Sir, Your report in Monday’s Courier on the petition being presented to the Scottish Parliament making it illegal for any angler in Scotland to kill any salmon in the course of the angling season makes for a very one-sided argument on the conservation of the species.
There are beats on salmon rivers in Scotland that cost four-figure prices to fish. Is this gathering of “experts” really so sure that “the vast majority”of salmon anglers support a ban on killing an odd salmon in any that they are lucky enough to land, especially as the netting interests on the rivers and coastline, who have the rights to net wild salmon, do so with gay abandon?
There is also a lobby in “the expert world” against salmon hatcheries (a way of augmenting stock for many years on the River Tay and others) now being ridiculed by ghillies etc on the self-same rivers.
Then, of course, there are the salmon farms, especially on the west coast, that have been blamed from the outset for high mortality in wild salmon numbers and which the Scottish Government seems to have absolutely no intention of bringing to heel and that has led to the
Icelandic and Faroese netsmen planning to defy their own voluntary ban and start intensive netting again in their home waters.
The “expert ghillies etc” should think again and start a serious fight with government circles on the real causes of declining runs and stop biting the hand that feeds them.
Ian Allan. Marchside Court, Sauchie.
Why was it not thought of . . . ?
Sir, Sometimes it takes a non-expert to see something the experts may have overlooked. J R Smith’s idea of fitting radio flotation units to aircraft so that they can be located in the event of a ditching in the sea is one such instance. Why has nobody thought of this before?
The technology already exists and has been standard fitting on submarines for many years. In the event of an underwater emergency a “subsunk” buoy can be released which is tethered by long line to the distressed submarine.
On reaching the surface a radio antenna is deployed and an automatic distress signal is broadcast with instant reception by a marine rescue co-ordinating centre. Strobe lights and reflective surfaces also assist in location by search crews.
These units can be quite bulky which is not a difficulty on a submarine, but in this age of microminiaturisation and satellite communications they have become much smaller and it is now mandatory for all ships to be fitted with float free locator beacons in case of sinking.
These are not large units and could easily be accommodated on aircraft with a tether line similar to that on the subsunk buoy. Locator beacon technology is now so advanced that small personal locator beacons are routinely carried by ships’ crew and oil rig personnel working in hazardous locations.
I have no doubt that a small, light unit could be manufactured for mandatory fitment on all aircraft. If MH370 had been fitted with one of these, the search would have been more than a month ago and there is a possibility that lives may have been saved.
Captain Ian F McRae. 17 Broomwell Gardens, Monikie.
They should be charged
Sir, As my two grandsons have recently passed their driving tests and they told me about lots of rules of the road I had never heard of, I bought myself a copy of The Highway Code. I noticed that one rule remains unchanged, however, number 64 : “You must not cycle on a pavement. (Laws HA 1835 sect. 72 and RSA 1984, sect. 129)”.
Why, then, am I constantly confronted with adult cyclists cycling on pavements in the centre of Perth?
Why do the police not stop and charge them? Will they act only after some octogenarian such as myself is knocked down and injured, perhaps fatally, by these law-defying cyclists?
George K McMillan. 5 Mount Tabor Avenue, Perth.
Issue needs to be addressed
Sir, When are the Scottish Government ever going to deal with the travelling people? They state that as long as travelling people exercise their traditions responsibly, they are to be allowed to continue their current way of life.
The point is, they are not acting responsibly, but the Government is not prepared to take action against them. This failure is also allowing the travelling people to neglect to send their children to school, which in itself is an arrestable offence under the Education (Scotland) Act.
This continuing failure to act will only exacerbate the situation.
I note that the local MSP for Glenrothes area has not stuck her head above the parapet with regard to this matter.
Allan Murray. 44 Napier Road, Glenrothes.
The rail work is vital, but . . .
Sir, I agree with Jane-Ann Liston’s letter in Friday’s Courier. Network Rail, in conjunction with the train operators, have to plan engineering, track maintenance and signalling work with the relevant contractors several months in advance so that everyone appears at the right time.
Timing is absolutely crucial, to get the work carried out and restore the lines for the first train of the day. A mighty task if they are affected by adverse weather conditions.
As she rightly says, though, why does that football match have to be played in Glasgow?
John McDonald. 14 Rosebery Court, Kirkcaldy.
Annoyed by “no” letters
Sir, In Monday’s Courier you published four letters in support of the “No” side in the referendum (and none in support of independence). One, by David Illingworth, was good humoured, giving Yes supporters like me a welcome smile.
The other three, however, were annoying.
Mr Farmer is concerned that a “yes” vote will give an unfortunate bequest to our grandchildren. He emphasises defence without mentioning the most horrific bequest that a “no” vote will guarantee: the basing well into the future of weapons of mass destruction 27 miles from the centre of Glasgow.
Mr Parkin merely repeats the mantra of the negative No Campaign, that an independent Scotland would be, alone of all the small successful north west European countries, “skint.”
The letter from Mr Martin, accorded prime position in your Letters page, can only be described as laughable. He expresses justified annoyance at traffic delays but then places the blame on Alex Salmond and his colleagues, maintaining that “they are incapable of managing . . . the roads network”.
Apparently in England there are never any traffic hold-ups thanks to the expert road management skills of David Cameron and his colleagues in Westminster. However, I seem to recall that the Somerset flood defences do not seem to be included in Mr Cameron’s civil engineering area of expertise.
Iain Hall. 1 Georgina Place, Scone.
Country is run for the benefit of the majority
Sir, In 1953, before Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon were born and before oil and gas were found in our water, I became a home ruler, having studied the subject for the Clapham,(south London) branch of the Labour Party.
Since then Enoch Powell told Scottish Tories that this country is run for the benefit of the majority the English and if this doesn’t suit the Scots then that is hard Cheddar.
I appreciate that this humiliating position is quite acceptable to many Scots. Not me. I am voting “yes”.
Gerry McGuigan. 24 Forebank Road, Dundee.
It’s really quite easy to decide
Sir, There seems to be a lot of people who can’t decide which way to vote come the referendum in September.
Personally, the method I used was pretty simple.
Get a photograph of David Cameron, look at it closely, then ask yourself this question: “Would you buy a second-hand car from this man?”
It’s a no-brainer.
T Tolland. East Park Cottage, Braidestone, Meigle.
Who and where are they polling?
Sir, One thing strikes me about the increasing regularity of polls on independence: who are they polling? Nobody has asked me, my family or anyone they know.
None of my work colleagues in Aberdeen have been polled, nor their families, nor anyone they know.
Where are they polling? The central belt and Edinburgh? Are the pollsters, in fact, polling the same people over and over again? Just a thought.
Alan Shepherd. Manor Street, Forfar.
The man who divided Scotland
Sir, It is generally accepted that Scotland would be able to exist as an independent country, although it would appear that taxes would have to be increased to enable all of Alex Salmond’s promises to be fulfilled.
But this is not the point. A “yes” vote would mean the dismantling of the UK. Whatever the decision of the people living in Scotland, Mr Salmond will go down in history as the man who divided Scotland.
The SNP are selfish, smug, and arrogant in their condemnation of potential “no” voters as “fearties” and not true patriotic Scots.
The “no”voters will be voting with their heads, with Scotland’s well-being in their hearts.
If the people living in Scotland, many of them not Scottish-born, do not feel British, then they will no doubt vote “yes” and the rest will just have to make the best of it, though deprived of their original and proper UK citizenship.
David Williams. 5 Walnut Grove, Perth.