On the agenda this morning are council pay, climate change, public displays of faith and Scottish independence.
Council employees facing recession pain too Sir,-The story regarding wage “increases” at Perth and Kinross Council (April 3) is grossly unfair to the honest council workforce.
The council is one of the top performing in Scotland in terms of efficiency and is now dealing with the issue of budgetary restraint imposed on it by the excesses and poor risk control of the private sector.
The workforce will not receive any cost-of-living increase this year and face the prospect of potential job cuts in the near future.
W. Nicoll.7 Cooper Drive,Perth.
Erring on side of caution
Sir,-Bruce Robbins, in his article about Andrew Montford’s views (April 2), makes the sceptic case sound convincing.
I do not, however, find a single statement in it by a scientist, let alone a climate specialist but only the views of one chemistry graduate and one mining consultant-statistician.
I think, therefore, that we need to hear the views of climate scientists before coming to any conclusion (remember the MMR vaccine?).
You need look no further than the Royal Society in Edinburgh. Otherwise you could be accused of bias.
Two thoughts (from another non-scientist). If a pilot thought the data on his screen indicated a serious emergency but the co-pilot disagreed, would you want them to carry on as usual, or make the earliest possible emergency landing?
Secondly, I suspect those in industries such as mining and oil have a vested interest in business-as-usual.
There is a tendency among humans to believe what we want to believe about almost anything. This goes for climate sceptics as well.
Tony Black.79 Blackness Avenue,Dundee.
Growing threat of population boom
Sir,-I am sure that many responsible people are standing alongside Andrew Montford (April 2) slack-jawed but sidelined as the hockey stick argument for global warming has been played out.
The excellence of BBC2’s Wonders of the Solar System has shown us how fortunate we are to be here at all, and it may well be that all 6.5 billion people are having an effect on the earth’s atmosphere.
But if the armies of well-funded zealots paid the same attention to the estimated 200,000 a day increase in the world’s population, as they do to any small changes in anthropogenic global warming, the silent majority of people might not be quite so angry in their efforts to get through to them that they could be holding the wrong end of that stick.
Sandy Main.Quarryhill,Kinloch,Blairgowrie.
Keep faith a private matter
Sir,-I was shocked to see the crucifix on Pitlochry High Street. To read that a re-enactment of the Crucifixion took place to allow people to discover the true meaning of Easter is incredible.
This is 2010, not the Middle Ages. How does the Christian Church still hold such a disproportionate influence in our society?
Few other organisations would get permission to peddle their products so overtly and graphically in public.
It really is time to keep faith as a private matter.
If a Satanic pentagram had been erected, I am sure there would have been a greater outcry.
But let us think about this rationally.
What is the difference between the two? Both are man-made belief systems designed to create positions of power for certain people.
Andy Burrows.Kinnaird House,Pitlochry.
Has council missed a trick?
Sir,-Christians being allowed to demonstrate in public, with large crosses displayed throughout Perth, a Walk of Witness through the town centre on Good Friday and an Easter Dawn Service on Easter Sunday what is Perth and Kinross Council thinking about?
Is such a public bias towards Christianity not an insult to those of other faiths in Scotland the Muslims, Jews, Sikhs and others?
Perth and Kinross Council is surely lagging behind our various other governments and councils in not suppressing such blatant flaunting of the beliefs of just one small and shrinking section of our community.
George K. McMillan.5 Mount Tabor Avenue,Perth.
Independence scaremongering
Sir,- The claim by the United Kingdom Government’s Minister for Europe, Chris Bryant, that an independent Scotland would have to establish border checkpoints with England is puerile nonsense.
Mr Bryant’s whole argument is based on the false premise that an independent Scotland would have to accede to the European Union and, therefore, as a new entrant be forced to join the Schengen area and the euro.
However, on independence, as supported by a plethora of European and legal experts, Scotland would still remain a member of the European Union, as would the rest of the UK.
And, indeed, as it was the UK that joined what was then the EEC in 1973, if Scotland were not allowed to remain a member, neither would England as the UK would have ceased to exist.
One had hoped this scaremongering talk of border controls was a thing of the past and New Labour had matured beyond this. But it appears there is no end to the depths they will plunge in order to denigrate Scottish independence.
Alex Orr.Flat 8,35 Bryson Road,Edinburgh.