Today’s letters to The Courier.
Sir,- I live in South Africa. However, having been born, educated and trained in Dundee, I have retained an account that I opened in 1967 with National Commercial Bank of Scotland, Overgate, Dundee, when I was an apprentice.
That account has been moved as a result of the rationalisation of banks and branches and now resides in RBS in High Street, Dundee.
I was reminded recently of a banking advertisement, when automated teller machines were first introduced to Scotland, in which a customer asks the machine ”Is the manager in?”
The cause of this reminder was an unsuccessful effort by me to transfer an amount from my account to that of my daughter in Perth.
Despite a phone call to my bank answered in a call centre, a fax, many more phone calls redirected to the call centre and a letter, which was successfully copied to my daughter, I have been unable to access my own funds.
To do so, I shall apparently have to present myself personally at the bank.
Regretfully, as for me it marks the end of an era, I shall be closing my account on my return to Dundee later this year and transacting through my account with a South African bank in the Isle of Man, whose staff still recognise me as a person even at the end of a telephone connection.
Gordon A Johnston.Boskruin,South Africa.
Funding cut may force bus efficiency
Sir,- Cutting a fifth of their funding may make bus companies think of ways to reduce the amount of buses that run about Fife with only one or two passengers aboard.
It certainly does nothing for pollution levels when you see a double-decker with a couple of passengers lumbering along, holding up everyone behind them.
Fife seems to have a new traffic-calming measure altering bus stops to ensure following traffic can’t overtake but must sit there wasting fuel and causing more pollution.
It’s high time the planners recognised that people are not going to give up their cars and began spending our money on what we want better roads, not more speed bumps.
Fife Council has just spent £830,000 on a crazy traffic light system at Adam Smith junction in Kirkcaldy which causes chaos at a previously free-flowing roundabout. This while no money is allocated to improve the lunatic Cadham and Balfarg junctions on the A92.
These people need to be held to account, but seemingly never are.
John Strachan.23 Beechwood Avenue,Glenrothes.
Politicians must have no choice on resignation
Sir,- Your leader on April 9, ‘Time to do the honourable thing’, quite rightly maintained that politicians losing the confidence of their party should ”do the right thing and resign”.
They should not be given that choice. The law should be changed to oblige all politicians who are elected to office under the auspices of one party, then either leave or are expelled from that party, to resign at once and seek re-election under whatever other banner they chose.
Since the time seems now long past when politicians such as Harold Macmillan did ”the right thing” and resigned on matters of principle, new legislation could be extended to make it compulsory for politicians to resign when they have been guilty of crimes or behaviour which bring parliament and their profession into disrepute.
It is certainly wrong for politicians to remain in post when they were voted in under the banner of one party, then, for one reason or another, no longer represent the views of that party.
As your leader writer said, there would have been very little chance of their being elected in the first place either as an independent or under the auspices of a different party.
It is therefore morally wrong and should be legally wrong for them to continue in office.
George K McMillan.5 Mount Tabor Avenue,Perth.
Shale gas would help UK economy
Sir,- Deposits of shale gas have been found in the countryside of Melton and Vale of Belvoir at Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, by the British Geological Survey.
Shale gas in the UK offers the prospect of a huge economic boost. Worldwide shale gas deposits are offering mankind its greatest energy revolution since nuclear power and at a fraction of the cost of renewables.
Shale gas now accounts for 30% of American natural gas supplies and there is a 100-year supply.
Natural gas prices are now half of what they were three years ago, lowering electricity prices, stabilising manufacturing costs and attracting new foreign investment.
Gas prices in the USA are half of European prices.
Shale gas would boost the British economy, British jobs and make us less reliant on foreign imports.
Unlike wind turbines, shale developers would not need eye-watering subsidies. Thousands of jobs would be created.
The wind turbine industry are against shale gas because it needs no subsidies and it would displace their subsidy-hungry turbines which are inefficient and only make the developers rich and push energy consumers into fuel poverty.
Plentiful and cheap shale gas would render the wind turbine industry obsolete.
Clark Cross.138 Springfield Road,Linlithgow.
Lamont move lamented
Sir,- Johann Lamont’s opportunistic interference in the Aberdeen garden project result is deplorable.
I trust the residents will see through her petty little game that the 41,000 people who voted against the project will turn out on election day to vote for her party.
The result, she declares, was divisive. Isn’t she aware that is what referendums do? They divide for and against.
Perhaps Ms Lamont would tell us what size of a majority she would accept as democratic following our vote on self-determination.
George B Anderson.7 Elliothill Street,Dunfermline.
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. Letters should be accompanied by an address and a daytime telephone number.