Sir, – I refer to Gayle Ritchie’s article about polo in your Saturday Weekend magazine.
I cannot understand why anyone who calls themselves an animal lover could possibly recommend the game of polo.
As a young National Serviceman serving in a cavalry regiment (armour corps) in Malaya, it was once my misfortune to have to prepare the regimental polo field after a tropical downpour, soaking up the excess water with army-issue blankets.
We also had to replace the divots at each interval.
This entailed having to watch one of the cruellest equine sports ever devised by uncaring human beings.
The treatment those ponies receive on the field is disgraceful, being thrown and jerked around by means of reins fixed to a steel bit in their soft mouths, whacked by polo sticks and forced into one another.
It is little wonder each rider requires more than one mount per session.
It was a long time ago but it left a lasting impression.
I am no class warrior, but it never ceases to amaze me the casual animal cruelty meted out by our privileged classes.
This is a “sport” that only gives pleasure to the human animals astride the equine ones.
You certainly do genuine animal lovers no favours by recommending this “sport”.
Jas Davie. 33 Aberdour Place, Barnhill, Dundee.
Library closures attack on poor
Sir, – I am appalled at the suggested closure of libraries in Fife.
I have looked at the figures used to justify this and it is clear that they are only looking at the numbers of books borrowed.
This completely ignores the other very important functions that these libraries provide.
Libraries are the local tourist information offices, they are meeting places and they provide important information about democratic rights, local representatives, clubs and so on.
With Westminster’s savage welfare cuts and sanctions regime, it is vital that the most vulnerable in society have local access to, and help with, an internet connection.
We know that Fife Council is under financial pressure but this looks like yet another attack on the poorest in society and will undermine the Scottish Government’s commitment to giving the underprivileged access to the resources they need to lift them out of poverty.
Andrew Collins. Ladyburn House, Skinners Steps, Cupar.
Why no V&A cash for V&A?
Sir, – In all this continuing controversy about the escalating costs of the V&A in Dundee and lack of transparency, may I ask one question? Is it correct that the V&A, with accumulated reserves of, I think, £200 million in their last balance sheet, have not contributed one penny to the development and construction of the project?
John Justice. 20 Staffa Place, Dundee.
Accept will of Scottish people
Sir, – What a dispiriting letter from RHS Mulheron (August 24), who seems to be consumed by the “hatred” he accuses the SNP of engendering (which is manifestly untrue, bampots , which all parties are vulnerable to, apart).
What could be more hateful than the vicious, sectarian, unionist thuggery which took around George Square in Glasgow last September?
I am a Scottish nationalist and what I hate is the assumption by unionists that the Scots have neither the ability nor the right to run their own country. Scotland is one of the earliest nation states of Europe.
I hate that the English, being 80% of the UK, have a divine right to rule Scotland; that we must have nuclear weapons on our territory because London says so; that 25% of our children are condemned to poverty and under-achievement.
What rabid unionists like Mr Mulheron don’t get is that those days are over.
A revolution has taken place, mercifully peaceful so far, although I do fear that the hardcore unionists will not accept the will of the Scottish people.
We must hope that the currently discredited Scottish police force have contingency plans in place and will do their duty.
David Roche. Hill House, Beechhill Road, Coupar Angus.
SNP behind power crisis
Sir, – Alex Salmond’s blatant rewriting of history, Longannet demise shows power market is rigged against Scotland’s interest (August 24) beggars belief.
His unachievable target of 100% electricity from renewables (later changed to “the equivalent of” when someone pointed out 100% of electricity from renewables was impossible because the wind doesn’t blow all the time, the sun doesn’t shine all the time, dams run out of water) is a key factor in Scotland’s energy future being in its current parlous situation.
It is true that for years, Scotland has been a net exporter of electricity but that has been due to nuclear, gas, and coal generation, not renewables.
For Mr Salmond to imply that renewables have contributed to that in any meaningful way is disingenuous.
Mr Salmond’s belief that wind power, particularly onshore wind, could deliver North Sea-type riches, coupled with an open invitation to foreign and home-grown carpetbaggers to flood Scotland with windfarms and a refusal to listen to generation engineers has put us in the situation that we can no longer be a net exporter of electricity to England but will need to rely on English electricity generated by coal, fracking gas and nuclear power.
Wind displaces coal and gas, making them less viable.
The SNP’s insatiable appetite for wind makes future thermal investment very uncertain indeed.
That is why Longannet is threatened with closure and Cockenzie put on hold, not grid charging.
Stuart Young. The Larches, Laggan Bridge, Newtonmore.
Fallacy of offshore wind
Sir, – It was very hard to read the column by Alex Salmond (August 24) without either laughing, crying or resorting to a medicinal whisky.
He boasts “competitive electricity production” but fails to mention that high electricity bills are caused by his beloved subsidised wind turbines.
He talks of power plants using “gas from under the sea” instead of coal but the SNP are fence-sitting on shale gas until after the election next year to get the green vote.
He muses about carbon capture and storage which is an expensive research pipe dream which other (saner) countries have abandoned.
His farcical comments that Scotland has a huge potential for offshore wind turbines do not mention that Samsung Heavy Industries axed plans for a £100 million factory in Methil to build offshore turbines.
He chastises the United Kingdom Government over Longannet but it was his windturbines which were given priority on the grid, meaning that Longannet had to wait in line and operate at less than 50% efficiency.
His assertion that Ofgem is putting “at risk the stability of the electricity supply” is laughable since it is his wind turbine fixation which is endangering power supplies.
Clark Cross. 138 Springfield Road, Linlithgow.
Salmond left me speechless
Sir, – Having read Alex Salmond’s column on Monday and his selective writing of ‘facts’, the blaming of Westminster for all that the SNP gets wrong (as usual) and the Braveheart call for mobilising the power of the glens, water, wind, tides and gas under the sea by the man who championed the reckless gung-ho proliferation of unreliable wind turbines and presided over the most appalling mismanagement of the energysector in Scotland, I am speechless.
Lyndsey Ward. Breakachy, Beauly.
Stop pandering to green lobby
Sir, – I wonder what all the doomed Longannet workers think about First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s moratorium on fracking.
She is preventing the creation of a huge new industry right under their feet in the form of shale and unconventional gas deposits which can provide an abundant energy source and revitalise the Grangemouth petrochemical complex.
Ms Sturgeon imposed the moratorium on the same day as she discussed the industrial opportunity with Ineos, and despite her own government’s expert team concluding, in a document published in July 2014, that: “many of these social (and environmental) impacts (of fracking) can be mitigated if they are carefully considered at the planning application stage. Added to which, there are already considerable legislative safeguards to ensure such impacts are not realised.”
When is the First Minister going to stop fretting about a second referendum and keeping green voters onside and start taking this country forward?
Allan Sutherland. 1 Willow Row, Stonehaven.
Explain power grid charges
Sir, – I read Alex Salmond’s page each week with interest.
Could he or someone else explain what is meant by “Scottish generators have been forced to pay all of the transmission charges for the entire British network”.
Is he referring to SSE and/or Scottish Power or what?
Garry Barnett. The Garden House, Campsie Hill, Guildtown.
What’s meaning of Yes stickers?
Sir, – Why do new Yes stickers keep appearing on lamp-posts and generally defacing street furniture across Scotland?
One must presume they are there to commemorate the forthcoming anniversary of the SNP’s referendum loss on September 18.
Since Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon last year repeatedly promised us there would not be another referendum for a generation or even a lifetime, these sticker-fiends are in it for the long haul, aren’t they?
Martin Redfern. 4 Royal Circus, Edinburgh.