Sir, Yet another letter blasting the unions and quite right too.
After all, they were responsible for the last financial disaster which brought about this present period of austerity . . .no . . . sorry . . . that was the bankers and city financiers.
Well they must have been responsible for the present situation, whereby the most vulnerable members of our society, the sick, the disabled and the lowest paid, are subjected to savage cuts in income and are threatened with losing their home by having an extra bedroom . . . right?
Hang on, wrong again, that was this Tory Party elected by the Scottish people in a process so democratic that it only required them to elect one Tory MP.
Food banks on our streets? Must be the unions.
The owner of the Grangemouth complex demanded that his workers accept cuts to their pay, working conditions and pensions and issued threats that unless they did so he would close the complex.
The union defended their members which is, after all, what they were created to do and for this they are castigated and the billionaire owner who bullied and intimidated his workforce is hailed as a hero.
Our trade unions have the fewest rights in western Europe and in the EU and yet are continually portrayed as all-powerful, treacherous villains, responsible for all our misfortunes.
George White. 2 Cupar Road, Auchtermuchty.
Letting their hair down
Sir, I read your front page headlines about the behaviour of students during Raisin Weekend in St Andrews. I wish people would get a life.
Raisin Sunday only happens for one day out of 365. Students might misbehave a bit but it’s just fun and they are letting their hair down and meeting students from all years so they can fit in to the great university life they have ahead of them.
For the rest of the year they have the task of studying hard and growing up at the same time. It’s not easy for some to grow up and make friends being far away from home and the things that go on during Raisin celebrations help new students fit into student life.
It’s not as easy as people think going to university. Drinking heavily for some students is just a sign of this difficult step of growing up and having to study subjects that become harder and harder as the years go by before graduation.
Maybe the Millers should just stay away from St Andrews for a few hours next Raisin Sunday. When you get drunk your judgment is not so good and I am sure the students who banged on the Millers’ car roof regret that now.
Raisin Sunday is one of the more memorable days of life at St Andrews University, just relax about it. I went to St Andrews University in the early ’70s. I am afraid I never grew up!
Rob Denholm. Abbey Court, St Andrews.
Just ignoring voters’ wishes
Sir, The rather shocking, surely unnecessary, vandalism carried out by Perth and Kinross Council in felling a healthy pine tree to make space for a nylon sports pitch, despite widespread opposition, is a disquieting reflection of the way our public “authorities” are tending to behave nowadays.
As voters, we should have the right to expect named councillors, officials and, indeed, M(S)Ps to own up in proposing and enacting their policies and plans, an example of democratic Freedom of Information.
Such a routine should discipline office holders before deciding on likely unpopular decisions. After all, they are elected or appointed, fundamentally, to meet the voters’ proper wishes and not to ride roughshod over them.
(Dr) Charles Wardrop. 111 Viewlands Rd West, Perth.
Have they no soul?
Sir, The civic vandals of Perth Council have struck, riding roughshod over opinion and protest, cutting down a beautiful, historic tree to create a big empty space.
No doubt they will next fulfil their destructive desires in the case of Perth Concert Hall in the same way and with a similar result.
Have these people no souls or sense of tradition?
Patrick Taylor. Mossgiel, Snaigow, Dunkeld.
They should agree on this
Sir, Credit where it’s due. Fife Council leader Alex Rowley admitted two weeks ago that their information skills were sadly lacking anent 25 sites deemed suitable for wind turbine developments.
Maybe he could now turn his undoubted talents to giving us their full reasons for (rightly) designating the St Andrews Pipeland slope as green belt and the North Haugh as Madras College’s new site in its Local Plan in September and October 2012, but then (wrongly) deciding in January 2013 that Pipeland was the only option despite flooding and numerous other downsides.
This information deficit has been exacerbated by his colleague Brian Poole’s incredible assertion that even if the university offered the flat and relatively dry North Haugh site “for nothing”, they would refuse it as “fundamentally not suitable” again with no justification.
For Pipeland advocates to call it a “swamp” is ludicrous.
The university confirms that its offer remains open, to swap its North Haugh site for the current Madras site in South Street, thereby saving the council £1.8 million which it would give Muir Construction for the Pipeland land and maybe £3 million to refurbish the neglected South Street building.
It is unacceptable that two public or largely public bodies cannot agree, or be required to agree by the government, on such a sensible exchange.
John Birkett. 12 Horseleys Park, St Andrews.