Sir, I am alarmed that Andy Murray’s management company are able to dismiss in so cavalier a fashion a popular and efficient Scottish industry that in the most recent records produced £240 million for Scotland, and provides many hundreds of full and part-time jobs in Scotland’s fragile rural economy, in order to pander to a minority pressure group PETA.
I refer to their perverse decision to put what they, and you, erroneously call hunting “off the menu” at the Cromlix Hotel, particularly in this part of rural Perthshire where country sports form a vital part of country life (Courier, June 24).
You may ask your reporters/researchers to discover what PETA does for the Scottish economy, but I can save you the trouble . . . the answer is nothing.
May we also assume that the hotel is to cease its much lauded arrangement with famous chef Albert Roux, who together with his son Michel, has always been a keen user of wild game, wherever available, and indeed includes it on the menus at Cromlix House?
Do the management company really speak for the hotel?
Do they, in fact, know what they are talking about?
Gerard Watts. Persie, Glenshee.
Food banks a harsh reality
Sir, Derek Farmer’s letter suggesting the rising demand for food banks is simply because they offer a freebie is deeply disappointing (letters, June 23).
In Scotland over the last three years, I have presided over the fastest growth in the number of food banks in any part of the United Kingdom.
Communities have seen a huge growth in need driven largely by explosive rises in food and fuel prices, increasingly insecure employment for those in work, minimal employment opportunities for those seeking work and welfare reforms.
According to The Trussell Trust, these factors have driven the number of people to food banks from 14,318 to 71,428 in one year that is a 400% increase.
Are we really to assume that those who have been sanctioned and have no means of income will not starve without a food bank? Are we to assume that embarrassed people want to use a food bank when their income fails to stretch as far as it used to?
Will Derek Farmer accept my invitation to join me on a visit to any of our four food banks in Fife to hear the cold harsh reality that faces people in 21st century Scotland?
Ewan Gurr. Scotland Development Officer, The Trussell Trust, c/o The Factory Skatepark, 15 Balunie Drive, Dundee.
How will old soldiers feel?
Sir, Having looked at the photographs in Monday’s Courier of the parade of the proud old soldiers at The Black Watch reunion, I wonder what their feelings are to the prospect of a possibly independent Scotland after they fought a world war and lost many of their comrades in order to give us all a free Great Britain/United Kingdom.
P Brown. Meigle, Blairgowrie.
Inquiry was unnecessary
Sir, The grossly expensive phone-hacking trial made one thing abundantly clear: there was no justification for setting up the disturbingly unsatisfactory Leveson inquiry.
This exercise in curbing press freedom was driven by a claim in The Guardian that the News of the World deleted Milly Dowler’s messages, raising false hopes she might be alive.
The claim was shown to be groundless and, as the conviction of Andy Coulson confirms, existing laws against phone-hacking are entirely adequate to deal with rogue journalists.
After the imprisonment of three journalists in Egypt, Prime Minister David Cameron had fine words to say about the vital importance of a free press to democracy.
Yet to save face after the unwise appointment of Mr Coulson as his director of communications he was prepared to jeopardise 300 years of press freedom from state interference.
Dr John Cameron. 10 Howard Place, St Andrews.
No pensions but very PC
Sir, Of course Tayside Pension Funds should not invest in tobacco (Courier, June 24). They should look for something more ethical, such as wind farms.
These won’t yield any pensions, unfortunately, but how pleased Mr Salmond will be with their political correctness.
Malcolm Parkin. 15 Gamekeepers Road, Kinnesswood, Kinross.