Today’s letters to The Courier.
Sir, In reply to Tim Collins’ letter (Group taking over the forest, December 8), we would like to bring to people’s attention that the Forestry Commission and the West Fife Woodlands have done beautiful work by re-laying the paths through Devilla Forest so that the public can enjoy the woods.
The Forestry Commission held a red squirrel fun day in the forest and between 600 and 700 people, including families, attended.
Ramblers, walkers and cyclists come from all over Fife and the central belt to enjoy the walks and the history in the forest, eg the Battle of Bordie which took place in 1038 between the Scottish King Duncan and the Danes, the Pulpit Stone where the Covenanters held their Conventicles and much more history throughout Devilla Forest.
As a group we have had many letters congratulating us for what we have done in the forest. Really opening up the woods to the primary schools where the children can learn about the wildlife and enjoy the walks around the four lochs in the forest.
Tim Collins, it would seem, wants the forest to himself. The volume of people who visit this forest speaks for itself.
Robert Smith.5 Osborne Drive,Kincardine.
‘Living’ memorials
Sir, My concept of a series of City of Freedom statues for the V&A area (We should now celebrate the City of Freedom, December 2), was indeed a memorial for the people. Traditional statues with marble plinths to look with arrogance over our heads or down on us was not part of my concept.
In response to this idea Jim Crumley (A memorial worth building, December 6), seems caught in the past with his admiration of the Dundee Robert Burns statue. What we don’t need is more romantic images such as that one of Burns.
Dublin has its James Joyce and Phil Lynott statues both at street and eye level. Just like the ordinary person. We can walk by them just another person frozen in time.
If we can build one to a comic strip hero such as Desperate Dan and his dog we can surely represent real people with real human experiences.
My point is Churchill in his Dundee time was not the chubby war hero of so many statues. He was a relatively young man. It is in this sense that the concept would have impact. No statue of Churchill shows him in that period of his life. No other city could that have form of statue with top hat and cane and none exists.
William Wallace as a young revolutionary would have a different form than those of Hollywood fame. Mary Brooksbank as she discovers injustice; tentative Mary Slessor before she gained confidence. They could be just like us. As we walk by we might think of our experience.
Crumley also appears negative with regards to a Mary Brooksbank image. Again Dublin has a living statue of a fictional Molly Malone, so why not a Dundee Brooksbank one for a real person? Why is the Malone statue so successful? It represents the feelings of the common person.
Statues such as Joyce, Lynott, Malone and Morecambe do work as they are for the people. They are not the same as the over-sized, overpowering, larger-than-life statues of the past.
Statues do tell us something of ourselves, our experiences and of those alive when they were erected. They should represent society and people not just fame or pomp. They are living statues; people frozen in time.
Graham Duncan.7 Downie Park Road,Dundee.
Heeded my advice
Sir, Great stuff, David Cameron! He has refused to allow the EU to interfere further with our laws, our finances and our economy.
He must be a reader of The Courier and has heeded my recent warning (December 7), in your correspondence columns: Cameron must act now or it will be goodbye.
Now let’s have a referendum on Europe, whether to be in the EU at all or, if in, how much of our sovereign powers we should surrender to the EU. That is a promise the Prime Minister must keep.
I think the majority of the British people want a simple trading partnership and no more, just what they voted for in the 1970s.
Let’s take back our fishing rights in our own territorial waters, let’s remove the dead weight of EU regulations on our farmers, industry, business and commerce and take away the European Court’s power to overrule our own courts’ decisions.
The growing and malign EU influence has helped to undermine school discipline, throw our courts and prisons into turmoil and allow an unstoppable flow of immigrants, some of them with long criminal records, into this country, while denying us the right to send illegal and criminal immigrants back whence they came and these are only a few of the wounds the EU has inflicted on Britain, our economy and our way of life.
For now, where’s the champagne? If nothing else, it is a joy to see BBC commentators so gutted!
George K. McMillan.5 Mount Tabor Avenue,Perth.
Councillors short-sighted
Sir, It saddens me to discover that short-sighted Edinburgh councillors have refused planning for a hovercraft landing point on the south coast of the Forth. The benefits of a 20-minute crossing with linking bus services would be far too numerous to mention here.
When this decision is coupled with the debacle over the Edinburgh tram system, one has to wonder at the competence of the councillors concerned.
Colin Topping.26 Crathes Close,Glenrothes.
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.