Sir, Are small hill farmers a different species from the rest of us?
Sufficiently differentto make their ample tax breaks, tariff protection and subsidies justified with which I agree, but with reservations.
But does that also mean that welfaresupport for othervulnerable people isnot justified?
It seems that at least two farmers think their colleagues belong to a different category of person from the rest of us.
Moreover, whyshould wealthy land-owners be made all the wealthier by those enhancements of their incomes and property?
Why aren’t thoselavish supports forfarming classed as“poisonous welfare”too?
Derek Farmer saysI make “ridiculousassertions” by pointing out that “subsidies paid to Scottish farming are disadvantaging the poor and needy”.
What’s clear to me now, is that one or two farmers may actually believe they deserve tobe feather-bedded, and that other industriesand people shall be scorned.
How many of us could afford to publicly accuse our own customers of being rapacious?
Quite possibly there are even a very fewfarmers who don’tappreciate that their unique tariff protections, tax breaks and subsidies actually come at a cost to other people.
Perhaps they don’t know that the EU gets the money for that largess from their member countries. Yes! The EU agriculture programme is a welfare subsidy for the farming community.
It may not last forever. The overwhelming majority of farmers is aware that the proportion of income that poorfamilies must spendon food is much higher than for the rest of us.
Just as some hill farmers need help too.
Andrew Dundas Ross Avenue Perth PH1 1GZ.
Council should fill empty shops
Sir, One has to wonder on which planet our council lives.
While such a project as Thimblerow may be a laudable ambition, should our council, which seems less and less fit for purpose these days, not be concentrating on finding tenants/purchasers for the numerous empty shops in Perth city centre.
Several other more practical projects spring to mind.
What about filling road potholes and repairing crumbling pavements throughout the county and the city?
What about rejuvenating Bridgend?
What about demolishing St Paul’s Church to make space for a lovely wee piazza and thus bring more life to that end of the High Street?
A proper reappraisal of the parking facilities and charges would be useful, because at the present time these are just seen as another stealth tax for the benefit of the council coffersand the companies to whom these facilitiesare outsourced.
The bus station is adisgusting and embarrassing disgrace.
The City Hall fiasco is almost laughable were it not so pathetic please make use of such a historic building x demolition is not the answer.
The PerthTheatreproject is nowhere near completion and the final cost is indeterminate at this stage, so why are personnel being employed and paid, probably rather well, to fantasise about ego-trip projects when the basic sub-structureof Perth is in such a poor shape?
One has to wonder whether or not our councillors actually walk round the city and its environs at various times of the day and night.
Are they incapable of seeing Perth as visitors and long term residents see it?
I do not believe that they do.
John D Ridley Poutwells Drive Scone.
Police must come clean
Sir, I have no particular axe to grind with either Roger Mullin MP, David Torrance MSP or Police Scotland.
I know David fairly well and have had cordial dealings recently with Roger.
They seem fairly decent people, for neo-liberal capitalists.
I have dealt with Police Scotland on numerous occasions at demonstrations and rallies across Scotland.
I have found no great fault with the policeofficers in Fife.
Nevertheless, I am compelled to hold the politicians’ feet to the fire on the issue of justice for Sheku Bayoh.
Mr Mullin, especially, is active all over social media, commenting on the issues of the day, both grave and trivial, as is perfectly acceptable. But why no words in public from either politician about the case of this young man’s tragic death in police custody in their constituency?
Neither politicianneed side against Police Scotland to call for an end to prevarication and the implementation of a fully independent, impartial and open public enquiry into the exact circumstances of Sheku’s death.
As it stands, the family suffer intolerable grief, not knowing what happened, having received five separate and differing accounts from Police Scotland officers.
Police Scotland in Fife suffer from a stain on their reputation for as long as this uncertainty lasts.
It is in nobody’s interest to prolong the status quo.
Our politicians must demand publicly thatjustice is done and seen to be done, quickly.
Police Scotland must cooperate.
Our faith in the electoral and judicial systems is at stake.
Bill Mair Solidarity Scotland member Dysart Fife.
ISIS is a beast of our own making
Sir, It is pointless for Alex Salmond and others to quibble over what to call the Islamist caliphate it is like insisting Cosa Nostra is an inappropriate name for Sicilian thugs.
The West has overthrown or undermined every neo-secular ruler in the Islamic crescent who protected minorities and kept extremist jihadis under control.
Colin Powell warned George Bush before he attacked Iraq “Youbreak it, you own it”,but Tony Blair threw his weight behind the US president’s warmongers.
During the Arab Spring our coalition helped destroy Gaddafi and Mubarak and even supported the proto-ISIS rebels fighting Bashir in Syria.
Today President Obama and David Cameron are reduced to claiming ISIS is not part of mainstream Islam, but the silence of SaudiArabia’s Sunni religious leaders is deafening.
Rev Dr John Cameron Howard Place St Andrews.
SNP should work with Lords
Sir, One would be hard pressed to find anyone in the UK who seriously argues that the House of Lords is anything more than a constitutional anachronism.
Progress has been slow in this regard, but the rhetoric is now largely about how and when.
Nonetheless, the House of Lords does represent an opportunity in its present form for those wishing to see the Scotland Bill amended.
This is because the Conservatives have no majority in the House of Lords.
If Labour are to have their vision for devolved welfare delivered, the House of Lords may be key.
Given that the SNP fully backs Labour’s amendment, I was a little surprised to read that the SNP’s Pete Wishart MP is unwilling to accept support from the “unelected, bloated, ermine-coated” House of Lords.
A cynic would conclude that the SNP does not actually want more powers for Holyrood.
Mr Wishart further described the House of Lords as being “nothing other than the repository for the donors and cronies of the UK parties”.
This overlooks the fact that smaller parties, not least Plaid Cymru, are well represented.
So while I understand any reservations theSNP may have about working with the House of Lords to amendlegislation, surely itmust use all theopportunities it canto be a “stronger voice for Scotland”?
Dr Scott Arthur Buckstone Gardens, Edinburgh.
Bees showing a plucky spirit
Sir, Over the last few years I’ve sadly noticed the rapid decline in numbers of bees around my garden.
My heart was lifted last night, however, when emptying the two large boxes on the back of my ride-on lawn mower.
I’d been hacking down all those pesky wild flowers that seem to pop up all over my garden and as I emptied the contents onto my compost heap I reckon, if you were to piece them all back together again, there must have been at least 30 of the plucky little things.
Well done bees. That’s the fighting spirit we like in this country.
Dave Gorman Formonthills Road Glenrothes.