Today’s letters to The Courier.
Sir,-It beggars belief that a jobsworth at MoD would treat a long-serving marine with a gravely ill wife with such lack of care (August 23).
Surely there must be a way to deal with this differently. Why, for example, does the MoD not offer the house to Angus Council in exchange for a similar, unadapted, property?
That way the MoD would still have a married quarter available and the council would acquire an asset.
But I am not surprised by the MoD attitude. I spent almost 23 years in the services and realised at the end of the day that the serviceman is just a number to faceless, unaccountable civil servants.
John A. Dorward.89 Brechin Road,Arbroath.
Pilate missed Fortingall
Sir,-In connection with the archaeological excavations in the area, the old legend about Pontius Pilate’s childhood in Fortingall has resurfaced.
This, of course, was quite impossible. When Pilate was governor of Judaea the Romans had not even settled in England and only reached Scotland about 40 years after doing so.
In any case, Fortingall remained beyond the borders of the Roman Empire at its greatest.
The legend probably arose from an incident when the Scots Guards were part of the French army.
A member of a French regiment was boasting about how old his unit was and one of the Scots Guards jokingly replied, “We were Pontius Pilate’s bodyguard.” This later became the nickname of the regiment in British service also.
Gordon Stuart.Colliston Castle,By Arbroath.
Amazing dive to submarines
Sir,-I write after reading your article (August 13) about K Class submarines.
We dived to these submarines approximately 20 years ago. It was one of the most amazing dives I have ever done.
The bronze conning tower was knocked on to its side which allowed one to look into the control room, with the brass wheels and controls all still visible.
Piles of plates were piled up, all still intact, which was truly wonderful sight.
When we first dived to the wrecks I don’t think anybody had been there before. We managed to capture some fantastic video footage.
Stewart Taylor.Calypso Marine Ltd.,North Queensferry.
Free enterprise wrong option
Sir,-I hope our values haven’t been eroded so much as to encourage Councillor Dempsey’s apparent pride in his party’s support for private ownership of our care homes. (August 22).
Of course we need free enterprise in large swathes of our economy, but there should be no place for it in some areas.
There is not, and should never be, a reason for applying the profit motive to the business of looking after frail and vulnerable people.
As far as we are concerned, this borders on the obscene and it should be resisted by all right-thinking people.
I’m infinitely more proud of our party’s approach and the well-documented fact that we have been proposing it longer than the Tories and SNP have been backing privatisation.
Our care homes should be operated by workers’ co-operatives as a means of providing more conscientious care to residents and better value for taxpayers.
The way we treat our frail and elderly should be a measure of a decent and civilised society (and political parties). On that basis, both Fife Council and its supporters would be better advised to think again.
Jim Parker.Pensioners’ Party.9 Banchory Green,Glenrothes.
Traffic calming excessive
Sir,-I received from the editor of the Ferry Focus (a publication of the Liberal Democrats), a letter to say some residents of Ballinard Road, Broughty Ferry, want to introduce “twenty’s plenty” signs and traffic calming measures.
I invite my neighbours and those in the surrounding area who have also been targeted to read this document and the appended return slip carefully.
The letter suggests the installation of the advisory signs would offer a less obtrusive alternative to humps and build-outs.
However the petition/survey slip also refers to the alternative of other (unspecified) traffic calming measures.
In my experience these generally turn out to be precisely the speed bumps and chicanes the letter writer suggests would be avoided by accepting a twenty’s plenty zone.
Yes, we do get a few idiots who exceed the speed limit, but I doubt the majority of road users exceed the limit by any amount detectable by anything other than sophisticated electronic equipment.
So why penalise the majority?
An occasional speed trap would be a timely reminder to those who exceed the current limit.
Ballinard Road is a pleasant, wide road, with attractive frontages and well kept houses. Let us not have this spoiled by a plethora of road signs.
Andrew Watson.20 Ballinard Road,Broughty Ferry.
Sites could lead to problems
Sir,-I read the article (August 22) about Fife Council setting up stopover sites for travellers.
In my opinion, this will only make the problem of illegal camping worse.
I believe the whole travelling community is likely to descend on Fife on the pretext that there are sites, very well aware that they are likely to be full.
Those unaccommodated families will proceed to behave as before by camping where they like.
The people of Fife have rights, too.
A. T. Geddie. 68 Carleton Avenue, Glenrothes.
Get involved: to have your say on these or any other topics, email your letter to letters@thecourier.co.uk or send to Letters Editor, The Courier, 80 Kingsway East, Dundee DD4 8SL.