Today’s letters to The Courier.
Sir, I was delighted to read in The Courier on January 6 of the new proposals for Perth City Hall, led by James Simpson of Simpson & Brown, Edinburgh, and Vivian Linacre of Perth.
I have long thought that the ideal use for this wonderful old building would be to convert it into a permanent home for a really vibrant, live, and permanent country market.
My daughter has a villa in Portugal, between Sao Braas and Loule; the latter has a fine old building, right in the centre of the town, which has been converted into just such a use.
The market created there is highly popular, both for locals and visiting tourists and expat residents. The stalls offer the finest local meat and poultry, excellent fish and sea food brought in from the local fishing ports, great locally grown vegetable produce, all the fruits in season and a selection of local jams, preserves and other delicacies.
In addition there are stallls for local crafts and artists, antiques and locallly made jewellery.
The market is bright and airy and open six days a week. It is highly popular and brings people right into the centre of town every day it is open.
In the case of Perth City Hall, if so converted, the same thing would happen people buying local produce, at competitive prices but also improving business and trade in the cafes in St John’s Square and other shops in the High Street and other localities nearby without the necessity of visiting remote supermarkets on the outskirts of the town.
I have spent 40 years as an energy and construction lawyer, part of it with Bovis so I do appreciate what is involved. This proposed use of Perth City is very much to be welcomed and I do hope it is given support by local people and the Perth & Kinross Council. They should visit Loule to see what has been achieved there.
I wish this enlightened project every success.
Hamish H. Carlton.Gowrie Cottage,Dunkeld.
Don’t understand SNP’s reluctance
Sir, I fail to understand the SNP’s reluctance to give the people of Scotland a straight yes/no choice in the coming referendum on independence.
Surely if they win the vote they can have all the powers they wish after leaving the Union?
This will he/won’t he situation is just plain annoying and I sense that voters will soon tire of Mr Salmond’s petty prevarication and his obvious and childish tactic of causing as much unnecessary acrimony between the parliaments as possible.
It also must be remembered that his mandate came from just 29% of the Scottish electorate and not the majority of Scots.
I would also like to know, exactly, what body of people Nicola Sturgeon was speaking about when she said that while the SNP would prefer a simple yes or no question, there was a ‘significant body of opinion’ behind a third option for financial independence for Scotland within the United Kingdom. Who are these people? They didn’t ask me!
We all want to know the facts and figures before we enter a new constitutional arrangement. So let’s get on with it: Yes or No.
Iain G. Richmond.Guildy,Monikie.
We only need two questions
Sir, David Cameron is much preoccupied with the referendum on Scottish independence and Alex Salmond with that and another possible question about extending the powers of Holyrood.
Meanwhile, Cameron has reneged on a much more important referendum, the one on renegotiation of our membership of the EU.
What I should really like to see would be two referenda both with only one question each: should we come out of the EU altogether? And the second referendum question: should we scrap the Scottish government and revert to what we had before?
The EU has already done untold damage to the UK, its economy, its law and its institutions and continues to harm us at great expense to ourselves. Follyrood costs us a fortune and is completely unnecessary.
Scottish MSPs are mostly jumped-up councillors and sound and act in character. It was a treat to watch a team of Scottish civil servants take on the Eggheads and win on television. They were all lang-heided and all spoke with what I should describe as educated Scottish accents.
On the other hand, It is painful to hear the bad grammar and coarse, uneducated speech of even our top Scottish MSPs. For the most part, their speech cannot compare with our Perth postman or the tradesmen who come to fix our television or our drains.
Our MSPs are useless, surplus to requirements and make me ashamed to be a Scot. Let’s get rid of them as soon as possible.
George K. McMillan.5 Mount Tabor Avenue,Perth.
Perth panto a fitting tribute
Sir, Congratulations to all the performers and production team for a fantastic penultimate show of Jack and the Beanstalk.
It was slick, polished and delivered with energy and enthusiasm from start to finish. A proper magical panto. A fitting tribute to the much-loved theatre and to the late Martyn James; the ”giant’s voice”.
Jonquil Goulder.Hills of Bendochy,Coupar Angus.
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.