Sir, – I get a distinct nostalgic glow when I think about Jeremy Corbyn leading Labour.
It is a glow of childhood nights lit by candle.
Of winter Friday evenings of power cuts caused by industrial strife.
Of the three-day week because this country could not generate energy.
Little over 20 years after this country’s triumph in the Second World War, the hard left caused nearly as many blackouts as Hitler did.
Meanwhile, in Germany, the lights were on and the 1970s were bright and prosperous.
We experienced the shame of growing up in a Britain labelled the sick man of Europe.
Our nationalised industries were run for the benefit of their vast, protected workforces.
The bloated inefficiencies of our nationalised utilities and industries were parodied in countless television and radio comedies.
But the joke was on families in private-sector employment who paid the price for public-sector protectionism.
The 1970s in Britain were dark and drab because the militant, hard left made it that way in order to protect their own conditions and pensions.Our nationalised manufacturing industries were forced to carry too many passengers on the workforce.
They could not slim the payroll or introduce new working methods to compete in the world.
So we saw the British motorcycle and car industry crippled while German and Japanese manufacturers powered ahead.
Industry could not plan ahead or innovate because of the constant threat of wildcat strikes.
I have no doubt Mr Corbyn is sincere but if he ushers in a new era of nationalisation he will risk returning Britain to the strait-jacket of the 1970s.
Bob Stark. Mill Street, Tillicoultry.
Cut-price Perth hall vision
Sir, – Mrs Margaret Peace’s letter (August 10) proposing the revival of Perth City Hall reflects a practical philosophy vital in these lean times.
Present plans by some councillors and officials would see a vast, protracted, businesss-destroying demolition of the city hall and a costly new extension to our historic Perth Theatre.
The total costs are estimated at over £20 million, at a time when the UK is in massive debt.
Funds in Perth and Kinross cannot be in surplus and Perth city centre is contracting as businesses fail and shops close for a lack of custom.
Perth Theatre and the City Hall are well-loved and well-preserved assets.
For a fraction of the proposed massive costs of the grandiose plans for our theatre and City Hall, new seating and redecoration would very adequately suffice for the former and, for the hall, nterior refitting to allow its initial purposes as a venue for community gatherings, dances, smaller concerts and conferences, tourist exhibitions and covered markets.
These purposes are fully realised in so many other old buildings across the country which are mightily prospering and bringing in new customers.
Isabel and Charles Wardrop. 111 Viewlands Road West, Perth.
SNP back Tory land policy
Sir, – The Our Land Movement, which is protesting about land ownership in Scotland may be aiming at the wrong target when it proposes a protest fish-in on the Tay.
This organisation is made up of various pro-independence supporters and seems angry that Scotland’s salmon rivers remain in private hands.
Well, the SNP had the chance to change that in its Land Reform Bill but chose not too.
Instead, the SNP built in caveats to exclude the community buy-out of land which includes salmon fishing.
Perhaps Our Land Movement should protest outside Nicola Sturgeon’s Bute House and complain about her Tory-style land policies.
Bob Ferguson. North Muirton, Perth.
Scotland being held back
Sir, – I find it very sad that at a time when Scottish agriculture is probably under the worst economic pressure in my farming lifetime (since the 1950s) that the Scottish Government, in spite of all scientific evidence, should want to continue with the ban of the use of GMs, particularly when most of the developed and under-developed countries have long seen the benefit of their use.
The Scottish Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead says that by continuing with the ban he will ensure the good name of Scottish food and drink which is so important to the Scottish economy.
The food and drink industry is not successful because of archaic decisions that do not belong to the present time.
It is successful because of forward-thinking and enterprising people.
Willie Porter. West Scryne Farm, Carnoustie.
Perilous future for North Sea
Sir, – Oil is trading near multi-month lows with Brent under $50 a barrel as a glut persists, with OPEC output at its highest level in recent history and Iran poised to return to the market.
US shale oil has reduced the time between when capital is committed and when oil is produced so prices now need to remain low for longer to have much effect. It is more likely any price recovery will come through an OPEC country breaking down than from a collapse in US crude oil production.
Even a price recovery will not solve the problems facing our North Sea basin which remains vulnerable to Scotland’s unpredictable and harmful business environment.
The toxic combination of an SNP government obsessed with independence and a workforce controlled by the belligerent union Unite bodes ill for the future of off-shore oil production.
Dr John Cameron. 10 Howard Place, St Andrews.
Concentrate on governance
Sir, – I am concerned that the SNP Government has said no to nuclear power, fracking and now GM crops.
Without the above we will have to import more food and much more energy than we can produce. This, on top of the fall in the oil price, will make it extremely difficult for the SNP Government to balance its books, which will lead to higher taxation.
The time has come for the SNP to prove to the electorate that it can, and hopefully will, govern effectively instead of the variety show that we have been subjected to over the last few years.
Sally Crystal. Little Tombuie, Aberfeldy.
Boycott could halt ivory trade
Sir, – Kelda Lang (August 13) is naive to believe that banning Chinese students from Dundee University because of their home country’s ivory trade would have any impact.
China has 100 cities with populations greater than Scotland.
Such a protest by Dundee would barely register in China.
Students would simply move to other universities in Scotland, England or in other European countries.
A wider boycott of Chinese goods would be more effective because money speaks loudest.
Charles Wilson. King’s Road, Rosyth.