Sir, When reading the criticism of Dundee Airport by the chief executive of Edinburgh Airport, Gordon Dewar, (Thursday’s Courier), you have to remember he is not motivated by our best interests but by the profitability of Edinburgh Airport, which is his job.
However, the case he makes for alternative surface links to Edinburgh carefully ignores the times involved in moving between transport modes, peak period congestion in and around Edinburgh Airport, the waiting time/bus ride needed to get from Edinburgh Airport’s long-term car park to the terminal and the extra cost of either bus or car travel.
Mr Dewar suggests a direct coach service to Edinburgh. For a Tayside business traveller, a flight to London from Edinburgh at 7am would involve check-in in Edinburgh at 6.15am, which would mean a coach leaving Dundee at around 5am, which in many cases would mean leaving home at around 4.30am to arrive at Dundee Bus Station some minutes before the bus was due to leave. That passenger would have to be out of bed by 4am.
How often would these coaches run? In the evening, how long would you have to stand in Edinburgh Airport waiting for the next bus to Dundee?
In comparison someone flying from Dundee ought to be able to spend an extra 90 minutes in bed. It is true the new DundeeStansted service is starting with public support but if they get it right then I am confident it will grow to commercial profitability and increased frequency.
That fear has to be the reason for Mr Dewar’s intervention.
Gordon Fleming. 2 St Nicholas Place, Dundee.
Wellington’s wise words
Sir, Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon would do well to heed the words of the Duke of Wellington, who famously said after the battle of Waterloo: “All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don’t know by what you do; that’s what I called ‘guess what was at the other side of the hill’.”
It would appear that the yes camp leaders haven’t a clue what’s going on at the “other side of the hill” in the battle for the pound. The nationalists have left Scotland’s flanks dangerously exposed in the event of independence, and with no plan B in place the poor bloody infantry Scotland’s taxpayers look destined by Field Marshall Salmond to become cannon fodder for a very long time.
The UK Government has made its strategy on the pound strikingly clear. The yes campaign are risking Scotland’s fiscal future on what they don’t know, instead of what they should know and that is to accept that the UK Government is not bluffing. I fear that it looks like a case of lion rampants being led by donkeys.
Iain G Richmond. Guildy House, Kirkton of Monikie, Angus.
It’s a marriage worth saving
Sir, A passing remark by a friend made me think that in the months leading up to the crucial referendum on September 18, we should be thinking not in terms of independence but in terms of a separation.
What we are actually being asked to do is to vote either to stay in the UK or to vote for a complete separation in fact, we are being asked to consider a divorce and all that that implies. Many families in Scotland know only too well the effects of a divorce and its consequences and, unfortunately, a country is no different.
A happy marriage has its ups and downs and this has been equally true for Scotland and its relationship with the rest of the UK over the last 300 years.
We will undoubtedly be stronger and happier in the times ahead if we work at strengthening the existing links.
Norman Mitchell. Balmullo.
A flood of sympathy
Sir, I feel so sorry for all those people down south who have been flooded once again; it must be heartbreaking, especially for farmers who can do nothing to stop their crops being ruined, their land under water.
I can remember when men were employed to clear roadside ditches so that rain could be safely carried away when it ran off the fields, thus preventing flooding, I can also remember when rivers were regularly dredged. I suppose this was to prevent rivers from bursting their banks.
Why were all these procedures done away with, was it the usual excuse of the cost? Anyway, whoever is responsible should be hanging their heads in shame, I doubt if anyone will be sacked for incompetence.
June Reid. 12 Findhorn Street, Fintry.
Are we good neighbours?
Sir, The horrendous weather across the south of England is causing acute misery among the people down there (including expat Scots, no doubt).
It has occurred to me that the Scottish Government has had little to say in terms of pity, commiseration or even the offer of help. Such gestures, or lack of them, can affect individual, or collective, perception of us as a nation.
The people in Scotland would do well to note this apparent indifference.
Post-independence, it could also be applied to them.
A. T. Geddie. 68 Carleton Avenue, Glenrothes.