at the time (certainly in my case).
Although prophets can be identified in human terms, God cannot, for God is that which is beyond human understanding and may always remain so. This should not prevent us offering (up?) a prayer from time to time.
Kenneth Miln. 22 Fothringham Drive, Monifieth.
His position is indefensible
Sir, How predictable that Ken Clark’s letter (Monday’s Courier) should descend into a personal rant about his namesake, Kenneth Clarke, plus those of us who see no benefit in splitting Scotland from the rest of the UK. It’s typical nationalist behaviour.
As far as I believe, the Government’s primary responsibility is to defend our island kingdom at all costs.
These decisions must be taken for strategic reasons, with the welfare of local communities coming a distant second. Although no one likes to hear of anyone losing their job, the defence of our islands comes before the commercial interests of local businesses.
Just what kind of independence is the SNP after, if they don’t have their own agenda for defending our borders and depend on the UK Government to move our forces to their advantage?
James Davie. 33 Aberdour Place, Barnhill, Dundee.
The big deal in the small print
Sir, I would like to inform readers about a potential pitfall they might fall into when buying a vehicle on what they thought was hire purchase.
The pitfall arrives when they sign the paperwork and it does not state hire purchase, it states personal loan.
When you buy a car on HP, you are legally covered by a piece of legislation called “halves and thirds”. As far as the “halves” is concerned, when you have paid half of the total sum owed, you can legally return the car to the lender and no further monies need to be paid; very handy if you have a change of circumstances and find yourself unable to make the payments.
When you buy a car with a personal loan, you do not have the above protection. Yes. This happened to me at a well-known car dealership in Dundee.
C.R. Stephenson. 12 Midmar Place, Broughty Ferry.
Yet another creation story
Sir, It was recently revealed that passengers boarding flights at Edinburgh Airport were being asked to state their religion.
Just exactly what has that personal information got to do with boarding a flight? It is another example of job creation. What next? What did you have for breakfast?
John McDonald. 14 Rosebery Court, Kirkcaldy.