Sir, – I have read that the collective financial spend by the UK’s citizens over Christmas was circa £7.5 billion and that much of it is on credit, which will not be cleared till the summer.
However, even if everyone stopped spending at Christmas and this sizeable sum were applied to the reduction of our £1.6 trillion national debt, it would take 213 years to match it.
I write ‘match it’ because, despite this sacrifice, it would not wipe it out.
Far from it, because the interest on our debt of £50 billion per annum over 213 years would amount to another £10.65 trillion.
Mustering all its financial acumen, the Westminster Government has a solution: it is going to borrow more. How abominably clever!
Perhaps the national debt will, in future, be measured in light years.
Even more worrying is the huge quantity of weapons of mass destruction currently stored at Faslane, a few miles from our largest centre of population.
The Tories, with many supporters in the Labour Party including Jeremy Corbyn, are apparently determined to renew the package.
A major step toward diminishing the national debt would be to close at least some of the loopholes which enable the mega rich to pay little or no tax.
A further step would be to cancel the renewal of Trident, which would also be a step toward sanity.
Too much to hope for in 2018? I fear so on both counts.
Joseph G Miller.
44 Gardeners Street,
Dunfermline.
Reasons to be cheerful in 2018
Sir, – I was somewhat disappointed to read Dr Anne Smith’s letter (Courier, December 21) bemoaning the fact that there will be other buildings around the V&A, spoiling the view, but, along the way, castigating our local authority for ‘short sighted stupidity…lack of imagination…being pathetic’, and suggesting that ‘Dundee is seen by other Scottish cities as down-market and unworthy of the V&A’.
Well, Dundee may well be seen as such by other Scottish cities, but it is certainly not seen in that light by the prestigious American business newspaper the Wall Street Journal, which recently described Dundee as ‘Scotland’s coolest city’, and placed it at number five in its list of ‘must visit places in the world’ in 2018.
Nor was it seen in such a way by the judges of the UK City of Culture award 2017, which had Dundee in its final shakedown, where it was only pipped at the post by Hull, a decision widely seen as based on the fact that Dundee was so far ahead in the cultural stakes that it didn’t really need this recognition.
Nor indeed was this a factor in Dundee’s bid to be 2023 European Capital of Culture, where it would have been a very realistic candidate if the UK’s entries hadn’t been disqualified on the basis of Brexit.
It was also in the top seven most intelligent cities in the world identified by a New York think tank in 2008.
Dr Smith tells us that she arrived in Dundee as a student in the 1960s, and talks about the terrible state of the city at that time: I too came to Dundee as a student in the ’60s, and well remember getting off the train for the first time and being appalled by the state of the city – derelict buildings, piles of rubble, like London after the blitz, with a demolition contractor as lord provost.
If anybody had suggested then that Dundee might be recognised by the world in the ways I have mentioned above, they would have been laughed at.
So, I would suggest that Dundee City Council, along with their partners in Dundee’s renaissance over the decades, have done a very good job of revitalising what was then a poor and unappealing place – a better job, I would say, than those other cities which Dr Smith suggests look down upon us.
And, talking about renaissance, I remember the first time I visited Florence, where the highlight of my visit was seeing the wonderful Cathedral, set in its square, surrounded by buildings.
I turned a corner, and there it was – a vision I will never forget, filling the end of a dark, shady street with its golden, sunlit beauty.
Such might be Union Street and the V&A.
Les Mackay.
5 Carmichael Gardens,
Dundee.
Questioning council motives
Sir, – Whoever runs Angus council, it’s certainly not the elected councillors who, when seeking election, make grand promises of listening to the people but when elected appear to leave most of their critical faculties and commitment at home.
It appears that they are all struck down with Stockholm syndrome and rendered incapable of comment or criticism of decisions made by unelected council officers.
Every week, as reported in The Courier, we have another example where the wishes of the people are ignored for what the council officers refer to as the greater good.
In Carnoustie a golden opportunity for local business to get some well needed cash was thrown away by the agreement between Angus council officers and the Open management.
To corral the visitors in order to maximise profit should have been a non-starter.
Carnoustie golf course has been turned from an asset to a liability – only allowed to happen because there was no representation of the Carnoustie people by our councillors.
Some think that this was by design, myself included.
The latest affront to the Angus electorate is the proposed demolition of the Damacre School to build well needed social housing when there is a much better site lying derelict crying out for demolition.
This decision to demolish the Damacre centre to build affordable homes is a red herring.
The overriding purpose is to demolish a good building well liked by Brechiners in order to get it off council books and force community groups to use the £26 million pound community hub – a facility that is so expensive few can afford it.
Angus council has used the proposal for the end use of the Damacre site for affordable housing in the hope that no one would object and that it would therefore be more easily slipped past.
Stewart Ball for Angus council said in support of the demolition that the building has no significant architectural or historic interest. I, and indeed many Brechin folk, would strongly disagree.
The fact that the man who won the Second World War and saved Europe from fascism was born in Brechin and had his genius kindled in Damacre school would be reason alone for his admirers worldwide to object to the demolition.
That is the building’s architectural and historical merit – Angus Council will rue the day.
Rab Alexander.
39 Barry Road,
Carnoustie.
Supply teachers a complex case
Sir, – Lib Dem MSP Tavish Scott has stated that £81 million is spent annually on supply teachers, and that there are 800 full-time vacancies.
The issue of supply teachers in Scotland predates the SNP and is very complex, but from being a well paid, flexible method of covering absences, maternity leave and local shortages it has become the emergency hatch for a system bedevilled by years of bad planning, bad management and teacher demotivation.
The bottom line is it is a waste of money.
It costs an average of £40,000 to employ a teacher (including National Insurance and pension contributions), so recruiting 800 full-timers would cost £32 million, a saving of almost £50 million – if they were available.
You could even double their pay and still save £17 million.
Over to you, First Minister.
Allan Sutherland.
1 Willow Row,
Stonehaven.
High praise for Ninewells
Sir, – As all the news about the NHS seems to focus on missed targets and so on, I would like to tell you about my 82-year-old aunt’s experience .
On Christmas Eve, in Brechin, she had a bad fall.
It was decided she would need to be taken to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
An ambulance arrived within half an hour and she was attended to very quickly by a doctor. She was then provided with tea and toast by a nurse.
When she was pronounced fit enough to leave, a nurse spent time ringing round to get a taxi to take her home.
Throughout the whole experience she was treated kindly and with compassion.
Bravo Ninewells Hospital and the NHS.
E Ferguson.
6 Bogsmill Road,
Edinburgh.
