Sir, I hear the government of the Republic of Greece has submitted a formal offer to purchase Perth City Hall for the sum of £10 million, with the express intention of adapting and adopting the building for use as an international research centre for the study of management of major financial loans, to be known as IRCSMMFL for short.
The council has decided to engage a consultant to advise on the economic sustainability of this offer, and meantime has appointed another consultant to review the advice already given on the economic viability of the two offers recently received for a market hall and five-star hotel respectively.
The IRCSMMFL would be a huge contribution to Perth’s efforts to promote itself as a centre of excellence for higher education.
It would also be especially useful to the council in considering its own position vis–vis loans or grants being sought to help finance the modernisation and extension of Perth Theatre, the replacement of the existing, relatively young, curling rink and leisure pool, the major roadworks being contemplated through the crematorium grounds, the revamping of councillor and staff accommodation throughout the city, each to cost millions of pounds, and some less urgent schemes.
These include the promotion of Perth city as a venue for the Royal National Mod in 2019, presumably accompanied by the bilingual street signs which the then council refused to provide in 2004, and the modernisation of the public drainage scheme on the East Bank in 2055-60, hopefully before the next catastrophic street-water flood in Gannochy and Bridgend.
All this has effectively deferred the council’s decision on the future of the City Hall for another few months, or perhaps years. We look forward to enjoying the ripe fruit of all this thorough examination of the problem.
Perhaps by the time the council is ready to decide, we shall have several fresh faces and minds on the council to resolve the issue.
Anthony Ramsay Cross Keys Court Perth
Not one listed building safe
Sir, Quelle surprise! For 10 years, Perth City Hall has been closed by the council with the huge loss of revenue from all the public groups that would have used it.
The hard core of councillors who are wedded to the mad, and very expensive, new square scheme involving the demolition of this fine listed building now find they are not satisfied by either of the two schemes to re-use the hall.
They want further months to consider these schemes.
Do they think our heads button up the back? Everyone knows that no scheme, however beneficial to the public, will ever satisfy the demolishing brigade, as they have long since decided that a new square is the best option for Perth.
This whole bidding process is a farce.
Come October, if Historic Scotland are not minded to grant approval for demolition, which is what this delay is all about then, I am sure, even further reasons will be found not to re-use the hall.
If Historic Scotland grant permission to demolish the city hall no listed building will be safe in Scotland, and Historic Scotland may as well pack their bags and go.
We live in strange times.
Robert Booth Kirkfield Place Auchterarder
Language key in terrorism fight
Sir, Some wise words have graced the columns of this newspaper over how the British Government should react to the atrocity on the beaches at Sousse.
They have come from SNP foreign affairs spokesman Alex Salmond and former Liberal Democrat MP Menzies Campbell.
In their different ways they have both stressed the importance of language. It is important not to use terms that simply feed the terrorists’ flights of fancy.
That may mean a look by broadcasters and newspapers and those responsible for the social media at how we refer to the so-called Islamic State.
If less emotive terms might discourage young minds from murder and intimidation then surely that’s something the media should look at.
It could save lives.
The challenge posed by IS is one that needs to be tackled on the intelligence, military and propaganda fronts.
The response still needs to be appropriate.
There is no point in bombing Iraq or Syria simply as a show of strength.
Mr Salmond has pointed out that the planning of the carnage in Tunisia was carried out in Libya.
There is a danger of fuelling a dangerous situation by action that is clumsy and egotistical.
The public will support action that has a clear objective and seems likely to tackle the problem at its source.
It will quickly be disillusioned if that action is seen to be both useless and thoughtless.
Bob Taylor Shiel Court Glenrothes
Appointment beggars belief
Sir, I am completely appalled and outraged that after burning publicly the report into the Smith Commission last year with two others, and being suspended from the SNP for two months, Mags Maclaren walks into a job managing Mhairi Black’s constituency office.
It beggars belief.
This appointment comes just days after Nicola Sturgeon claims she wants to stamp out cybernats and extremism in the party.
Really, Nicola?
Somebody who behaved in an appalling, undemocratic and immature way gets a slap on the wrist and is actually rewarded for loutish, thuggery behaviour.
As for Mhairi Black, surely she should have realised that such an appointment would be controversial, to say the least, in line with what Nicola Sturgeon had just said.
It is clear with age comes wisdom and she is lacking in both.
All Nicola’s good intentions about cleaning up the ugly side of nationalism are nothing short of hot air now.
Gordon Kennedy Simpson Square Perth
Time to cancel Greek debts
Sir, The Greeks are to be congratulated in showing the courage to stand up to those who would oppress them with excessive austerity measures.
If my memory serves me right, the economic miracle which is Germany only came about because their debt was written off after the Second World War.
Remembering that, you would think the Germans would be more generous.
If Greece’s debt were to be cancelled, it is possible we would see another economic miracle it could be the encouragement they need.
Brian Rattray Gylemuir Road Edinburgh
Austerity not to blame in Greece
Sir, Big government, not austerity, brought Greece to its knees and the seeds of the current crisis were sown in the 1980s and have been nurtured ever since by economic illiteracy.
PASOK built a huge client state, buying the support of electoral groups with subsidies and favours and when other parties joined in the Greek state became a patronage machine.
But as Gordon Brown found, client states are expensive to maintain and favours fuel demand for more so there was never enough money and the shortfall was made up by borrowing.
Economic policy fundamentals were undermined and Greece now ranks 155th out of 189 nations in the crucial “enforcing contracts” category just a few places above Zimbabwe.
In other categories like “judicial independence”, “impartial courts”, “protection of property rights” or “reliability of the police”, Greece looks more Latin American than European.
A correction was inevitable but its absurd admission into the eurozone flooded it with cheap credit which led to a fake boom that magnified the worst elements of Greek politics.
There are no good solutions but the least bad is a Grexit, a return to the Drachma, a sharp devaluation followed by a full sovereign default which will mean more austerity.
However with structural reforms the economy will price itself back into international markets and the political class will have run out of excuses and that can only be a good thing!
Dr John Cameron Howard Place St Andrews
City’s soft touch on Travellers
Sir, I wonder how many Courier readers thought the same as I did?
On one page a report of classic car enthusiasts gathering in a car park and many police in attendance.
On the page opposite more Travellers moving on to a park.
The car enthusiasts contribute to our society in many ways yet are policed.
The Travellers contribute nothing to our society and are left in peace to enjoy the park, while locals are now unable to in this fine weather a park which they contribute to via council tax.
It strikes me that maybe Dundee City Council, with all the brains it can muster via councillors and officers, is unable or unwilling to come up with anything to deter these Travellers from Dundee, which by now must be known in the Traveller community as a soft touch.
How about fining them for littering?
Or parking illegally?
It cannot be legal to just pull up and mess up a park and do nothing.
Even charge them a fee for parking.
I cannot believe there’s nothing possible.
As a lad I was always told “where there’s a will there’s a way”.
How much will is there in the city council?
Derek H Shaw The Logan Liff Dundee
Carbon-free a waste of money
Sir, While fuel poverty afflicts many people, we should not be wasting money on a carbon-free future.
It is those alive today with whom we should be concerned.
The choice of heating or eating is faced by far too many.
Rationing energy at home increases ill-health, with knock-on economic consequences, and leads to premature death of the elderly.
The global problems we face now are just as likely to overwhelm us, so to be making costly provision for something that may never happen is to betray the present generation.
No other country in the world gives a hoot about climate change, no matter what they may say about it.
Malcolm Parkin Gamekeepers Road Kinnesswood Kinross