Sir, Have the lunatics now really taken over the asylum, figuratively speaking?
For those of us living in the countryside and currently fighting for even the most basic of services, it was galling in the extreme to read page three of Friday’s Courier and learn that three senior officials of Fife Council have received a total remuneration in 2011-12 of £585,915.
Councillors and officials have little experience of running multi-million pound businesses, all they have to do is spend the money provided by others.They do not sell anything and therefore have no sales targets to meet to balance the books.
When they run out of money, they blame others and cut services.
Those living in the countryside, paying the same level of council tax as everybody else, suffer from a severe lack of services house bin collections stopping, no recycling points, no street lights, infrequent bus services, pot-holed main roads, rural schools closing etc, etc.
And now we see this obscene level of salaries being paid for this poor service. Councillors need to get this under control and start awarding realistic salaries to reflect the job actually being done.
This will result in cash savings that the public will applaud.
Andrew F Gilmour. Londive, Montrave Home Farm, Leven.
The way to balance the books?
Sir, A simple equation from Dundee City Council’s finances? Save £350,000 by closing Marchbanks (causing total mayhem to the council tax payers. Severance pay (£335,000) to one council director sorted.
Now, how many more things do we have to close to pay the rest?
Bill Duthie. 25 St Fillans Road, Dundee.
When it comes to invective . . .
Sir, You couldn’t make it up (The Courier, May 8). We had Jenny Hjul in her column deploring the “venomous invective” used by the SNP’s Roseanna Cunningham to political opponents (she called them “evil Tories”), while on the opposite page in a letter by Andrew Harper we were informed that:
“In essence, what Mr Salmond and his zealots hunger for is a racist divorce from that union which, over three centuries, has seen our diminutive nation participate fully with our English and Welsh kin in the great achievements of the United Kingdom.”
You have to give Mr Harper credit in the invective stakes, as in one sentence supporters of the SNP are labelled as “fanatics” and “racist” while being told that our country is so small that we should be honoured to be part of the UK.
George White. 2 Cupar Road, Auchtermuchty.
Hoary old scare stories
Sir, What a master-stroke from Jenny Hjul in Tuesday’s Courier. Obviously, aware of comments regarding a need for the “Yes” campaign to be re-energised, she generously decided to make her own contribution towards that goal.
Acutely aware of the “clown” attacks and how they worked in favour of UKIP in elections down South last week, Ms Hjul evidently decided to wheel out some of the hoary old scare stories about the SNP. Her column, laden with insult and thinly disguised innuendo, certainly galvanised supporters of the “Yes” campaign, who have been out campaigning with renewed vigour this week. I can testify to that!
Then again, perhaps I misinterpreted her intentions. Ms Hjul may have simply been trying to paint herself as some kind of a martyr for the “Bitter Together Campaign” by inviting a response in kind. All the while, blissfully unaware of the law of unintended consequences.
Whatever her aim in writing that doom-laden piece, she has ably demonstrated the absence of a single positive reason for any continuation of the union. The vitriol that seeps from every word and phrase now issued by the “No” campaign is a desperate and doomed attempt to fill that void.
Ian Angus. 7 Kirkton of Kinnettles, Kinnettles, Forfar.
Unexpected outcome?
Sir, One of the unexpected outcomes of Scottish independence might be to further concentrate economic activity and wealth on Edinburgh, to the even worse disadvantage of the rest of the country. As the late Jo Grimond once remarked: “If the world comes to an end, Edinburgh will never notice.”
Malcolm Parkin. 15 Gamekeepers Road, Kinnesswood, Kinross.
If it all goes wrong . . .
Sir, If Scotland votes for independence, and if it then turns out that Scotland is not the fairer and economically stronger society, the Utopia, the land of milk and honey, that Alex Salmond has promised us, can we then re-negotiate back our place in the United Kingdom?
Mona Clark. 9 Millbay Terrace, Dundee.