Friday’s scribes discuss subjects including Leuchars, Scottish independence, Gordon Brown, nuclear power and valiant drivers.
Sir, Last week I decided to cycle to Fife to see some farming friends. The wind, quite strong, blew me there, but, alas, it was a different story on the return journey.
By that time it was blowing a gale right into me.
By the time I reached Abernethy I was completely exhausted and slumped down on the grassy verge.
Suddenly, three cars stopped and their passengers asked if I was all right.
No sooner had they gone when a van and car stopped to ask me the same.
People in a house nearby came round to see if I needed help. I finally reached Bridge of Earn where I had parked my car.
On the way home I realised that there are some bad drivers going about but, from my experience, there are many more knights of the road.
Neil G. Sinclair.New Fleurs,St Martins,Balbeggie.Leuchars vital to UK’s defenceSir, The fight to retain RAF Leuchars is a national defence issue and should be recognised as such.
It plays a vital role in the defence of the United Kingdom.
Its strategic location means that its Eurofighter Typhoons can reach 80% of Scotland and the north of England within minutes.
The battle for Leuchars is too important to be treated as a party political football.
Anne Whyte.6 Apple Wynd,Montrose.Cut links with PakistanSir, It is risible to believe that bin Laden’s presence living openly in a mansion a few miles from Islamabad and beside its West Point was unknown to Pakistan’s security services.
Instead of insisting Pakistan close down its terrorists, George Bush and Tony Blair ousted Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, a secular leader and bitter foe of all Islamic fundamentalists.
Pakistan is a failed state with nuclear military power to which the West sends obscene amounts of money as “aid”, much of which leaks into the coffers of terrorists.
Its only aim is to ensure that Afghanistan is allied with Islamabad against India when we finally pull out but opposition from Russia and Iran will ensure that does not happen.
It is high time we started a constructive disengagement from Pakistan and the corrupt political and military elite which has hosted our main adversary for the last 10 years.
(Dr) John Cameron.10 Howard Place,St Andrews.Independence scaremongeringSir, Recently the Unionist parties have reverted to the auld ploy of “gi’en Scots a right fleg” on the matter of independence.
Despite the fact we are more or less surrounded by nations, some smaller in population than ourselves, which are doing the normal thing of being a nation, we are duly fleggit by the colonial power in the shape of the Liberal, Tory and Labour parties.
None of the following neighbours are clamouring to rejoin their old colonial power Ireland, population 4 million; Iceland, 300,000; Norway, 4.9 million; Sweden, 8 million; Finland, 5.2 million; Estonia, 1.4 million; Latvia, 2.4 million, Lithuania, 3.7 million.
All these countries are operating as normal nations so let us get the facts of what independence will mean for the Scots.
Armed with these facts we can choose independence and not by scared by the utterances of agents of our colonial master.
Jim McGugan.7 The Square,Letham (Angus).Brown saved Western worldSir, I write in praise of Gordon Brown, who was saviour of the Western banks and capitalism.
On October 8, 2008, Gordon Brown injected £200 billion into the money markets via the banks, plus £250 billion to guarantee bonds issued by the UK banks.
A further £25 billion was earmarked to take equity stakes in UK banks and boost their capital. Then, within a few days, a further £37 billion was needed to prop up the banks.
If anyone thought Gordon Brown was wrong, on October 13 that year the US Treasury followed his lead and injected trillions of dollars to save the nine largest US banks.
No one in the USA could have dreamt a Republican government would nationalise these institutions but they recognised that the Prime Minister of the UK had shown the way forward and they bit the bullet.
Tom Black.56 Russell Place,Dundee.False economy of wind turbinesSir, I wonder where our politicians believe electricity comes from when their wind turbines produce nothing.
Apparently, without being asked, the Scottish people have rejected nuclear power and the EU will insist many of our coal generators are closed down. There is a limit to the potential of hydro schemes to add to current capacity, so are we really going to pin our hopes on the wind being the right speed and unproven tidal generation?
We now know these wind turbines produce more money for their owners when producing nothing than when they are generating electricity. A study of the output of a micro turbine, conducted by Sandwell Borough Council, revealed how much is myth and how much is fact.
The turbine, situated at a school, cost £5000 to install.
Figures have been provided for the period May 2009 to April 2010 and they reveal an output of 209 kwh of electricity.
If you allow a generous 13.5p per kwh, the average price charged to the consumer in Scotland, that turbine produced just over £28 of electricity.
Assuming the equipment requires no maintenance or replacement, it would take 177 years for this turbine to cover its installation cost.
Hamish Hossick.Avondale Terrace,Broughty Ferry.
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