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October 19: Reopen the case for saving Leuchars base

October 19: Reopen the case for saving Leuchars base

Today’s letters to The Courier.

Sir, Now that Dr Liam Fox is no longer in charge of the Ministry of Defence, can someone with influence in the House of Commons please find out the truth behind the decision to close RAF Leuchars?

It was never in the firing line for closure until the Westminster coalition carried out their defence and economic reviews.

The public have the right to know why the Government has wasted tens of millions of pounds getting Leuchars ready to accept and fly Typhoons out of the base only for it to be closed in favour of Lossiemouth.

They will have to spend even more money bringing it up to an acceptable standard for Typhoons.

Cameron and Osborne are telling the British people that we are broke, there is no money, we must accept thousands of redundancies and here they are throwing money away on relocating the only RAF fighter station in Scotland.

Why? There is no economic reason or defence strategy for such a move.

Was the decision taken to appease a Scottish Lib Dem MP working in the Treasury, as reported in the media recently?

I hope MP Menzies Campbell is pursuing the closure decision with the new defence secretary and putting a strong case for keeping Leuchars open.

Bill Campbell.28 Reform Street,Tayport.

Riding roughshod over religions

Sir, I refer to the article ”Rennie hits out at church over block vote” (October 10).

Mr Rennie used his first leader’s speech at the Lib Dem conference in Dunfermline to criticise threats by Catholic leaders to invoke a block vote against proposals to allow homosexuals to marry in churches.

What authority do politicians have to run roughshod over religion?

Gordon Wilson, chairman of the trustees of Solas, the Centre for Public Christianity, and centre director David Robertson, appear to be in agreement with the Catholic Church on this matter (October 12).

Mr Rennie seems unaware that other Christians and followers of Islam, Judaism and Hinduism do not recognise same-sex ”marriage”.

If Mr Rennie thinks he can force the vast majority of religious people in this country to change their beliefs, he should stop calling himself liberal and describe himself as illiberal.

Anne Colvin.3 Inverary Terrace,Dundee.

Upset by headline about priest

Sir, I am writing, albeit belatedly, to register my surprise and concern with regard to a headline in your newspaper (August 5) ”Gay former churchman is exonerated on all allegations”.

For the record, Jonathan Bower is a priest, not a churchman, and his office deserves proper recognition.

Of far greater concern is the discriminatory, irrelevant and probably verging on illegal reference to his sexuality. Would a headline read ”heterosexual former…” in different circumstances?

Your headline is reminiscent of those usually found in the gutter press and not fitting for a family newspaper.

Dr Cathy Mitchell.24 Strawberry Bank,Dundee.

One way to help weak teams

Sir, In her column (October 14) Helen Brown reports that a Shropshire Junior League has resorted to reporting football scores as 1-0 to avoid humiliation for the heavily defeated team.

But this will do nothing for the players who have to keep retrieving the ball from the back of the net.

A few years ago when I was involved in the South Angus Rural Schools’ League, where the size of schools differed considerably, we got round this, I believe successfully, by allowing schools to concede games at halftime, and insisting on this if the goal difference was five or more.

This allowed the winners to field fringe players in the second half.

At the end of the season, with just points being recorded, if the two top teams were equal, a playoff would decide the championship.

It wasn’t unknown for the losing team to complete the second half with all their players, including substitutes, on the pitch!

John Crichton.6 Northampton Place,Forfar.

United team in Mongolia

Sir, I would like to say a big thank you to the editor and staff of The Courier, as well as to the very generous people of Dundee, Fife and Perth & Kinross.

Thanks also to Drain Cure Services, Perth, and to Elder & Paton for giving a great donation towards my trip to Mongolia for charity.

I don’t have a final total, but the sum raised cannot be far off £10,000 each.

I was the first to bring both sets of ”Old Firm” supporters to work together for one cause, charity.

And I was the first person to take a team from the UK (Gobi United FC) to play in the Mongolian national stadium.

This old man’s dream of raising two million pounds is a little closer.

Jock McInnes.Scone,Perthshire.

Scots should have built trams

Sir, With so many people unemployed in this country, why are the Edinburgh trams being built in Spain?

I would have thought that the local politicians would have attempted to create work in Scotland.

John McDonald.14 Rosebery Court,Kirkcaldy.

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.