Sir, Once a week I take my neighbour’s dog, Millie, for a morning walk around Riverside Nature Park.
It is a beautiful area which I call Dundee’s best kept secret. There is a peace and tranquillity there that is a credit, yet again, to the vision of our city fathers and Millie loves it.
I understand that there is a move afoot to bring about a rule of “dogs must be kept on leads”. One of the reasons is to protect the wildlife that is being encouraged to inhabit the area for the birds really.
Man’s best friend, yet again, takes a hit. You can look no further for a creature that is loyal and faithful, that greets you when you are down, that cheers the elderly and frail, the grief-stricken and the teenager dashing in after being spurned by a boyfriend.
Our four-legged friend seems to instinctively know when to snuggle up, wag a tail or sitquietly by your side.
In the future does it mean I have to keep shy sheepdog Millie on her lead instead of letting her free to sniff and run and roll in the grass with such glee?
We breed birds for shooting, we re-introduce sea eagles that kill the farmer’s new-born lambs and we arethinking of bringing back wolves.
Who decides what needs protecting and what does not?
Usually Mother Nature is left to decide it is cruel but it works. After all, should we put the birds of prey on leads and the evil-eyed crows?
They destroy more nests than my gentle companion Millie, who repays me for her lead-free walk with a run that makes her fur coat gleam with the movement of her freedom and with a bark and roll in the long grass. And not once has she returned with a gift of a dead chick or rabbit.
Barbara Sturrock. Invergowrie Drive, Dundee.
Scotland’s fairer voting system
Sir, Some of thecommentators inEngland have deemed it unfair that Ukip’s eight million-plus votes only yielded one Westminster seat, whereas the SNP’s smaller total vote sent 56 Scottish MPs to London.
The comparison is, of course, odious because it conveniently overlooks the number of constituencies available to the SNP compared to those available to Ukip. The same complaint could be made against the Welsh Plaid Cymru and any of the Northern Ireland parties.
A fairer comparison would be the percentage of the total votes cast in the smaller countries as opposed to the UK as a whole, because the substantially larger population in the biggestcountry, England, will always make comparisons within the total UK vote meaningless but useful for having a pop atScotland or the SNP.
For example, the SNP polled more than 50% of the total votes cast in Scotland compared to the less than 40% polled by the Tories in winning the UK election.
Another meaningless comparison.
The problem lies within the first past the post voting system much favoured by the Tories because it mitigates in their favour and there is already a proposal to implement further boundary changesduring this parliament to enhance the prospects of a complete victory in five years’ time.
Ruth Davidsonregularly points to the healthy number ofConservative members at Holyrood whose number would certainly be reduced but for the fairer voting system her party enjoys in Scotland, which equates the number of elected members to the popular vote for each party.
It is not only much fairer but gives the voter the sense that casting their ballot does count for something and might help to reduce voterapathy.
Allan MacDougall. Forth Park, Bridge of Allan.
The big problem with windfarms
Sir, I was astonished to see that WWFScotland has issued a press release claiming that wind performed very well during July, in particular providing enough energy to power all of Scotland’s homes during eight days that month.
I too have been monitoring wind energy and the truth is that the UK went through a period of very poor wind performance from June 6 to August 2. Anyone can see this on the home page of the Gridwatch website.
On nine dates during July UK wind energyoutput dropped to near-zero.
A big problem is that when windfarms are notgenerating they often consume electricity from the grid and, ironically, most of that comes from fossil fuel.
This too can beconfirmed, on the RWE npower website.
A windfarm called Novar2, near my home, is often consuming enough energy to power 1,000 homes.
When a windfarmconsumes electricity like this observers will notice that, on calm days,turbine blades aremysteriously spinning.
We can never build enough windfarms to overcome this problem because if we build more we will just have more of them consuming energy on calm days.
Are WWF trying to mislead the public?
Geoff Moore. Braeface Park, Alness.
Global economy a taxing issue
Sir, I refer to George White’s letter (August 4) concerning the structure of tax credits.
This structure was a Brown/Balls invention in a Labour government to disguise what wouldotherwise have beenrising unemploymentfigures resulting from a government failure to have a long term plan for economic investment, and continuing to put its fiscal eggs in the single basket of public services.
Common sensedictates that we cannot continue expanding our public services if wecannot generate the income to pay for them.
I agree with Mr White that the tax credit system is a ridiculous scheme, not only for its subsidy impact to business but also for the cost of its administration.
Similar to the foodbank system, which is also a form of subsidy, there is never any shortage of takers seeking to gain benefit from the reduced cost of employment which was the unforeseen consequence of Labour Party manipulation of supply and demand in the UK labour market.
Which, presumably, is why the present government is seeking to phase-out the tax credit system over time and return us to a more natural situation of market economics that does not entail a clever clogs falsification of statistics relating to unemployment trends.
Legislative interference in markets never works. A more appropriate response to low wages would be a collective action for improvement, which implies increased unionisation of the labour market, the problem being the likely wearisome preference for aggression over conciliation that has been consistently exhibited by union bosses in the past and which, of course, has the effect of closing down firms and, in some cases, entire industries.
There is no easy answer to the problem of living in a global economy where competitor national wage rates are a fraction of those in the UK, but artificial rate-setting by the UKGovernment is not the answer in the long term.
Derek Farmer. Knightsward Farm, Anstruther.
Mankind blamed for every blip
Sir, In all of hisletters, Alan Hinnrichs is keen to introduce the words “climate change” and then demand that action is taken (August 4).
He blames mankind for every blip in theclimate.
A report by the United Nations predicts that the Earth’s population will reach 9.7 billion by 2050.
There are more than 35 million vehicles on UK roads of which 29m are cars. There are 1.2bnvehicles in the world and the number is expected to rise to 2bn by 2035.
There are 2,300 coal-fired power plants in the world and another 2,177 being proposed and built.
A world without fossil fuels is unrealistic.
Would Mr Hinnrichs deny developing nations the fossil fuels that will take them out of poverty?
I would remind Mr Hinnrichs that the UK only has 1.5% of global emissions and Scotland 0.15%.
Can I ask what actions Mr Hinnrichs wouldsuggest?
Clark Cross. Springfield Road, Linlithgow.
A simple explanation?
Sir, Buddleias are in full bloom, branches heavy with hundreds of tiny purple flowers and yet not a butterfly to be seen.
The doom mongers will have us believe that this is the result of man-made global warming.
I prefer a more traditional explanation we had a hard winter and a late spring.
Otto Inglis. Crossgates, Cowdenbeath.