The letters week begins by focusing on inflation faced by the elderly, our energy supply, corporation tax, freedom, and Lockerbie.
Greedy bankers driving elderly to breadline
Sir,-In 2008, Dundee’s Alliance Trust outraged Gordon Brown by pointing out that real inflation faced by pensioners in the UK was around 8% and rising.
An OAP retail prices index “basket” needs basics like electricity and groceries (whose prices are soaring) and should not be distorted by dramatically cheaper electronics.
When Brown’s boom ended in the inevitable bust, he demanded lenders cut the cost of credit for young borrowers and allowed elderly savers’ rates to be slashed.
Our banks and building societies treated their pensioner customers, brought up in an era when loyalty was a virtue, with scornful disdain because today, loyalty is for mugs.
George Osborne has inherited a mess but nothing is more distasteful than bankers demanding obscene bonuses while driving their elderly customers on to the breadline.
(Dr) John Cameron.10 Howard Place,St Andrews.
Shale gas security hope
Sir,-After years of gas scarcity fears, it is predicted that we now have at least 200 years’ worth of worldwide supplies.
The extraction of shale gas in the United States has helped break the dominance of Russia in the natural gas market.
A new technique called fracking has allowed the extraction of gas from previously impermeable shale. It is also being extracted in other parts of North America, Asia and Australia.
Shale gas could now provide half of US demand and help moderate prices across the globe.
In the UK, tests have started near Kirkham in Lancashire. It may be that we are on the brink of a new energy boom.
Shale gas could fire electricity power stations, obviating the need to build new nuclear plants or onshore wind farms.
A secure energy supply could be resting below the earth.
Of course, we must assess the environmental impact but uncertainty over energy security may be starting to wane.
Robert Anderson.Kirkton,Arbroath.
Hydro power is no solution
Sir,-I read with growing disbelief the letter from Stuart Allan ‘Renewables’ reliable future’ (March 24).
He says there are “many other sources of renewable energy.” Perhaps he could enlighten us all on what they are or, if indeed, he has discovered the holy grail of perpetual motion.
Or is it his belief that lots more hydro-electric power would solve the energy crisis?
Having worked in the hydro-electric industry, I think this method has its place but to raise it from the present 3%, we would have to build dams in every valley in Scotland and flood the homes and businesses already there.
This would create another Highland Clearances.
Clark Cross.138 Springfield Road,Linlithgow.
Scotland disadvantaged
Sir,-Proposals by the UK Government to cut Northern Ireland’s corporation tax rate to 12.5% are worrying and will create an imbalance that will take jobs away from Scotland.
Such a move also highlights the hypocrisy of the UK Government, with Stormont potentially able to cut its corporation tax rate from 28% to 12.5% but Holyrood prevented from doing so.
Looking at the Budget, it is now clear that Scottish oil revenues are bankrolling the Exchequer, with all-time record North Sea revenues of £13.4 billion expected in 2011/12, an increase of over £4 billion more than double the figure for 2009/10.
Yet Scotland is to be denied control over the key economic driver of corporation tax.
During the Calman debate there were arguments for Scotland to be given the power to vary corporation tax.
The recent report by the Scottish Parliament’s Scotland Bill Committee argued that if Northern Ireland gets lower corporation tax, it should happen in Scotland, too
Nations across Europe have used lower corporation tax to increase economic growth. It is the right approach for Scotland and would give our economy a massive boost.
Alex Orr.Flat Two,77 Leamington Terrace,Edinburgh.
Freedom starts at home
Sir,-Prime Minister David Cameron has sent our forces to attack Libya in the name of freedom.
He claims that there is no freedom there.
Meanwhile, in Scotland, Glasgow City Council show there is no freedom here. They use 80 police and many sheriff officers to evict one family in order to clear the site to make way for Commonwealth Games development.
Where is that family’s freedom? This operation must have been expensive for cash-strapped Glasgow City Council.
Alex Paton.47 Abbotsford Drive,Glenrothes.
Labour posturing over Lockerbie
Sir,-I do hope the Lord Advocate is right and there will be a fresh Lockerbie trial bringing to account the real mastermind behind the bombing.
But what sticks in my craw is the posturing of Scottish Labour on Lockerbie. They must have known that the then UK Labour Government wanted to send Megrahi home the same government that sold weapons to Gaddafi, weapons that are now being turned on the people of Libya.
Andrew J. T. Kerr.52 Castlegate,Jedburgh.
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