Madam, – Whilst I do not deny that the climate of the planet is continuing to warm up and the drastic consequences it will bring to coastal towns and villages in this country, what I do deny is that any measures taken by Holyrood or Westminster will make the slightest difference to the climate of this planet.
As long as China, India, the USA and all the developing countries continue in their huge increase of pollution worldwide, our contribution will change nothing.
We are taxing people and spending billions of pounds pretending that we as a tiny country can make a difference.
Yes, we can continue to try to improve our situation regarding our carbon footprint, but don’t kid the general population that their situation will change.
All the money spent is going to already wealthy people or companies to build wind farms, shred and burn our trees and research wave power.
We should be halving the amount spent on that route and spend huge amounts on research into how we as a human race are to survive these changes to our environment.
That would be a more realistic way to plan for the future.
Climate change has happened over millennia without any input from the human race and life has adapted through evolution to survive.
Evolution takes millions of years and we don’t have that time to wait.
Dave Stewart.
5 Main Street,
Luthermuir.
Rebrand for climate change
Madam, – Astronomer James Hanson kicked off the environmental apocalypse by telling the US Senate in 1988 that “global warming” caused by man-made CO2 would turn the earth into a new Venus by the end of the next century.
When a decade later global warming effectively ceased, it was rebranded “climate change”.
But it took an adolescent Swede to see “climate change” needed a makeover and it’s now the “climate crisis”.
The likes of the SNP can now excuse any administrative shambles by saying the leader was dealing with the imminent crisis.
Rev Dr John Cameron.
10 Howard Place,
St Andrews.
Status quo over Brexit deal
Madam, – With the talks between the Tories and Labour having broken down, with Theresa May unwilling to compromise even on Labour’s demand for a customs union and with the Conservative Party hopelessly divided and about to remove their leader, the country remains utterly split between Leavers who believe they have been betrayed and Remainers, who believe they were lied to, and that promises have not been kept.
Nigel Farage suggests the UK simply walks away with no deal, but this has been repeatedly rejected by Parliament, as the immediate consequence would be a rise in inflation and in food prices and a risk the UK would be forced to accept dangerously reduced food standards and quality.
We would all end up worse off, except perhaps for the right wingers in charge of the Brexit Party, who are rich enough not to have to worry.
Britain is divided and some politicians are doing their best to stoke divisions and widen this further.
But the country needs to be brought together.
The only party with a sensible alternative to Theresa May’s Brexit plan is Labour, who are trying to bring the country back together.
Their plan protects jobs, living standards and communities, invests in places left behind and puts an end to austerity.
If the government is confident the deal they have negotiated is the best one, they should put it to the public.
The deal or the status quo. We stay as we are.
Phil Tate.
95 Craiglockhart Road,
Edinburgh.
Politics from a bygone era
Madam, – The Conservatives continue to push a one nation agenda.
It is a policy doomed to failure, at least in Scotland. It smacks of a very dictatorial kind of politics from the Victorian era.
Many Scots feel they are Scottish and forcing them to be something other than that will only cause more division.
However, I do believe it is part of the Conservative agenda to undermine the elected government of Scotland and decrease its influence or try to dissolve it, which is probably what their one nation agenda means.
Bryan Auchterlonie.
Bluebell Cottage,
Perth.
Gaelic lost in translation
Madam, – Michael Alexander’s article on Gaelic (“A Gaelic voice for Scotland?”, Courier, May 21) contains the rather confusing statement “300 years after the routing of the Jacobites at Culloden made the Scots tongue illegal”.
I can only presume he means the Gaelic language rather than Scots.
But even this often repeated claim is completely untrue.
The Act of Proscription of 1746 – which came into force in 1747 – banned the private ownership of arms in the Highlands and certain aspects of Highland dress for men and boys.
The act did not ban Gaelic and indeed there is no mention of the language at all in the text.
I am also extremely sceptical about the claim in the same article that there was an indigenous Gaelic speaking community in Fife until the 1700s.
The church records of the time are written in Scots and there are few examples of specifically Gaelic forenames or surnames.
The considerable sums being spent on the promotion of Gaelic by central and local government show a poor sense of priorities at a time when key services such as schools, libraries, road maintenance, cleansing and recycling are being cut to the bone.
The purely invented artificial Gaelic translations of station and street signs shown by way of illustration to this article are a perfect example of just how unnecessary this expenditure is.
Robert Cairns.
Eastergate Cottage,
Harrietfield,
Perthshire.
Standards going down the pan
Madam, – The other day I was mildly irritated to find no toilet paper in the only loo at my local railway station, Gleneagles.
I was more irritated to find that according to the publicly displayed paper record card, it had allegedly just been replenished.
I made a note on the card in pencil – no toilet paper – timed and dated it, and hoped I had done some public service.
This morning I was met by two men in a ScotRail van who berated me for pointing out the defect.
These worthy servants of the railway told me they had 16 station toilets to attend to and if I continued to complain about Gleneagles, the station toilet there would simply be closed.
This incident is just one of many, I fear, that illustrates that something is badly wrong with ScotRail.
Tim Bugler.
Dunning,
Perthshire.
Shaky over milkshakes
Madam, – In the light of recent incidents, would it be an offence for people to turn up to public appearances of right wing politicians carrying empty milkshake containers?
It would certainly create uncertainty in the minds of security staff and police.
John Hein.
78 Montgomery Street,
Edinburgh.
