Sir, The recent behaviour of so-called ex-miners must be condemned. Most of the people demonstrating had never even seen a coal mine, let alone worked in one.
As for Margaret Thatcher being responsible for their closure, they only had themselves to blame, by blindly following the union leaders and pricing themselves out of a job.
Mrs Thatcher stopped the rot of the country going to the dogs. The dockers drove shipping away from this country by refusing to modernise. Shippers turned to ports like Rotterdam who turned ships round in a fraction of the time taken here. The unions drove the car manufacturers into the ground.
The seaman’s union was responsible for the deterioration of the British merchant fleet by opposing modernisation. Not only did foreign companies take advantage of the strike in 1966, but built ships with less tonnage measurements, run by fewer crew members and carrying larger cargoes.
One example was when we were loading a cargo of china clay. The ship I was on could only load 680 tons, with a gross tonnage of 569. My crew was eight men.
A Danish ship in the port was loading 1000 tons, with a gross tonnage of 300. Her crew was two men and six boys. As port dues and pilotage are based on gross tonnage, the Danish ship could undercut the freights by a considerable amount.
Yet the seaman’s union was trying to force us to have an extra man in the crew.
Capt T R Willis. 61 Craigmill Gardens, Carnoustie.
A disgrace to Scotland
Sir, The comments made by George Galloway on social media and the celebratory street parties held in Glasgow following the announcement of the death of Margaret Thatcher are a disgrace to Scotland.
While many people in Scotland disagreed with her policies when she was Prime Minister, over 25 years ago, it is no reason to celebrate the death of an 87-year-old grandmother who had been in declining health for years.
While she may have been a controversial figure in domestic policy, no-one can deny that she tackled the image of UK as the “sick-economy of Europe”, stood up for the rights of the Falkland Islanders and won back over £70 billion for the UK from the EU budget bureaucracy, in addition to promoting the image of Britain around the world (particularly in Russia as it was emerging from the old Soviet Union).
In such respects, she was a far more capable prime minister of Britain than any of her successors to date and does not deserve the vitriol visited upon her death by the idiotic behaviour of a minority of Scots who should have known better.
Derek Farmer. Knightsward Farm, Anstruther.
Her greatest contribution
Sir, I read George K. McMillan’s panegyric to Margaret Thatcher with some amusement as he singularly failed to mention that her policies were regarded as toxic here north of the border.
Canon Kenyon Wright was correct when he said that her “no” to a Scottish Parliament caused the Scots to vote “yes”, if only to spite her.
Personally, I think her greatest contribution to the common weal was to make the Conservatives unelectable in Scotland.
Jim Robertson. 194 High Street, Montrose.
There must be other reasons
Sir, I read the letter in Wednesday’s Courier from Professor Sir Philip Cohen regarding his enjoying the concert given by the National Youth Orchestra.
He notes that within the orchestra there were no participants from Dundee/Perth.
The Rotary Club of Dundee, of which he was once a member, has for several years sponsored a competition, Dundee Young Musician of the Year, in collaboration with all Dundee schools music departments and the city council.
If Sir Philip were to attend the final this year, Friday June 14, I feel sure he will not be conjecturing there is a deficiency in the quality of music teaching in Dundee schools and that he should be seeking other reasons as to why the NYO has no-one from this area in their ranks.
Ronald Goodfellow. Bogles Wood, 6 Elmgrove Park, Monikie, by Broughty Ferry.
Support these campaigns
Sir, The article on Sistema Dundee in Wednesday’s paper lists a number of credentials for Dundee’s bid to be city of culture 2017.
A Sistema orchestra would certainly be one of them, as will Dundee Symphony Orchestra and maybe a Festival of Music for Keyboards featuring our many instruments and talented players.
There is much fine architecture from the contemporary back to St Mary’s Tower, perhaps with a new crown steeple replacing the one destroyed in the 16th century by an invading army and the opening of the House of Gray as a small hotel.
There is one essential institution missing that is found in most cities: a theatre capable of showing drama, musicals, opera, and ballet. The Kings Theatre campaign aims to restore the Cowgate building to its original Edwardian splendour and reopen it as a presenting theatre with about 1500 seats.
The article on the city’s poster campaign for the culture title, also Wednesday’s paper, showed Dundee’s assets are listed by peoples’ entries in www.wedundee.
We should all support these two campaigns.
Peter Murray Spencer. 11 Castleroy Crescent, Broughty Ferry.