Today’s letters to The Courier.
Sir, – Yet another Tory UK minister, Ian Duncan Smith, forecasting doom and gloom about the Scottish referendum. Like the others, he claims Scots will be worse off if they vote ”yes”.
This may be true but, frankly, I am fed up with all the negativity. There are two sides to every argument. Why can we not hear about how a ”yes” vote will affect the English?
Will they be worse off without the Scottish share of oil revenues? Without the other Scottish exports such as whisky and other unique Scottish products that are now in demand throughout the new developing nations?
Another thing they will surely miss is the Scottish contribution to the British Army.
Without the Scottish Labour MPs to boost their numbers the Labour Party would be doomed to perpetual opposition in the London Parliament.
Yet there is every reason to believe that in a new independent Scotland Labour would be the governing party. So why are the Scottish Labour MSPs against a ”yes” vote?
Yes, it’s time to stop all the negativity and face the facts, but we cannot do this unless everyone is honest about the possible effects on the whole UK, not just Scotland.
Bill Crowe.80 Castle Street,Montrose.
Impressed and very grateful
Sir, – I made an appointment with my GP at Cowdenbeath Medical Practice on Tuesday August 14. I had major surgery at the Victoria on Monday September 10.
The journey between those two dates included a colonoscopy, various CT scans, meetings with my consultant and his staff and pre-operative assessments.
Less than four weeks from GP surgery to theatre that’s what I call maximum efficiency and joined-up thinking on the part of NHS Fife.
Furthermore, every member of staff I came into contact with throughout the process, (that includes the above departments and the High Dependency Unit and Ward 53), showed my family and myself nothing but care, compassion, consideration and professionalism.
My consultant even phoned my husband immediately post-op to inform him of the outcome.
Am I impressed? You bet! Am I grateful? You bet!
Do I have faith in NHS Fife? You bet!
N. Brown.Cowdenbeath.
What are the options?
Sir, – Re Alister Rankin’s letter about the Duchess of Cambridge (September 18), what would he replace the current monarchy with, a president? Can you imagine us with someone like Boris Johnston, or worse?
Would he like to end up with President George Galloway? That would be a fate worse than the monarchy.
Ken MacDougall.3 Logie Avenue,Dundee.
Wrong to scorn wind power
Sir, – In her latest diatribe against the Scottish government, Jenny Hjul has shown she has only a tenuous grasp of the economics and practicalities of securing Scotland’s energy supplies for the future.
She scorns wind power as uneconomic, inefficient and a blight on the landscape but then champions nuclear power and shale gas plants as viable alternatives to it.
Nuclear is the most subsidised energy source in history and is not a cheap, economic or a secure source of energy for the future as the UK has no domestic supplies and the dwindling worldwide supply is in ever higher demand.
We could build many huge, ugly, dangerous and expensive nuclear power plants only to find we have no fuel to power them. Unless, of course, Ms Hjul is happy with turning Orkney into one massive uranium mine, as was once mooted, to secure the UK’s supply.
As for shale gas, it may or may not be cheap, but the environmental costs are too horrendous to contemplate. The likely contamination of groundwater by the chemicals used in fracking plants to extract the gas would render rivers irrevocably poisonous and many people’s water supply unusable.
The destruction of the bedrock in which the gas is found is known to create earthquakes and subsidence on the surface. And not least, if people are repelled by the presence of slender, graceful and silent wind turbines, how happy are they likely to be with the proliferation of fracking plants all over the landscape?
All of this is happening in the USA. Of course, those who oppose wind turbines while pushing for nuclear and shale gas are no doubt hopeful that the necessary infrastructure will be built in somebody else’s back yard and not their own.
Stuart Allan.8 Nelson Street,Dundee.
Just a thought
Sir, – How many more prisoners will be given early release for Salmond to finance the proposed tennis academy?
Or will he knock a million pounds of the proposed six and a half million pound security extension at Holyrood?
Mev Braid.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. Letters should be accompanied by an address and a daytime telephone number.