Sir, I am sure it has not escaped the notice of your readers that, once again, the barbaric element of Islam has raised its ugly head recently.
It was bad enough that hundreds of young girls in Nigeria were kidnapped to prevent them from being “contaminated” by western-style education, but the stoning to death in Pakistan of a woman by her own family just because she had the audacity to marry a man of her own choosing was appalling.
Worse still, the current plight of a Christian doctor in Sudan who has fallen foul of stone age Sharia law and faces 100 lashes and death for daring to be a Christian when her father was a Muslim, is unbelievable.
The latest mass murder of innocent villagers in Kenya merely enjoying watching the World Cup on TV, must deepen the disgust felt by the civilised world.
Compounding the agony is the fact that the UK is bank-rolling many of these evil regimes through David Cameron’s “ring-fenced” international aid!
I, for one, do not wish my taxes to be sent to these despicable countries.
Paul Hannah. 67 Upper Kinneddar, Dunfermline.
Drunk tanks’ would help cut waiting times
Sir, At the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) annual conference Nykoma Hamilton, said that drunks should not be treated in Scotland’s accident and emergency departments because getting intoxicated “is no accident”.
The conference suggested “drunk tanks” and this would curb the regular violence against medical staff.
What a sensible suggestion and one must wonder why our well-paid, well-pensioned politicians have not proposed this before.
Drunks are clogging up A&E departments and thus diverting nurses from more needy patients.
These idiotic people are responsible for a third of A&E attendances and 40% at the weekend.
The Scottish Government must give hospitals additional funds to set up these “drunk tanks” and legislation introduced so that “residents” are charged at least £200 for their overnight stay. This would quickly reduce A&E waiting times for genuine patients.
Drunks, one would hope, would quickly learn a lesson, but if not they would at least have £200 less to spend on alcohol.
Clark Cross. 138 Springfield Road, Linlithgow.
Tuck shop ban is nonsense
Sir, I was outraged to learn about the latest nanny state interference by banning tuck shops in state schools in England.
It is disgraceful that the powers-that-be are claiming this will stop obesity in children.
I really fail to see how. If children want to eat sugar they will get their hands on it elsewhere.
For years school tuck shops have been a place where children can start to learn about money and to make their own choices on how they spend their money.
I am sure many people will have fond memories of tuck shops and I hope this nonsense is not brought to Scotland.
Gordon Kennedy. 117 Simpson Square, Perth.
Little progress over the years
Sir, The current argument about faith schools and extremism (Courier, June 15) is nothing new. When Scottish education was reorganised under an 1872 statute, it was brought under local authority control to rescue it from a mish-mash of provision by philanthropists and competing faith groups.
In a centenary review of this act, the British Journal of Educational Studies (1972, Vol 20, No. 2) noted the important ways it differed substantially from the English statute of 1870, but confirmed that the same fundamental need brought both acts into existence to impose order on chaos so to create an educational system that was fit for purpose.
A key feature of both acts was how they attempted to deal with religion in schools, and indeed religious extremism.
According to the journal review of the Scottish act, where state provision was lacking in the 1870s: “Churches, and benevolent men and women with philanthropic societies sought to plug the gaps, many with some success but not all with pure motives: children might be at the mercy of self-seekers or fanatics. Placement of new schools was haphazard. Much of the inspection was denominational, with more time spent testing orthodoxy than efficiency.
“The schism in the national church produced wasteful duplication in many areas, with Free Church and established Kirk schools competing for pupils, while in many burghs there was guerrilla warfare between church and municipality for control of the burgh school.”
It seems we have not made much progress in nearly 150 years.
Alistair McBay. National Secular Society, 5 Atholl Crescent, Edinburgh.