Today’s letters to The Courier.
Sir, – Now that some Scottish skippers have been convicted for illegal landing of fish (February 25) can we expect the arrest of all the EU skippers who have been contravening the fishing regulations since the advent of the EU?
Are the Scots the scapegoats because Scotland does not have a seat at the top table in Europe?
Once again British fishermen are left to pay the price of EU fisheries regulations while their European counterparts appear to be subjected to a different set of rules.
The failure of successive Labour and Tory governments to defend our fishermen against the EU’s absurd fishing quotas and their shortcomings has led to the demise of many of our fishing communities.
It is a sad day for Scotland when our fishermen are treated as criminals for breaking regulations imposed on them by EU officials. And some of those officials come from landlocked countries such as Luxembourg and Hungary who have no knowledge of the fishing industry.
However, the EU fleets are still allowed to plunder the fishing grounds off our coast.
It has been forgotten by our political masters at Westminster that in the two world wars our convoys were manned to a large extent by fishermen and their sons.
May I add that 15 of my relations, who in peacetime were fishermen, made the supreme sacrifice in these wars.
Donald J. MacLeod.49 Woodcroft Avenue,Bridge of Don,Aberdeen.
Do we really need another wheelie bin?
Sir, – The imposition of yet another wheelie bin for householders in St Andrews is bound to lead to endless trouble and aggravation. Some households simply do not have the space to accommodate them and they will add to the bins already cluttering our pavements; an annoyance for all pedestrians, particularly so for the blind.
When interviewed by the BBC, Friends of the Earth spokesman Julian Kirby said: ”We don’t need a lot of bins to have a good recycling service. In the cheapest and most efficient services, the bin men sort recyclables from one to two bins into multi-compartment trucks so householders don’t have to.”
Changing the use of the various bins will also lead to annoyance and confusion. The blue bin, now used for paper, is to be used for landfill waste while the grey bin, used for landfill waste, is to be used for paper. Where’s the sense in that?
This may, however, be only the tip of the iceberg. They have nine bins in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Ian M. Malcolm.2 Morton Crescent,St Andrews.
Pavements are a disgrace
Sir, – I read with interest the article in Monday’s Courier and can only, sadly, agree with Derek Scott that the state of the roads and pavements in Broughty Ferry is an absolute disgrace.
Many were poorly laid in a concrete type surface some years ago and this is rapidly deteriorating to such an extent that it is breaking up and lying loose in some parts.
Where it is not yet loose, it is so rutted that you feel at times as if you are walking over a stony beach! One day last week, I turned my ankle quite badly and that was with flat shoes on. I hate to think what is going to happen if an older person was to lose their footing.
Perhaps the reason not many people have complained to Councillor Guild is because they know that if the complaint is made to Councillor Scott, it is made to someone who tries his best to ensure something is done.
As for the money being spent on refurbishment in the environment department’s properties because it could soon become a health and safety issue, I ask what about our health and safety?
It is our money the council is spending and if we say we want more spent on our roads and pavements then we need to ensure that we have councillors who listen to us.
Mrs Joan Chalmers.13 Bayfield Gardens,Broughty Ferry, Dundee.
Claim is utter nonsense
Sir,- It has been claimed in some quarters recently that David Cameron’s anti-independence stance is somehow more principled than advocates of independence because he supposedly has nothing to gain from Scotland and her 58 non-Tory MPs staying in the Union.
This claim, however, is utter nonsense.
Mr Cameron may find it a little harder to win the occasional tight vote in the Commons thanks to Scotland’s Labour and SNP MPs, but he still has much to gain from the preservation of our unequal Union.
In 2009/10, Scotland gave the UK Treasury 9.4% of total UK revenues and yet only 9.2% of expenditure was invested in Scotland.
Over the last decade there has been a £5.6 billion defence underspend by Westminster in Scotland, at the same time as billions have been wasted on the immoral, illogical, unusable Trident nuclear missile system against the will of the Scottish people.
If Scotland became independent we would be able to remove this monstrosity from our shores and possibly from the whole of the UK. There are few, if any, other feasible sites for Trident in the rest of the UK.
Mr Cameron’s opposition to Scottish self-determination is motivated by the same self-interest of the ruling Westminster elite that has characterised their wretched governance of Scotland for decades.
It’s time we restored our nation’s sovereignty to allow us to act in the interest of the people of Scotland, not the unionists of Westminster.
David Kelly,Dunblane.
Triples all round!
Sir, – Further to Mr Spencer’s letter of February 27 ‘Electrification of the rail line north to Aberdeen means electrification at the Forth and Tay bridges’ I am told overhead cables cannot be installed there due to bridge structure. So that would mean a third rail and/or dual system north of Auld Reekie.
But that aside for the moment, the government wants to stop east coast trains at Edinburgh? Again? Simultaneously they propose spending billions to shift our southern neighbours 20 minutes faster between Birmingham and London.
”Big Eck” must be ordering triples all around.
(Capt) Ross Watson.”Ocean Guardian”Atlantic Ocean.(normally 7 ChapmanDrive, Carnoustie.)
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.