Today’s letters writers praise those involved in a now-famous Bell Baxter High School video and make a plea on behalf of birds. Also on the agenda are independence, Scotland’s landscape, shale gas, and teachers’ pensions.
Bell Baxter rector dispelled pupil’s concerns
Sir,-Bell Baxter High School’s rector Philip Black and his colleagues deserve congratulations for their “flash mob” dance routine you reported on Monday and which was also featured on YouTube and national television.
I write as a parent whose child is anticipating the forthcoming step up from a small rural primary school to Bell Baxter one of Scotland’s largest secondaries with some understandable trepidation.
But any such concerns have been largely dispelled by this genuinely amusing video footage, which shows that here is a school with a real sense of joie de vivre and staff who are not afraid to gently poke fun at themselves.
We hear a lot about the stresses of modern-day teaching and one imagines that it must be a very difficult balancing act for teachers to provide an enjoyable learning environment and gain the respect of teenagers while simultaneously preserving the necessary degree of authority.
On this occasion, it seems to me that Mr Black and his colleagues at Bell Baxter High School have pitched it exactly right.
Patrick Laughlin.The Poppies,Freuchie.
Stop cats from preying on birds
Sir,-Cats kill millions of birds and small mammals.
Yes I know their owners say their pets are only following their instincts.
These well-fed cats do not kill for food, only pleasure.
Could I ask that cat lovers keep their pets indoors for the next four weeks?
This is the time that birds are raising their young and if an adult bird is killed by a cat, then the six chicks will suffer a lingering death. So stop being selfish and keep your moggie in.
Your neighbours will also be grateful for four weeks respite from cat mess.
Clark Cross.138 Springfield Road,Linlithgow.
SNP right to give Scots vote
Sir,-Congratulations to the SNP on their policy of holding an independence referendum in the second half of the parliamentary term.
According to the scaremongering of the opposition parties, a vote for the SNP last Thursday was a vote for independence. By that logic the SNP now have a legitimate right to declare Scotland an independent, sovereign state.
The party is, therefore, to be congratulated on its responsible stance of holding an independence referendum and quite rightly allowing the Scottish people the right to determine their own constitutional future.
Alex Orr.Flat Two,77 Leamington Terrace,Edinburgh.
Salmond threat to landscape
Sir,-I really fear for Scotland. It seems to me that it is about to be wrecked by Alex Salmond.
He has now been given carte blanche to destroy the beauty of Scotland by a Scots electorate who can see only a few extra shillings in the sporran.
Alex Salmond’s wind energy policy could cost Scotland’s thriving tourism industry £3 billion a year.
If he thinks that visitors from all over the world are going to continue to visit his wonderful country to view gigantic, unnatural whirling triffids of jangling metal among the purple hills and rolling heather moors, he must be the most short-sighted leader in Europe.
L. J. Jenkins.Clyn-yr-ynys,Gwbert,Cardigan.
Green bid to halt shale gas
Sir,-It was thought that natural gas could only be extracted when it had accumulated in underground reservoirs but a far greater quantity is actually trapped in the rock itself.
Major technical breakthroughs will allow almost unlimited amounts of cheap gas to be extracted from the world’s vast reserves of shale, our commonest sedimentary rock.
Since most of the process takes place underground, its “footprint” is far less than that of oil wells, open-cast coal mines and our wind farms with their transmission clutter.
Those hoping the green lobby would rejoice that this will lead to the end of fuel poverty will be disappointed.
The very last thing greens appear to want is cheap, reliable, plentiful energy and they are pressuring the European Union to apply the same unscientific opposition used against genetically-modified crops.
(Dr) John Cameron.10 Howard Place,St Andrews.
Union sells out retiring workers
Sir,-I was surprised when I read that the Educational Institute of Scotland had asked for support for a two-year pay freeze.
Their rationale for this was the avoidance of redundancies and continued recruitment of new teachers.
This pragmatic approach is understandable in the current financial climate we are experiencing.
I am sure, however, that they will expect to catch up at an expedient time when the crisis is over.
There is a group of teachers and other public employees whose unions have agreed to pay freezes, who will be affected until they die by this decision staff who are due to or forced to retire at some time in or at the end of this fallow period.
Since their pension is based on final salary, the basis for their award will be diminished by this temporary act of “goodwill”. This is patently an unfair anomaly.
Surely their union should be negotiating an index-linked adjustment (against the retail prices index, it is to be hoped) to their award to avoid them suffering a lifetime legacy of this policy?
Robert Ferguson.19 New Gilston,By Leven.
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