Sir, – Like most people who regard every human being on this planet as something special, I am horrified by the sights on television of lines of migrants with children staggering along railway lines.
There has to be a radical change in the way all the European nations handle this dreadful situation.
Never since the Second World War have we had a disastrous migration problem like there is in Europe today, not since the concentration camps were liberated.
These people are fleeing from the same sort of regimes that we had in Nazi Germany and, oddly enough, Germany is doing more to alleviate the problem than any other country.
It is time to disregard the label of migrants and start thinking families with children. These children are the future of our world and should be treated as such.
Perhaps Mr Blair should stop interfering in the leadership battle of his former party and donate a few of his millions to helping the poor wretches left without country or means to survive, all caused by illegal wars and interference in Middle Eastern politics.
Bill Duthie. 25 St Fillans Road, Dundee.
Kirkcaldy fails visiting drivers
Sir, – There has been yet more tinkering with Kirkcaldy town centre (new taxi ranks) and it will have about as much effect on its decline as previous ideas.
I regularly visit Kirkcaldy (three times in the last week) but I invariably end up in the retail park and this is because I can park close by.
That is also why I shop in St Andrews and Dundee.
Big retailers are attracted by one thing: footfall, and Kirkcaldy’s inconvenient, fragmented, poorly lit, often scruffy car parks are simply not generating it.
Let’s have better signage to some light, airy parks with some bright colours and easy access and maybe we out-of-towners will come.
Laurie Richards. 100 Crail Road, Cellardyke.
Downsides of new Madras
Sir, – With reference to your report, Madras Vision Inspiration, about the proposed interior of the school, the issue is not its inspirational interior which should, of course, be state-of-the-art for any school built in the 21st century.
This issue is not primarily about the exterior, though it is hardly surprising that a box-like building, of three floors on four levels with a biomass chimney dominating the highest point of St Andrews, is regarded as rather less than inspirational by many citizens.
The issue is almost entirely its location, location, location on Pipeland Farm, a site with at least 10 disadvantages but without a single redeeming feature specific to itself to offset them, unlike the university location and site which can boast at least seven specific advantages with virtually no downside.
John Birkett. 12 Horseleys Park, St Andrews.
Take personal responsibility
Sir, – The Pretenders singer, Chrissie Hynde, observed that women who dress provocatively and stagger drunkenly down city streets at night place themselves indanger of being raped.
As the father of a much-loved daughter I would have thought this comment verged on the obvious but it led to Miss Hynde being set upon by the ranks of feminist orthodoxy.
There is no room for debate, nuanced argument or personal opinion and either you agree women take no responsibility for anything that happens to them or you are a “rape apologist”.
I could certainly leave my front door wide open while on holiday and assert my right not to be burgled but my insurance company would take a pretty dim view of such lunacy.
In the same vein, telling a girl it is safe to dress as she pleases, get off her face on drink and drugs and lurch away with strange men is not striking a blow for feminism it is just plain daft.
Rev Dr John Cameron. 10 Howard Place, St Andrews.
Battle of Loos not celebration
Sir, – I speak on behalf of our members when I say that the use of the word “celebrate” when referring to the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Loos is wrong.
The use of the word “commemorate” would be much more appropriate.
There were 8,000 British causalities in the first four hours of the battle.
The total British losses were 59,247, more than 20,000 are commemorated on the Loos Memorial as having no known grave, about one third of these are from Scotland.
There is no cause for celebration.
Frank Smith. Secretary, City of Dundee Branch, Royal British Legion Scotland.
Loss of valued rural service
Sir, – I write to express my concern at the recent announcement by RBS of the closure of its Alyth branch.
This follows hot on the heels of the closure of the Kirriemuir branch earlier in the year and leaves people in these two towns and the surrounding glens with much further to travel, having to go either to Blairgowrie or Forfar, for a full banking service.
The rather glib literature accompanying the letters about the closure seems to suggest that the Post Office will meet the needs of the public but a close reading of the details makes it quite clear that this will be a second-rate service at best.
While Kirriemuir does have two other banks, Alyth only has the RBS and it seems inevitable that withdrawing from the town, which was contrary to the RBS charter until a few years ago, can only have a negative economic impact on a town that has already had an extremely difficult year.
It appears that the small towns and rural communities in Scotland are now going to lose important services and be inconvenienced because of the gross mismanagement of the bank in the past.
Roger Clegg. Easter Derry, Kilry.
Break grip of Westminster
Sir, – It was a pleasant change to read a piece clearly exposing the Westminster straitjacket which prevents the Scottish Government from creating the flourishing economy which they would seek to achieve. (Alex Orr, September 1).
Your correspondent also pointed out that the fiscal levers needed by Holyrood to achieve that goal are currently limited and I would say to him that this will always be the case for as long as Scotland remains part of the UK.
The British establishment is predominantly English based and the old colonials in its midst, having long ceased mourning the loss of empire, now content themselves with the overlordship of the three smaller nations in the union along with the majority of their own countrymen, whom they regard as belonging to a lower class.
Scotland had the chance to gain independence and blew it because the gullible among us believed the pledge of three men from Westminster which was broken when a no vote was secured. This led to the rise in SNP membership.
Then with Lord Ashcroft’s polls pointing to an SNP landslide in Scotland and the national polls indicating a hung parliament giving the Scottish nationalists the balance of power, David Cameron played the English nationalist card to win his majority.
The Tories are dirty fighters but they know how to win and, as a result, could be in power for a long time to come.
Scotland could be a better place for us all but it will have to get rid of the restraining grip of Westminster which is there to ensure that we stay firmly in our place.
Allan MacDougall. 37 Forth Park, Bridge of Allan.
The case for tolerance
Sir, – Spencer Fildes, chairman of the Scottish Secular Society, has demonstrated the anti-religious nature of his group (September 2).
He seems to think that the internet has led to “an explosion of evidence-based understanding” and that this has resulted in many people associating religion with conflict, child abuse, misogyny, violence and privilege.
It is little wonder that they do so because the internet allows the kind of hate-filled media campaigns and slanders which are all too prevalent on the Secular Scotland Facebook page.
Rather than “understanding” this leads to prejudice whereby every Muslim is blamed for ISIS, every Catholic blamed for a paedophile priest and every Protestant blamed for the Orange order.
Given this, it is actually quite astonishing that, according to the Transforming Scotland report, the majority of people in Scotland still perceive Christianity as a positive and welcome thing.
Perhaps if the SSS were not so intolerant, they might learn to appreciate the qualities that the Christian church brings to communities, rather than rejoice at the faults?
David A. Robertson. St Peter’s Free Church, 4 St Peter Street, Dundee.