Sir, It would appear the SNP in their foraging to increase the possibility of a “yes” vote at the forthcoming referendum will empower young people aged 16 plus to have a national vote.
I do believe there are a number of young people who do take an interest in the running of the country and the political scene in general. However, I also believe that they are a small minority.
Nevertheless, should the law be passed, as I’m sure it will, it raises the question that if someone is deemed to be mature enough to make a decision on the future of our country should they not also be mature enough to sit on a jury?
This then opens up all sorts of questions. For example, would pupils eligible to be jurors be allowed time off school to attend court? Should they make judgments on trials involving all manner of crimes, including motoring offences when they themselves are not old enough to take a driving test or receive insurance cover as in the main they are deemed by insurance companies to be too reckless and immature.
I admit there are most probably some adults who fall short of the standard expected on a jury but at least they may have had a chance to see a bit of life and hopefully time to mature.
D R Anderson. Seafield Road, Broughty Ferry.
Plenty money for other things
Sir, We have a government bent on bringing this country to its knees with all the cuts and taxes we have been burdened with. Yet it can still offer to send help to other countries in their fight for a better way of life.
Are all the cuts and taxes we are suffering not supposed to be helping to put this country back on its feet? Apparently not, it’s so we can send aid to other countries.
No matter which government it is, whether it be the London government or the Edinburgh one, we are being treated with contempt.
There always seems to be plenty of money for annual events, meetings, overseas visits, building projects and so on, things that most of us will never benefit from.
This whole country is being made to believe that it is for the country’s best that we get on the right track. As for the splitting of Scotland from the rest of the UK, this is just one man’s dream which we have now seen is all falling apart with the release of the details on how the country would rely on the future of the risky price of oil to run an independent Scotland.
I am as Scottish as the next person, but I hope people make the right choice on the way forward for Scotland for it to survive and prosper in the future.
Ali Aitken. 3 Lamb Terrace, Arbroath.
Christianity is in decline
Sir, David Robertson (Letters, March 14), should accept we no longer have a Christian education system in Scotland and that we are all much better off for it.
I am sure he would object vociferously if taxpayer-funded schools or teachers were allowed to promote a particular political viewpoint or party. The religious parallel is obvious.
The role of state schools and their teachers is to educate and the Christian church for too long enjoyed a privileged position within Scottish education which permitted it to reinforce its elevated position in society.
I am getting rather tired of unsupported claims that secular society discriminates against Christians. For two millennia Christianity has persecuted and discriminated against non-believers, so-called heretics and half the human race.
The truth now is that western Christianity is in terminal decline and its institutional power and influence are waning, a situation its various hierarchies are unable to accept and appear unwilling to adjust to.
Instead they now respond by crying discrimination. Opposition to the redefinition of marriage is the latest example of this.
The proposal to redefine marriage is not, as Mr Robertson would have us believe, discrimination or the imposition of an absolutist state morality.
It is an adjustment, an equalisation of the law to include a minority who for too long have been subjected to extreme religious and social prejudice, a prejudice which has the support of only a minority of those who call themselves Christian.
Meanwhile, the secular campaign against religious privilege and its over-weighted influence on political institutions and the democratic process must continue.
M Duncan. 100 Craigie Road, Perth.
Usual supine coverage
Sir, The elevation of Pope Francis has received the usual supine unquestioning media coverage and been hailed by heads of government around the world.
We are told as cardinal of Buenos Aires he took public transport, lived in an apartment and cooked his own meals. Remarkable achievements.
Missing from the coverage were any serious questions that have been raised in Argentina about Cardinal Bergoglio’s role within the church during the military’s rule between 1976 and 1983.
During this time an estimated 30,000 left-wing opponents of the junta were “disappeared” in a US-backed “dirty war”.
Alan Hinnrichs. 2 Gillespie Terrace, Dundee.
Bizarre home rule call
Sir, I had to check it was not April Fool’s Day when I read of Tavish Scott’s call for home rule for Orkney and Shetland (March 18). For a party which apparently wants home rule for the Northern Isles it is bizarre that this was not in the Menzies Campbell Home Rule Commission Report which came out in October last year.
It is also at odds with Mr Scott’s call that recommendation 31 of the Campbell report is to keep oil and gas revenue at Westminster. In eight years in administration at Holyrood Mr Scott was also rather quiet in terms of demanding such powers for Orkney and Shetland.
All is not lost and the Liberal Democrats have the power to do this now at Westminster where Mr Scott’s colleagues are in administration. However, this does not appear to be forthcoming.
Mr Scott also says that his preferred model would be that Shetland and Orkney could become a “crown dependency” run like the Isle of Man, which is a self-governing territory with its own parliament outside the UK. However, the Isle of Man has a 12-mile limit on its territorial waters which if applied to Shetland would mean the islands would have limited claim to any oil or gas.
Alex Orr. Flat 2, 77 Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh.
Beavers have to be controlled
Sir I was a member of a study group funded by ARCH network that visited Bavaria in October last year to study beavers and beaver management. The report can be found online under www.archnetwork.eu.
I have no doubt that beavers can be seen as an asset in the general biodiversity of our landscape. However, proper management will have to be a priority, with the associated costs which could easily run to a seven-figure annual sum.
The building of dams will have a detrimental affect on all migratory fish and result in localised flooding. Beavers will burrow into flood banks, substantially weakening them. Through time they will spread into urban areas, affecting local drainage, canals, fisheries etc.
Don’t underestimate the potential problems that will occur if they are not properly controlled.
Jim Perrett Dunning.
Their habitat no longer exists
Sir, I read Louise Ramsay’s comments about beavers in Scotland (Letters, March 18), with interest. Beavers may have indeed been native to Scotland at one point, but in the words of the song: “those days are past now”.
When beavers were indigenous to Scotland its human population was a fraction of what exists today and most of our country was covered in dense forest the perfect habitat for beavers.
Can she not see that the habitat that would have once easily supported them is now largely gone, and that to reintroduce a species (illegally, I might remind her) whose environment has been largely eradicated by the human population is entirely short-sighted?
Her comments that beavers can benefit wetland species may be true but what of us? In this era of climate change, is the introduction of a species which actively creates wetland going to help our current flooding problem? Of course it isn’t, and to try to convince us of their benefits to local wildlife is ignoring the bigger picture something which wildlife protection groups excel at.
I personally live on a stretch of watercouse inhabited by beavers and have so far lost several trees it took many years to establish. Having spent those years establishing my garden, primarily to encourage birds and other wildlife into it, I now find that this habitat is threatened by an animal which has no place in this country as it exists today, let alone one that was reintroduced in a controlled or legal fashion.
I wonder if Louise, or any other of the members of the Scottish Wild Beaver Group, has been personally subjected to the destruction these animals are causing, or, as I suspect, do most of them live in towns, well away from the real issues facing most people now forced to deal with this new menace to their environment?
Colin Johnston. Newmill of Castleton, By Eassie.
Fears confirmed
Sir, For several weeks the citizens in central Dundee have heard rumours that the Marchbanks recycling centre might be closed.
The well-informed letter to The Courier (March 15) from Colin McLeod on the subject of this proposed closure confirms our fears. How can such a well ordered service to the town be discarded?
I have heard many citizens express the same fears about trouble ahead if this cannot be reconsidered and changed.
Dr Norma H Smith. 7 Adelaide Terrace, Dundee.