Sir Just over a week ago, T in the Park said an emotional goodbye to the local community of Kinross after 18 years of staging the festival there. We held a breakfast attended by residents, Police Scotland and many of the event’s staff.
We shared anecdotes and stories and the locals overwhelmingly expressed their sadness at T in the Park’s departure. They told us that they’d miss the positive atmosphere it brought to the area and they’d miss saying hello to the fans on their way to the event.
This is the real face of T in the Park thousands of Scotland’s young people who go to the festival every year to have fun with their friends, to camp, to watch their favourite bands.
These are Scotland’s sons and daughters and overwhelmingly they do you proud every year with Police Scotland praising their behaviour and reporting that crime levels remain low.
An article in The Courier on Saturday (July 19), which attempted to paint a picture of T in the Park as hosting “a wave of crime” is frankly ridiculous.
It doesn’t take a maths genius to work out that a total of 3600 incidents the huge majority of which were minor taking place over 10 years at an event that has hosted almost 2 million people in that time, is low.
The article also failed to mention that this year’s festival also saw a decrease in crimes with arrest figures almost halved.
As experienced, award-winning event organisers, safety is the number one priority for us. As always, we will continue to work closely with Police Scotland and our stewards to provide a secure environment for music fans to enjoy a fun weekend year on year.
Geoff Ellis. Festival Director.
Has America forgotten airbus incident?
Sir, The shooting down of the Malaysian airliner over the Ukraine is without doubt an absolute disaster of the greatest magnitude and all due to a missile operator reportedly mistaking a civilian aircraft for a military one.
What I find even more upsetting is the fact that the Americans are leading world condemnation of this action and stating that the circumstances are unforgivable and that the perpetrators must be brought to justice, when they were guilty of carrying out an identical act resulting with the loss of life of the entire crew and passengers, (290 in all) on July 3 1988 in the Persian Gulf.
The USS Vincennes, a guided missile cruiser, mistook an Iranian airbus for a military aircraft even though the aircraft’s flight details had been well promulgated and it was indicating on radar as a commercial aircraft and could have been contacted on its commercial radio frequency.
The operators on the Vincennes searched only military radio and radar frequencies and when they could not determine exactly what the contact was, shot it down without hesitation, resulting in a huge loss of life.
No one was ever brought to justice for this act and even though the American Government paid compensation for their actions, they have not even to this day apologised to the Iranian people.
It brings to mind the saying: “Do as I say, not as I do.”
Ron Blanchard. 177 Kinghorn Road, Burntisland.
Championship is not called the “British” Open
Sir, What rubbish your correspondent, Graham Lang, comes out with regarding The Open Golf Championship. Contrary to his scaremongering and negative comments, the tournament is The Open Championship and not, as he avers, The “British” Open Championship.
He should know that golfers, from all over the UK, are constantly correcting golfers from other countries, most notably the USA, when they refer to it as “The British”.
Another blow to Mr Lang’s argument is that The Open is not run by any “British” body, but by The Royal and Ancient Golf Club, whose headquarters are in St Andrews. Before he jumps on that “Royal” reference in the title he should note that the Scottish Government’s White Paper outlines that the Queen/Monarchy will remain as head of state in an independent Scotland.
Donny Coutts. DGCoutts Associates, East Kingsway Business Park, Dundee.
Gull was only trying to protect its nest
Sir, I’m sorry Gary Robinson had such a traumatic encounter with a gull recently. I can imagine how frightening it must have been, since it was totally unexpected.
However, The Courier report on the incident, accompanied by the photograph of his injuries, could be misconstrued and give the impression that his wounds were caused directly by the gull when it was the surface of the road that did the damage the sudden stop at the end of his fall.
That’s no consolation for Gary, of course, but it’s important that people realise that gulls are not just indiscriminate, pathological muggers of people innocently going about their business. As he himself said, it will have been defending its nest, as other birds are known to do.
I’d like to pass on a few tips for people who might find themselves in a similar situation. Gulls always go for the highest point of their “target”, so holding up a newspaper, bag, or any other object above head height should deflect any potential contact with the bird.
It’s just trying to get you to move away from its nest site. I’ve experienced “attacks” by arctic terns on the Isle of May. They are simply objecting to boatloads of people arriving right in the middle of their nesting site. A small back-pack on top of my head was very effective!
Carolyn Taylor. 16 Gagiebank, Wellbank.
She could try for overseas membership
Sir, St Andrews University Principal Louise Richardson recently rubbished one of the town’s venerable institutions to a passing foreign hack.
Speaking to a New York Times columnist she claimed all her predecessors were elected members of the R&A and not being a member “hindered university fund-raising”.
In fact, two of the last four principals were not elected because they were not “clubbable” and Mrs Richardson, unlike Condoleezza Rice, does not strike me as very “clubbable”.
On the bright side, if the club does go mixed, Mrs Richardson spends so much time in the USA she could be put up for the much more easily obtained “overseas membership”.
Rev Dr John Cameron. 10 Howard Place, St Andrews.
Should leave things the way they are
Sir, I cannot understand the problem relating to the R &A Golf Club in St Andrews. This club has always been all male so why are certain individuals of the opposite sex calling for a change? There are several ladies-only golf clubs throughout Scotland and the UK, but men are not trying to gain entry to these. I am sure any attempt to do so would be instantly refused.
Let’s stop trying to change the world of golf just to please a minority who will never be satisfied.
I hope the membership make the right decision at the meeting in September so that we can all enjoy our round of golf.
Dave Walker (ex-Fife). North Road, Preston, Lancs.
Dim, old Scot / New England vibe . . . ?
Sir, I noted your restaurant reviewer recently wanted The View, Wormit, to receive a “bright New England vibe to the decor”.
Writing as a dim, old Scot, can someone tell me what on earth that means?
Gordon Cook. Friockheim.