Sir,- I applaud columnist Jim Crumley for reminding Perth councillors of their one-time desire to remove the City Hall and replace it with a public square suited to a modern, dynamic 21st Century community.
Yet, almost overnight, we are told the defunct building is, instead, to be a cultural venue – even though millions have been allocated to creating Perth’s cultural hub in an altogether different place (Mill Street).
The report to council states it will provide a centre for “visual arts” – despite the free attractions of Perth Art Gallery and the Fergusson Gallery struggling to attract visitors.
The council’s own figures for 2014 showed there were only 31,698 visitors to council funded, or part-funded, museums and galleries.
It was half the number set as a target by the council.
Yet you report the City Hall will attract 160,000 “extra visitors” per year. More than the McManus in Dundee, with its Titian masterpiece, Leonardo’s drawings, Roman treasures from the British Museum and Cecil Beaton’s royal portraits?
Fat chance.
And who would pay to build and run this cultural oasis? The taxpayer?
Local authorities up and down the country are running away from revenue funding old buildings refurbished as cultural/artistic centres simply as a means to preserve them.
I do respect the views of your handful of older correspondents who support the retention of the hall, but nostalgia is no substitute for realism.
The City Hall is fit for no purpose now – or a smart developer would have come in for it over the 20 years, not 10, it has been surplus to requirements.
Let it go – and let’s move on. Visionary Perth needs a pulsating new heart.
Dr Norman Watson.
6 Glebe Terrace,
Perth.
All is forgiven, Sir Ming!
Sir,- Willie Rennie really is a misery.
At a time when thousands of Fifers are hoping to put some food on the table this Christmas thanks to Amazon’s seasonal work (October 5) he says it’s no reason to celebrate and moans about the tax they pay and the wages they offer.
Mr Rennie needs a bit of cold, wet and hungry on no wages before he complains that the minimum wage is not enough.
Amazon pay exactly the same amount of tax as you and I, Mr Rennie, the amount that HMRC say we must.
No more, no less.
If you think the rates need changing then you are in the best position to do it, being a serving member of the legislative assembly that sets the rates.
Similarly, if you think the minimum wage is too low, you are the one who sits in the chamber that sets it.
Mr Rennie should spend less time getting his name in the papers and more in working for his constituents, of whom I have the misfortune to be one.
Come back Sir Ming, all is forgiven.
Laurie Richards.
100 Crail Road,
Cellardyke.
Seeing and hearing children
Sir,- Due to my car requiring attention at the garage I recently found myself travelling on the 16:05 bus from Dundee to Errol – little did I know what I had let myself in for.
A large group of school children boarded at Whitehall Street and proceeded to take over the rear of the vehicle.
A heated discussion ensued, shouted over the heads of the other passengers, the gist of which was that pupil A’s mobile phone was not as “cool” as pupil B’s.
These were children of no more than 13 or 14, but the language used would have caused a docker or Regimental Sergeant Major to blush.
I have been around on this planet for a long time and am not naïve, but I cannot recall ever having heard such coarse words so casually uttered in a public situation such as this.
Even the worst, most derogatory word of all was tossed about – even more disappointing given that young girls were present in the group.
The most shocking aspect of this incident is that these were students of Dundee High School.
Perhaps such behaviour could be expected from a certain cohort of state school children, but the parents of these High School boys and girls send them to this institution in order for them to rise above the morass of the rest of society.
Two sayings from my childhood come to mind as I write this – children should be seen and not heard, and empty vessels make the most noise.
I suggest both these maxims are as pertinent today as they ever were.
Mary Pierce.
Southlands.
Errol.
Festival of Remembrance
Sir,- I would like to remind your readers of the Royal British Legion Scotland’s Festival of Remembrance in the Caird Hall, Dundee, on November 5.
This is a special year, as it is the centenary of the battles of Jutland and of the Somme, giving us an opportunity to recall those many who lost their lives in that conflict and in other wars since.
The programme features the Central Band of the Royal British Legion Scotland, the Perth and District Pipe Band, and an ecumenical Act of Remembrance.
Popular tenor Billy Naismith will entertain with his own selection of songs, and singer-songwriter Amy Hawthorn will launch a new release dedicated to service personnel and veterans.
Tickets costing £5 are available from Dundee City Box Office on 01382 434940 or from www.dundeebox.co.uk.
Col Alasdair Maclean.
6 Clive Street,
Dundee.
A depressing speech by PM
Sir,- Having been in the United States for the last couple of weeks I thought nothing could be more depressing than the two presidential candidates setting out their tawdry wares in debate.
However, reading Theresa May’s conference speech on the plane home came close with her Trumpish rhetoric on immigrants and her Clintonish misrepresentation of political reality.
I suspect her next demagogic rant will include the Salmondesque “rocks will melt in the sun” before any Johnny Foreigner from the EU dictates migration policies to our vicar’s daughter.
She claims Britain will again be an “independent sovereign state” (which should be a neat trick) and “have no truck with the European Court of Justice” (which is ominous and troubling).
With every passing day her Brexit gets harder and meaner, so warbling on about placing “the power of the state at the service of ordinary working class people” is just a meretricious sham.
Rev Dr John Cameron.
10 Howard Place,
St Andrews.
Embarrassing for Dugdale
Sir,—The leader of the Tories in Scotland, Ruth Davidson, joined hands with the leaders of Labour, the Lib Dems and Greens, and agreed to vote against the SNP over council tax plans.
Unfortunately one leader forgot to press the “no” button and their carefully planned ruse failed. This attempted coup failed by one vote!
Did Kezia Dugdale not know every vote in Holyrood is logged and very soon everyone in Scotland would know she had not voted?
Why has no one asked why she did not vote? It was reported on TV but not in The Courier or other newspapers.
Now Ruth Davidson repeats the Unionist slogan that the SNP do not have the voters behind them. She also claims Scotland does not want another referendum. If that is the case why keep repeating it?
Just have another vote and when they win again that will be the end of it!
In the meantime Ms Davidson might give the voters her interpretation of democracy? SNP 56, Tory 1, Lib Dems 1, Labour 1 and others 0.
As for Holyrood, they will get their act together some day but when the SNP became the largest party they lost a few votes in the chamber but at the next election won more than tens of thousands of votes.
At the fiasco when Ms Dugdale forgot to vote the cheerleaders were the Lib Dems and Greens, who saw their chance to be important MSPs. Goodbye to all of them at the next election, and the Labour Party will suffer even more humiliation.
If in any future vote the Unionists get together to rebel against the SNP, Davidson and Dugdale will be held to ransom by the Lib Dems and/or Greens.
That is democracy.
Tom Black
83 Lawside Road,
Dundee.