Sir, – I was wondering if you can enlighten me as to where Fife Council is getting the big windfall of money from?
I have worked over the summer months as a key worker with bereavement services.
My main duty was looking after the grounds at crematoria and cemeteries across Fife.
I was also on standby to assist with grave digging/filling had it been required but thankfully in the Fife area the virus has not been quite as bad as many had feared.
Myself and my colleagues have worked hard during this pandemic and have put our own lives on the line to ensure those who use bereavement services get an excellent and professional service.
Unfortunately, despite our hard work and best efforts, the reward for most of the seasonal workers is a pay off.
What is even more upsetting is on the day I have been paid off Fife Council has advertised a job for a Piping Instructor paying £28,000-38,000.
Yes, they are looking to employ a bagpipe player.
I am often told there is no money to extend the seasonal gardening contracts but then jobs like the above are advertised.
If it was not that, it would be climate change officers or refugee outreach workers.
I think it is bang out of order that key workers and those from frontline services are being paid off and told that there is no money to extend their contracts or give them permanent positions, but there seems to be plenty of money to employ non-essential personnel such as those playing bagpipes.
Alastair Macintyre.
Webster Place,
Rosyth.
Whole country must not be Covid crippled
Sir, – With one simple statistic the credibility of the lockdowns and the other Draconian restrictions to fight Covid-19 has been destroyed – the average age of death from Covid-19 in England and Wales according to Office for National Statistics data is 82 years old.
It is no doubt only marginally lower in Scotland.
Most suffered from other medical conditions or co-morbidities as the medics call them. Many were both frail and demented.
We cannot afford to continue to cripple the economy and should not cancel exams for a disease that is the most marginal threat to children and healthy working age adults.
Otto Inglis.
Ansonhill,
Crossgates.
Same fate for all who break Covid-19 rules
Sir, – Much has been said about disgraced MP Margaret Ferrier.
There is no doubt she was foolish, rash, inconsiderate and behaved in a downright dangerous manner.
As a result she has left herself in an untenable position and surely must resign.
I call on her to do so, but not until Dominic Cummings is sacked and the Conservative MP for Darlington, Peter Gibson, resigns.
They both contravened Covid regulations in the same way as Ferrier and what’s good for one should be good for all.
Ade Cashley.
Dundee.
Single Chamber was an opportunity lost
Sir, – For the two centuries after the Enlightenment and the Imperial take-off there was a duality of identity north of the border: proud to be Scottish but even prouder to be British and part of a great intellectual, industrial and colonial experiment.
It would be wrong to say all that ended with Donald Dewar’s Holyrood: the Empire was gone and much of Scotland was an industrial graveyard.
Yet local democracy also died when it became clear devolution would stop at Edinburgh. In his first speech Dewar talked of a chamber echoing with “debate and passion” but his unicameral parliament put paid to that. Westminster can be inspiring – the Lords invariably better – but Holyrood always feels like a county council.
It was ludicrous to hope members might come from a wide background – it would always be swamped by public sector alumni.
That meant there was no possibility of the kind of fiscal, educational and health reforms worthy of Dewar’s dream.
This deficiency, more than its home’s design, was a huge opportunity lost.
Dr John Cameron.
Howard Place,
St Andrews.
