Today’s letters to The Courier.
Sir, – The purpose of sport is to promote values such as good health, social inclusion and participation, friendship, sportsmanship and fair play. There should always be an inextricable link between competitors’ ability, honesty and integrity and the principles of right and wrong should never be sacrificed just because of someone’s commercial interests.
Glasgow Rangers’ current position is because they sought to gain an unfair advantage over their competitors by spending tens of millions of pounds on transfers and salaries using other people’s money which they could never realistically hope to repay. At the same time they failed to pay money lawfully owed to HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenues and Customs) and some of their other creditors.
If things happen the way I think they will, (a ”newco” Rangers is allowed to play in the Scottish Premier League next season), I think the UK Government should take the attitude that if HMRC cannot recover the full debt from Rangers they should hold the Scottish Football Association liable and take steps to extract from it the full amount owed.
The SFA is the governing body in Scottish football so it is ultimately responsible for the way all organised football competitions in Scotland are conducted. It has a duty to ensure all competitions under its jurisdiction are competed for with the utmost sporting integrity. That duty overrides their own and their members’ commercial interests.
The SFA also has a duty as governing body to do absolutely everything in its power to encourage all member clubs to pay every penny owed to HMRC on time.
If it lets Rangers off the hook (by allowing a ”newco” Rangers into the SPL next season) not only would the SFA not be encouraging one of their member clubs to pay its debts they could be seen to be actively discouraging them from doing so by, in effect, ”condoning” Rangers’ non-payment.
The SFA went public with efforts to stamp out social evils such as religious bigotry, racism, homophobia, improper betting activities and performance- enhancing drugs. So what about paying taxes?
Kenneth Brannan.42 Greenlee Drive,Dundee.
Beauty spot is already disfigured
Sir, – In The Courier (May 7) G M Lindsay of Kinross asks how Americans would feel if their natural beauty spots, such as Mount Rushmore, were ”desecrated” with wind turbines.
Mount Rushmore is already horribly disfigured. In the Black Hills of Dakota, which are sacred to the Sioux and other native Americans, huge, idolatrous faces have been carved out of an entire mountain side, in glorification of four politicians, two of them notorious slave-owners. (Thomas Jefferson continued to own slaves for 50 years after he wrote the Declaration of Independence.)
Can you imagine the outrage there would be if anybody, of any political party, suggested a similar desecration of any Scottish mountain?
By all means cover Mount Rushmore with wind turbines. Anything would be an improvement on the outrage already committed.
Dave Coull.7 Inglis Court,Edzell.
A strong desire to return to old training ways
Sir, – I would like to comment briefly on Anne Buchanan’s article about the need to appreciate nursing and nurses (Courier, May 4).
Has she ever been a patient in one of her own NHS hospitals? I have. Nursing standards can vary, in extremis, on the same ward, on the same shift, on the same day.
I thought her comments on the ”old” way of training nurses patronising, utterly misguided and insulting to past generations of dedicated nurses. Experienced student nurses being put in charge of a ward was the norm, and part of the final training year.
What she believes ”would never happen nowadays” – does. In ”her” hospitals.
My experience with today’s ‘undergraduate’ nurses includes: A student nurse determined to ”do” the lunches while a patient died at her feet, beside the trolley. (The patient was successfully resuscitated – but only just.)
Two student nurses, swabbing a patient ”for MRSA” but failing to note the patient’s breathing difficulty, in spite of being told about it. They were ”just going off shift, anyway”.
Two student nurses who hadn’t a clue how to pre-med a patient – with electric shavers! The patient eventually did it himself! Educated? I doubt it. Trained? Certainly not. A sad day when our modern community nurses need iPads.
Most people recognise the wide extent of a nurse’s responsibilities, at various career stages. I have spoken with many ex-patients, nurses, doctors and others with medical stories to tell.
There is a strong desire to see nurse training return to the old way.
A T Geddie.68 Carleton Avenue,Glenrothes.
Without bias
Sir, – If ”Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?” is a fair question, then its opposite ”Do you agree that Scotland should be part of the United Kingdom?” is also a fair question.
If it were up to them, would our SNP leaders be willing to adopt this form of the question? I think not.
To remove bias, you could ask both questions in the referendum and discard as spoilt any ballot papers with a ”yes, yes” response as they would show evidence of respondents being led towards a ”yes” answer.
More simply, a question asking people to choose between ”an independent country” or ”part of the United Kingdom” (put a cross in one box only) would present the alternatives without bias.
Hugh Laidlaw.North Lodge,Monimail,Cupar.
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. Letters should be accompanied by an address and a daytime telephone number.