Sir, – Alister Rankine is concerned that the millions our royal family cost us annually is wasted (letters, August 2).
However that money is dwarfed by the annual cost of billions for our obviously futile, token “greenery” Climate Change Acts, in the forlorn hope of influencing nations worldwide to curb greenhouse gas, notably CO2 output by decarbonising.
Likewise, the many millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money wasted on near-useless renewables dependent on “sunshine and breezes”, mainly wind.
These produce – very disappointingly and intermittently – a tiny proportion of our electricity generation, often well under 5%, whatever the wind turbine promoters may claim.
In real life, foreign manufacturers and workers and our rich landowners are the major beneficiaries from wind-powered renewables, while our environment and flying wildlife suffer.
The cost of foreign aid, as a fixed proportion of our national earnings, irrespective of need, also makes expenditure on the royals small beer.
Meanwhile, our annual subscriptions to the EU, in billions, plus Mrs May’s offer of a £39 billion “divorce settlement” are far from modest.
The royal family represents, I believe, good value for money, especially in helping tourism and cheering up non-republicans in ways unavailable with a non-executive, worthy but probably dull, Head of State.
Charles Wardrop.
111 Viewlands Rd West, Perth.
Early testing is a good idea
Sir, – When is the teachers’ union going to come out openly and support the government at Holyrood over trying to raise educational standards in our schools, thus putting an end to Willie Rennie and his cohorts from spreading this nonsense that tests for five-year-olds are not only wrong but unnecessary?
I am pleased that the government has introduced early learning.
If a child, when they finally start primary, does not grasp the basics of reading and writing their peers will run off and leave them behind, and if this is not picked up at five then they may switch off altogether and leave school with a reading and writing age of a six or seven-year-old.
This will handicap that child all the way into adulthood, they will have difficulty finding a job and not be able to write a letter, fill out a form or have any real confidence during interviews.
They will be blighted for life, as will their offspring, as they will likely have low wage, zero hour contract jobs and are unlikely to be able to offer the kind of financial stability and good start a family needs.
On the TV news recently a young mother said her son was so upset over having to take a test that she refused to let him take the test, instead assuring him that it did not matter how good or bad he did on the test, no one is going to chastise you.
That is hardly the right attitude.
That small child may indeed need extra help, but will slip through the net if this is not spotted early on.
And whose fault will that be?
Not the likes of Willie Rennie as they will be long gone.
These politicians are merely trying to further their own careers by simply bleating that everything the SNP do is bad.
They are playing politics at the expense of our children’s education.
Walter Hamilton.
Flat 3,
City Park,
St Andrews.
Dementia the biggest fear
Sir, – When I entered the parish ministry half a century ago, if a parishioner expressed a health fear it was usually that there was cancer in the family and some day that grim reaper might come calling.
By the time my career ended a decade ago, this had been replaced by the fear that he might not come calling and they would live on to get dementia.
Rev Dr John Cameron.
10 Howard Place,
St Andrews.
Affordable homes needed
Sir, – Derek Farmer questions the suggestion, presumably of Fife Council, to take action to limit the number of “second homes”, and “short-term letting”, in parts of Fife where housing for local people to live is in short supply (letters, August 1).
Presumably he thinks that it is fine for Fife, as it is for parts of London, and areas in the Highlands, for housing to be owned by absentee landlords, for investment, or occasional holidays, to the extent that local people cannot afford to live there.
He blames Fife Council for “failure to provide sufficient housing stock for residents of Fife”, ignoring the fact that it was Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s government which legislated that council housing stock should be sold off for a song, with the money raised going into central government coffers, rather than being used to provide replacement houses for the people of Fife, a policy which has now been ended, in Scotland, by the Scottish Government.
Mr Farmer then goes on to blame the SNP for allowing “uncontrolled immigration (which will) see more residents who will require housing …because the Scottish economy needs them, or so we are led to believe”.
Well I would suggest that Mr Farmer should read the same day’s letter from fruit farmer Debbie Porter, which explains very eloquently why Scotland does indeed desperately need foreign workers.
Les Mackay.
5 Carmichael Gardens, Dundee.
Little room for manoeuvre
Sir, – Adnan Shahzad expresses his sadness at the large amount of press attention received by Muslims committing terrorist acts (letters, August 2).
The simple reason for this is that, for at least the past two decades, almost every terrorist act has been committed by Muslims.
Mr Shahzad claims that “terrorists are willing to die for the attention they crave”.
However, in making this claim he is surely ignoring the fact that it is impossible to appreciate attention after you are dead.
So that cannot be the driving force behind their actions.
Rather, the perpetrators declare their reason as they commit the act with the cry “Allahu akbar”.
This is very often mistranslated in English as “God is great” but I believe it actually means “Allah is greater”, that is “greater than your God or whatever you believe in”.
The Ahmadiyya community which Mr Shahzad belongs to is considered heretical by many in mainstream Islam.
Their efforts to reform the religion and follow a more peaceful version are admirable.
However, the source writings of Koran, Hadith and Sunna leave little room for manoeuvre.
In fact the encouragement of enmity towards “infidels” is there in black and white and, in orthodox Islam, cannot be overridden.
Angela Rennie.
88 Muirfield Crescent,
Dundee.
Banks missing the point
Sir, – The formulaic mechanical intonation “the way people choose to bank is changing” is solemnly repeated by banks every time there are protests against yet another branch closure.
However, this wilfully disregards the fact that if that were indeed the case, then nobody would be objecting.
In fact there is still a need for, and will be for the foreseeable future, the facility to lodge cash and cheques.
These things, with the best will in the world, cannot be done via the world wide web or over a telephone.
For that reason, Bank of Scotland’s announcement of a “counterless branch”’ in Cupar is a cynical exercise to avoid the charge of closure, even although because there will be no cash or cheque facilities, the effect will be much the same.
I fear that if banks continue to ignore the existence of cash users, many people will be forced to deposit their money into another bank, the sort shaped like a pig with a slot in the back.
Jane Ann Liston.
5 Whitehill Terrace,
Largo Road,
St Andrews.