Today’s letters to The Courier.
Sir, Future bank bail-outs can only be avoided if their retail and investment arms are split into two separately staffed and differently titled companies with absolutely no financial links between them (December 19).
Any ring-fencing is doomed to failure because if the investment or ”casino gambling” arm gets into trouble, the staff’s first instinct will be to try to save it with money from the retail arm, no matter what rules and regulations may be laid down in advance. It is a pipe-dream to imagine that the staff would stand by and let the investment arm sink without any attempt to rescue it.
The independent banking inquiry must be expecting a big battle between the banks and the government if they think it will take seven years to introduce ring-fencing.
Angus Ramsay.34 Kings Road,Rosyth.
Safeguards too complex
Sir, Tim Loughton, the UK Children’s Minister, has announced a new strategy to overhaul the presently deplorable assessment process for adoptive parents in this country. The present set-up is little short of a national scandal and though the new system will still be stringent and scrupulous, it will be faster, less intrusive and much less bureaucratic.
Adoption clearly provides the best outcome and children must not be stranded for years in the care system in the forlorn hope of returning them to their biological parents.
Many excellent adopters are turned down because they are not the right ethnic match or do not fit some other trivial requirement of the idiotic forms filled in by social workers. There has been a lack of common sense so total it is almost a thing of wonder and too many adopters simply give up and adopt a child from the Far East or Eastern Europe.
The consequence of this stupidity is that black, Asian and mixed-race children wait three times longer than white children for placement and most never get adopted at all.
Safeguards designed to protect the young and vulnerable during the process of adoption have grown so complex and burdensome they fail those they were crafted to protect. The coalition’s intervention is laudable but a vast amount still needs to be done.
(Dr) John Cameron.10 Howard Place,St Andrews.
Not a shred of evidence
Sir, I agree with Alan Hinnrich’s thoughts about Christmas and the Bible in general. There is not a shred of physical evidence whatsoever to the existence of Jesus. All stories are based on hearsay written by people who lived long after his alleged life.
The old chestnut that without a belief in God and not living in accordance to the teachings of the Bible would lead to a break down in law and order and are to blame for Communism, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot etc. is lame to say the least. Moral values of today are based on centuries of secular and rational thinking. The last place you would look to find morals would be the Bible.
The fact that religion in this day and age still has an influence in our society, faith schools for example, is a disgrace.
After thousands of years of scientific discovery and critical thinking, religion has had its time and fairytales such as the nativity should not be imposed on modern society.
Chris Gibb.30 Dunholm Road,Dundee.
Impossible on our level
Sir, I must say I was surprised to discover that correspondent Andrew Lawson describes himself as an atheist (letters, December 22).The great defender of Israel does not believe in the Great Defender of Israel!
I have never perceived his thoughts to be purely political, so I can only conclude that his letters on the subject of Israel are driven by his sense of reasoning, or by his moral judgment.
But then it is impossible to believe in God based on our sense of reasoning, apart from a mere acknowledgement of His existence. Another correspondent, Philip Kearns (same column) makes that clear; ”we either choose to have faith or we choose to reject” the son of God, regardless of historical dates concerning the first Christmas, or even its origins.
Andrew Lawson also refers to the ”mythical origins of Christmas” but Christians are not primarily concerned with evidence or lack of it. If we could believe in God based only on our human reasoning, would it not limit God greatly? I much prefer to believe, by faith, in the God who is limitless, and infinitely beyond the understanding of my mind.
Stuart Wishart.12 Walnut Grove,Blairgowrie.
A very high level of care
Sir, All too often we hear/read negativity over the care of the elderly in residential homes. The infrastructure is variously less than satisfactory, and staff are denounced as ‘uncaring’, or worse.
My father, Alexander Craig, was a resident of Lochleven Home in Monifieth for the past five years, but regretfully passed away recently due to complications associated with Alzheimer’s.
It became incumbent upon the staff to maintain what was already a very high level of care, and latterly to surpass even this.
Lochleven is a very fine establishment, staffed by a group of individuals motivated only to elevate care of the elderly to levels of excellence.
I would thank everyone associated with the care of my father, particularly in Rannoch and Tummel wings. They truly are exceptional.
Mary Gillanders.Marbella, Spain.
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