Sir, – It was with some disappointment that I read in The Courier last Thursday how weather conditions had scuppered the proposed flight of Britain’s only surviving AVRO Lancaster for the Battle of Britain memorial flight.
The plan had, of course, been to honour the Dambusters raid on May 16 1943.
I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the men who served with such distinction during wartime.
One whose RAF career readily comes to mind is former group captain Hamish Mahaddie who was so associated with the establishment of the famous pathfinders who helped identify and mark intended targets with their flares.
I well remember Mr Mahaddie recalling the wonderful sight of brilliant moonlit clouds below his Lancaster as he returned to safer skies following a mission.
It seemed to represent a scene of peace and serenity so at contrast with the human tragedy of war.
Meeting such people was always an inspiring experience and I sincerely hope they will always be remembered.
People like Mr Mahaddie and Johnnie Johnson were real characters and left a huge impression on all who were fortunate enough to meet them.
The current generations are fortunate indeed in that they will never know wars like these people, for whom it was a huge feature of their life.
We continue to owe those who went before us such a huge debt of gratitude.
Thomas Brown.
18 Garry Place,
Bankfoot.
Poverty is not responsible
Sir, – In your article, “Poverty to blame for crisis in classrooms” (Courier, May 18), teacher Kevin Campbell claims that “deprivation” and “the intolerable burden of poverty” are the main reasons for the poor behaviour of many school pupils.
He claims that this in turn is causing severe problems in both the recruitment and retention of teachers.
However, I would beg to differ.
I am sure all of your readers have seen images of spotlessly presented African children sitting – all facing the front – in classrooms which here would barely pass muster as barns.
Each one appears keen to be there, the teacher has their undivided attention and they are ever eager to be called upon to answer a question.
They may have no shoes and have walked miles to be there.
Some will perhaps have been up for several hours helping with family chores before school.
Yet each child seems to appreciate the precious gift they are being given by having the opportunity of gaining an education which will enable them to find a decent job and earn a good living.
Poverty is, in these cases, not a hindrance to education or a cause of bad behaviour but rather a driving force as it offers the only opportunity these children have to help themselves and their families out of their deprived circumstances.
Similar scenes of eagerness to learn are to be found in many other countries, particularly those in Asia.
Also, in this country, a few generations ago, when there was genuine poverty and no state help, the situation was the same.
The teacher had the full attention of the class (or if he/she didn’t there would be unpleasant consequences) and education was prized by pupils and their parents as the way out of the poor conditions in which they found themselves.
Poverty therefore, cannot be the reason for poor behaviour in classrooms. Indeed, what counts as poverty here would in most parts of the world be considered a fairly high standard of living.
So there must be some other cause of the “crisis in classrooms” described in your article.
I have my own ideas.
It would be interesting to know what other readers think.
Angela Rennie.
88 Muirfield Crescent,
Dundee.
Criminals give up their rights
Sir, – Holyrood’s equalities and human rights committee has backed the proposal from MSP Patrick Harvie that prisoners in Scottish jails should be entitled to vote.
Would that be to vote as part of a society with civilised values which these criminals rejected when they committed their crimes?
As MSPs sit in their ivory tower there is a rising wave of violence and abuse against hospital staff across the Scottish NHS with more than 16,500 physical and verbal attacks.
Meanwhile, Scotland is facing a growing menace from organised crime with more than 3000 gangsters and nearly 170 crime syndicates.
The SNP soft touch stance on criminals and sentencing makes a mockery of justice for the victims.
We need a strict sentencing and prison regime with no frills that will ensure that offenders, once released, will have no desire to return.
Scottish MSPs must squash this proposal or face the wrath of the electorate.
Clark Cross.
138 Springfield Road,
Linlithgow.
UK and US must take the blame
Sir, – Last week we had wall to wall coverage by the director of MI5 Andrew Parker.
His speech featured more unsubstantiated allegations that Russia used chemical weapons on the streets of the UK and that Russia allowed their ally Assad to “allegedly” uses chemical weapons on the people of Iraq.
This cannot be allowed, he told us.
Despite Mr Parker’s warning, it is America and their partner in crime the British and not Russia that have been the biggest threat to world peace since the Second World War and they still are. Try selling oil in any currency other than the petrol dollar and we will destroy you and put a puppet government in to run your country.
The legacy of the Iraq wars, in which the UK Government was fully complicit, has included leaving men women and children to die prematurely from cancers, the culprit being depleted uranium from munitions used during the Iraq wars, yet still the US vetoes any attempt by the UN to have the sanctions lifted (these have been in place since the 1990s).
Iraq cannot buy the drugs it requires in order to treat these cancers or the means of cleaning up their lands from the deadly depleted uranium.
Even the little they received in the ‘Food for Oil’ programme was a sham since the lion’s share went to pay the UN.
Whitewash it as much as you like, use Russia as a diversionary tactic but in the end, it was the US/UK who attacked the Iraqi people with chemical weapons (depleted uranium) under the pretext that Iraq had the capacity to launch a chemical weapons attack on the West.
How ironic was that?
We all know these are war crimes but never will any US or UK leader be dragged into court.
Surely it is now time for UK citizens to wake up to the truth.
Walter Hamilton.
Flat 3, City Park,
City Road,
St Andrews.
Return is likely to backfire
Sir, – Some in the independence movement will be delighted to hear that Alex Salmond used his “declaration of Morningside” to announce he would return to the fray of frontline politics for Indyref2.
Yet perhaps they should be careful what they wish for.
I suspect Nicola Sturgeon will be less than overjoyed at the thought of having such a divisive figure playing a prominent role during any future campaigning, not least because of the risk that he will tend to drift off from a carefully honed SNP party line.
As for those who value Scotland’s place in the UK, while most will hopefully need no new incentive, the prospect of Alex Salmond as a Scottish republic’s first president will surely fire up everyone’s enthusiasm.
Keith Howell.
White Moss,
West Linton.
Choice is being taken away
Sir, – We are now being controlled in our lives more than ever as to what we can do by governments.
This regards eating (salt, sugar, fats,), drinking (minimum pricing, no multi-buys) and gambling with our own money,
Yet I would like to think that we are sensible enough to know our own minds.
We are now so controlled by the state that I’m beginning to think that George Orwell’s 1984 needs to be republished as 2018.
Eric Travers.
38 Gellatly Road,
Dunfermline.
