Sir, – In reply to Jim Crumley’s article (July 18) on the Beauly beavers, both Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Scottish Government knew about beavers in the wild in that area as far back as 2010 when they tried to remove the Beauly and Tayside beavers.
The instructions to SNH at the time were to “capture all the beavers on Tayside and in Inverness- shire” (FOI information obtained by Scottish Wild Beaver Group, 2011).
Beauly is in Inverness- shire. There is no information in the public domain regarding whether any beavers up there were caught or not, but the likelihood is that none were caught.
In that case, and given that there are young there now, how many beavers are actually in the Beauly area? Probably more than anyone knows about.
We should leave the Beauly beavers alone.
If anyone wonders were they actually came from, and assuming they didn’t come down the river in a bubble, the most likely source is the private collection in that area, although no one can know that for sure.
The bottom line here is that if people didn’t want these animals in the wild, they shouldn’t have let anyone keep them in the first place.
It is a complete failure of regulation. No further explanation is required. Too late now.
Victor Clements.
Native Woodland Advice,
Mamie’s Cottage.
Taybridge Terrace,
Aberfeldy.
Behavioural consequences
Sir, – Not for the first time, your correspondent Rev Dr John Cameron (July 14) denies that the Bible condemns homosexuality.
This is nonsense as the Old and New Testaments make clear.
In fact, God calls it an abomination, and unlike opinion polls over the last two decades on the issue, He does not change.
The Bible goes further and warns that sexual sin defiles the land (Leviticus chapter 18), and the evidence of this is the fact that today’s youth now experience the bitter consequences of a generation of immorality.
Moral boundaries and truth are no longer clear, for example, in the realm of television, popular music, politics and sadly even in the enforcement of the law, education and religion.
What a transformation this country would experience if our conscience were once again awakened and we believed: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119, verse 105).
Stuart Wishart.
12 Walnut Grove,
Blairgowrie.
One-child policy on horizon?
Sir, – Scientists from Sweden’s Lund University have said that not having children can help save the planet.
They say that in a developed country not having a child would lead to a reduction of 58.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
They get lucrative research grants for stating the obvious.
Any savings in the West would be overwhelmed by the huge population increase in global terms.
Today the world population is 7.5 billion, in 2030 it will be 8.5 billion, in 2050 9.7 billion and 11.2 billion by 2100.
Developing countries want the West’s standards so their emissions will soon dramatically increase.
No doubt Western climate-change zealots will seize on the report to demand action similar to China and its one-child policy.
Clark Cross.
138 Springfield Road,
Linlithgow.
Let more cross new bridge
Sir, – It strikes me that if Elton John were to announce a concert then find that ticket applications were oversubscribed by a factor of five, his management team would pretty smartly put on some extra dates to satisfy that demand.
And so it is with the Queensferry Crossing. This beautiful bridge will hopefully be around for the next 100 years or more.
Its opening is already months behind schedule.
It would make no real difference for it to open a few days later to allow the thousands of local residents on both sides – who have endured the congestion and disruption its construction has caused to enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to walk across the magnificent structure they have watched emerge from the River Forth.
Come on Transport Scotland, make our day.
Callum Spreng.
1 Gallowhill Road,
Kinross.
Tory civil war hurting public
Sir, – From self-proclaimed strong and stable, the Tory cabinet has quickly descended in a matter of weeks to being weak and wobbly as cabinet ministers ferociously brief against each other.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, is now firmly in the firing line, claiming that public sector workers are overpaid as he rebuffs advances to end the 1% pay cap. This is even though the incomes of five million of them have fallen since the Tories came to power.
Well, as the Chancellor said: “driving a train is so easy a woman could do it”.
This from a man who has to endure a salary of a mere £143,000 per annum, plus a free house and chauffeur-driven limousine.
In the year since Mr Hammond has been Chancellor, so well has he performed that the UK has slumped to the bottom of the league of G7 industrial countries in terms of economic growth.
North of the border our economic news is a little rosier, with growth in the first quarter of 2017 at 0.8%, four times that of the UK as a whole, confounding those gleefully awaiting a Scottish recession and to be able to criticise the “failing” Scottish Government.
As this was not the case, it was the “broad shoulders of the UK” according to the doomsayers, that led to this growth.
The Tory Government is in total meltdown at one of the crucial moments in the UK’s political history, as we negotiate Brexit.
Our public sector, indeed all of us, deserve better than being caught in the middle of a Tory civil war, reinforcing their already woeful performance.
Alex Orr.
Flat Two,
77 Leamington Terrace,
Edinburgh.