Sir, The house of cards posing as Westminster’s defence commitment to Scotland finally collapsed this week with the announcement that the squadron of strike aircraft promised to Lossiemouth will now be deployed at RAF Marham in Norfolk.
Yet another betrayal, to add to a growing number of broken promises.
A decision which was taken with Westminster’s usual casual arrogance and totally at odds with their “better together” mantra.
I feel the Westminster parties have taken the opinion polls regarding independence to heart and feel they can trample over Scotland with impunity.
Kenneth Clarke’s remarks last weekend that Scots should be grateful for the “English” money we’ve been loaned and put it to good use, epitomises their condescending attitude.
Not just the Tory party, but all the unionist group.
How much longer Scots are willing to put up with a partnership which takes so much and grudgingly returns so little is open to question.
The polls may favour the unionists at the moment, but they take the Scottish population’s goodwill for granted at their peril.
Ken Clark. 335 King Street, Broughty Ferry, Dundee.
Underground power lines
Sir, Power lines break due to ice formation as a result of the heavy snowfalls and the high winds. This problem is perennial and of course the poor customer is the one who suffers. It is time our government ministers insisted that all power lines were put underground.
Of course the power companies will argue that the cost is prohibitive, but the cost to customers can be life or death. Vast sums are being spent on renewable energy, electricity.
The government wants our electricity supply to be supplied 100% by renewables, let’s get the priority right, the customer is the source of finance, directly or indirectly. The customer should not be the recipient of electricity purely at the whim of the weather. The supply should be backed by a cast-iron guarantee that, short of a national disaster, the lights will stay on.
Right now global warming is, to put it mildly, questionable, therefore, if the general public must subsidise the power companies, then let the money go towards changing the electricity distribution system to an underground system. Heat generation is one of the problems cited by the suppliers regarding an underground supply, so extract the heat along the supply lines and grow tomatoes, where is the problem?
Another point to bear in mind is that in other parts of the world the formation of ice on wind turbine blades has caused failures. The general public is also at present financing wind farms.
John Macmillan. 40 Ferry Road, Monifieth.
Saddened by letter
Sir, I was saddened to read the letter from M Duncan (March 20) stating that we no longer have a Christian education system in Scotland and that we are all the better off for it.
I attended St MonansPrimary School in the late 1930s and 40s and remember very clearly our day began with a psalm or a hymn then prayers. It was the same at secondary school, Waid Academy, Anstruther.
These daily instructions are still with me today more than 60 years later. I have proved that the Bible is right when it says: “Train up a child in the way he shall go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs ch 22, v 6.)
Recently we heard reports from two young men, one from Lanarkshire, who were invited into schools in his area and throughout the UK and Ireland to give RE instruction. The other from the north of Scotland was also invited in to at least 50 schools in his area to do likewise.
While it may be true that Christianity is in decline in the UK that is not the case all over the world. Some friends of ours have just returned from Zambia visiting a Christian school for handicapped children and a Christian hospital. There are tens of thousands of Christians in that area alone.
A student at St Andrews from Malaysia is a member of a church in his home country that has a congregation of 400 and that is small by comparison with some churches with congregations of 1000.
Surely we in Scotland cannot forget people like Dr David Livingstone and Mary Slessor. These trail-blazers sacrificed much to bring the Christian Gospel and humanitarian aid to the people of many different countries.
Philip Hughes. 23 Station Road, St Monans.
Getting into murky waters
Sir, Kenneth Brannan (Letters, March 29) makes some interesting observations on the “bedroom tax”, most notably on what might happen to councillors who back a campaign of non-compliance.
Just to add to this, the “bedroom tax” is not actually a tax that must be paid at all, it is a benefit withheld. Tenants would therefore not have the option of not paying it. If they default on their rent, how can council officials know that it is because of the “bedroom tax”, or for some other reason?
I think we are getting into very murky waters here. This is nowhere near as clear cut an issue for political point scoring as the poll tax was, despite the temptation to treat it as such.
Victor Clements. Mamies’ Cottage, Aberfeldy.