Sir, – I agree with Richard Lucas (No jail for under-25s is a charter for misdeeds, Courier, February 29).
When are we going to finally say enough is enough?
Fire services, police and even ambulance crews are constantly under attack from vandals whose ages often range from teenagers to people in their twenties.
These services all seem to be working with one hand tied behind their backs due to the inability to contain this vandalism.
Now it is suggested that those aged 25 have brains not yet developed.
What a farce. Please let there be no more excuses for this disgusting behaviour.
At this moment in time there is simply no deterrent and this would hand these people an open invitation to continue doing exactly as they like without fear of any reprisals.
Stop this absurd idea in its tracks now.
I Liebermann.
MacDonald Smith Drive, Carnoustie.
Murder charter for under-25s
Sir, – I must comment on what I think is the most stupid idea I have ever heard – the notion that people under the age of 25 years are not mature enough to be sent to prison.
Is this an open door to murder, rape or grievous bodily harm or any other crime that young people commit with no concern for the outcome.
Maybe I am too old for life in this century.
A A Bullions.
6 Glencairn Crescent,
Leven.
Nation must cast off the blinkers
Sir, – We all remember Teflon Tony’s ability to emerge unscathed from repeated setbacks.
It appears that Nicola Sturgeon also possesses the Teflon touch.
Although floundering in muddy seas of political impropriety and overseeing a dangerous slide in fiscal, health, education and policing standards, none of the mud appears to stick to her administration.
The 2019 General Election saw the SNP secure 45% of the cast votes, yielding a disproportionate 80% of seats. Sturgeon’s misleading claim she speaks for the people of Scotland clearly resonates.
The reality is only a third of the electorate support her cause.
Even as a teenager Ms Sturgeon “had a strong feeling that it was wrong for Scotland to be governed by a Tory government we never elected.”
Perpetual repetition like this eventually lodges in people’s minds as truth.
Many admire her undoubted tenacity and verbal agility, a quality she has honed to near perfection since she first took to the political stage.
This nationalist mantra has become a blind obsession to the detriment of our country.
It’s time to cast off the blinkers off and focus on Scotland’s real challenges.
Ms Sturgeon recently said Boris Johnston “is the kind of guy who talks nonsense, has the swagger and confidence and conviction but despite the swagger it’s still nonsense.”
She clearly fails to recognise such characteristics in her own verbal acrobatics.
Neil J Bryce.
Gateshaw Cottage,
Morebattle.
Greens give bad name to PR
Sir, – Once again, the SNP finance secretary has done a deal with the Green Party to ensure that the SNP’s budget proceeds through Holyrood.
This is the pass to which proportional representation has brought us in Scotland.
I have been a supporter of PR for over 40 years, but now I have doubts about it.
The Green Party, which cannot get even one of its candidates elected as a constituency member of the Scottish Parliament, has been awarded six list seats – giving it one more seat than the Liberal Democrats who have four elected MSPs.
The current budget offers sweeteners to voters, particularly the youngest, to encourage them to support the SNP and its separatist cause.
The Green Party gives proportional representation a bad name.
Jill Stephenson.
Glenlockhart Valley,
Edinburgh.
Allow nature’s merciful release
Sir, – The decision of a cross-party group of MSPs to support reform of our laws regarding the terminally ill is historic.
The fact is every non-attributable poll of medical staff has found the majority support the merciful release of patients dying in extremis.
I doubt there is an extended family in the land which has not known of a loved one who died in acute pain on which the legal maximum palliative relief had no effect.
I certainly witnessed that time and again in my career as a minister.
Modern medicine can get in the way of nature’s merciful release and blind obedience to the Hippocratic oath prolongs death rather than life.
Helping a patient slip away when palliative medicine has failed is simply part of an overall duty of care.
Rev Dr John Cameron.
10 Howard Place,
St Andrews.
Police finances in major trouble
Sir, – In 2011, Kenny MacAskill stated creating a single Scottish police force and fire service would save £130 million per year and safeguard officer numbers.
Given the damning report by Chief Constable Iain Livingstone this week of the precarious state of Poileas Alba’s finances and a threat to officer numbers, is it time for Mr MacAskill, now that he is back in frontline politics, to admit he got it dramatically wrong and apologise for the gross misuse of taxpayers’ money.
Police Scotland has had three chief constables in five years and Susan Deacon recently stated the SPA was “not fit for purpose”. Something is far wrong.
SNP supporters, including MPs and MSPs, will never question any mismanagement of the regime, totally unconcerned that our taxes are being squandered daily in the quest to tear apart the United Kingdom for no good reason.
Douglas Cowe.
68 Alexander Avenue,
Kingseat,
Newmachar.
Urban beach is waste of money
Sir, – I am totally confused as to why Dundee City Council is wasting £6 million on an “urban beach” when the money would be better used battling the drug epidemic which is killing Dundee?
This absolute waste of public funding must stop now.
Ian Thomson.
Riverside Drive,
Dundee.
False polar bear climate link
Sir, – On World Polar Bear Day photos of a polar bear cub Finja and its mother Nora in the Vienna zoo were published.
It was said by conservationists that polar bears are an endangered species. This is not true.
Al Gore used the polar bear on an ice flow in the Arctic to send out the message that burning fossil fuels was driving these beautiful creatures to the brink of extinction.
Subsequently a High Court judge ruled that there was no such evidence.
Dr Susan Crockford, an evolutionary biologist, said in her book The Polar Bear Catastrophe that Never Happened that polar bear numbers now easily exceed 40,000, up from fewer than 10,000 in the 1960s.
Climate scientists who hoped the cuddly polar bear would protect their research grants, salaries and pensions must have been disappointed.
Clark Cross.
138 Springfield Road,
Linlithgow.
