Up for discussion today: spiritual services and healthcare, the Gaza flotilla, roadside verges, radar and offshore power, and the planning process.
Spiritual services have role in medical care
Sir,-Your column of recent days has served up a plethora of items that make for a “readers’ letters delight”.
Such topics covered include the Budget and comments on US gun crime from Dr David B. Griffiths and John Strachan.
I choose rather to respond to Terry Martin’s letter regarding faith and the NHS.
Although not certain just how much of his letter is to be taken seriously, what is certain is that the opening words of the second paragraph ‘this person could make a decent return’ and the last paragraph ‘who will be first to get a slice of the action’ are offensive not only to people who have a faith but also to persons of no declared faith.
It would by no means be the first time that those who have faced grave illness and even death have found themselves in the position of knowing that something, very often not definable, had happened to them when in their extremity.
I have myself been there, wherever “there” is.
Beyond question, I would have been most glad to take comfort from the religious services facility of the hospitals in which I was treated had I not been too ill and too weak to do so.
Even having returned home, I was too weak to visit the church to which I belong. I emphasise that it does not have to be a church, mosque or other.
That is in the hands of the individual.
By all means, Mr Martin, feel free to maintain your scepticism. Do not, however, use that scepticism to poke fun at others who do not share your views.
Incidentally, in present circumstances, is a mere £3.5 million of any consequence?
Alex. C. Farrer.Buchan Lea,Crail.
Ambush on Gaza ship
Sir,-With due respect to Steve Dron (June 23), statements made by Mehmet Tubal, the captain of the Mavi Marmara, confirmed that the violence that met the IDF was an organised, premeditated action carried out by a mob armed with clubs and knives and protective gear.
Around 40 members of the Gaza flotilla, who commandeered the ship, crew and passengers once aboard at Istanbul, were from the IHH, a radical Turkish anti-Western organisation supporting Hamas, some of whom declared their objective of becoming martyrs.
Clearly there was little or no peaceful intent.
The Kuwaiti Al-Watan daily columnist, Nabil al-Fadl, wrote on June 7, “Israeli soldiers were justified in shooting (their attackers). Clearly, the assault on the soldiers….occurred before they opened fire, and proves that the passengers on board the Marmara were not civilians (trying to) help their brothers in Gaza, as has been claimed.”
Myer Green.103 Ayr Road,Glasgow.
Verging on the offensive
Sir,-May I congratulate Mr McDonald of Kirkcaldy (June 22) who takes a sensible approach to the question of maintenance of the banking near the south end of the Tay Road Bridge.
The same cannot be said of Mr Ross from Pitcorthie, whose letter was published the same day.
I suspect Mr Ross does not know Councillor Maggie Taylor or have much idea about Fife Council in its present form. Councillor Taylor is well able to take care of herself but to imply that she or indeed any elected member indulges nowadays in junkets, however, defined, could be regarded as offensive.
It appears that Mr Ross, who thinks that it “beggars belief” to believe there are more important things in the world than cutting back the areas of overgrown vegetation, has a very limited horizon.
Donald Macgregor.15 Kinkell Terrace,St Andrews.
Radar blow to offshore power?
Sir,-I am puzzled by what I have just read in your report (June 24).
If the RAF’s worries about the effects of wind turbines on their radar are sufficient to block an offshore wind farm development, how can constructing any offshore wind farms sensibly be contemplated? Radar is not used solely by the RAF. It is the means by which large vessels avoid collision in impaired visibility. Are we to accept a tranche of new shipwrecks and subsequent loss of life at sea as acceptable side-effects of green energy?
Tankers, ferries and visiting dignitaries such as the Queen Mary 2 ply up and down the Forth in particular, and it is difficult to see how, with radar impaired by the proposed turbines during a traditional east coast haar, this would not end in disaster sooner or later.
The Forth witnessed a maritime tragedy in 1918 when 270 sailors perished after their ships and submarines collided in foggy conditions. The only thing that prevents similar disasters now is the use of radar.
Iain Mitchell.Hawhill,Dundee.
Community views ignored
Sir,-Early one fine summer morning I walked, as I have done so often, the track from Cellardyke by the shore up towards the mother community of Kilrenny and its church.
The stretch between the two settlements, until now a fine, arable hillside, is formally scheduled and protected as an Area of Great Landscape Value (AGLV.)
No longer. For North-East Fife’s Planning Committee, has just declared it an area of no landscape value, to give approval to a planning application by a farmer to situate 130 static caravans on this crucially located hill slope, visible from both sea and land.
There were many letters of support for the proposal from the traders of Anstruther, even more objections from Cellardyke and Kilrenny residents and a 200-plus name petition.
The committee decided, however, that the supporters carried more weight than the objectors. Why?
As they say in New York, go figure.
(Professor) William R. Roff.29 Shore Street,Cellardyke.