Sir, I read your recent article about a road smash “waiting to happen” at a junction in Bridgend and I totally agree with all the comments.
My husband and granddaughter were involved in a serious incident eight years ago and my husband and I in another near thing very recently.
Eight years ago my husband and my grand-daughter, who was two years old and in a pram, were waiting to cross from the bottom of Lochie Brae to go over the bridge, when a lorry from the Scone area collided with a bus coming down Lochie Brae which resulted in the bus mounting the pavement. They are lucky to be alive.
This received press coverage at the time and the police and Perth & Kinross Council agreed to have the junction monitored, as at this time jumping the lights was a daily occurrence.
The result was a speed camera which is a cheap and weak solution.
More recently, just the other week, in fact, we were turning onto the bridge when a car jumped the lights to go over the bridge and my husband had to brake severely, which also caused issues for the car behind.
This is an area that needs traffic calming.
A camera, if working, is no deterrent and I think it is about time this area had some money spent on it to ensure that the next incident is not a fatality.
Margaret Marmion. 3 Bowerswell Cottages, Perth.
An arrogant display by the First Minister
Sir, Your report in The Courier of Thursday June 27, regarding the flagrant display by the First Minister, in entering an Aberdeen school by-passing security measures in place to protect children was discourteous in the extreme to the head teacher, the duty holder for all aspects of health, safety and welfare at the school. It was nothing short of arrogant, deplorable and contemptible.
His displays of taking political advantage is nothing new, however, as several years ago on attending one of our annual re-enactments of the Declaration of Arbroath, undertaken by our strictly non-political and non-nationalist organisation, he snatched one of our props a saltire to wave and demonstrate his political motivations and expectations in front of both the assembled crowd and television cameras.
This was considered by us to be nothing short of bad manners to say the least and left us feeling ambushed and upstaged.
I only hope that this latest bit of “sneakery” is taken seriously by those who can make representation in the strongest terms and raise it at Holyrood.
Geoff Bray. Chairman, Arbroath Abbey Timethemes Heather Croft, Letham, by Forfar.
Time to end turbine ‘scam’
Sir, Jim Crumley’s articles, pointing up the appalling environmental damage to the land and nature from wind turbines, do not always stress sufficiently the harm to national finances, while transferring our money to already-rich landowners, developers, etc, all for next-to-no electricity or saving in CO2 output. No “new” money is created for us in the UK.
The community “bribes” you report, £5 million pa, a miniscule proportion of the developers’ profits, are a virtually corrupt dividend to people adversely affected locally by the windmill installations, paid for by the fuel-poor in their electricity bills.
As Mr Willie Robertson rightly says (June 25), the whole question of optimising electricity generation to replace equipment now going out of service, must be worked out by experts in commercial and engineering aspects of electric power generation and not by adulation and vote-seeking politicians.
The whole wind turbine “scam” should be ended as soon as legally possible.
(Dr) Charles Wardrop. 111Viewlands Road West, Perth.
Core message is followed
Sir, I read with interest the letters of the Revs Greaves and Robertson and Capt Ian McCrae (June 24 and 26). Mr Greaves accepts the decision of the General Assembly to allow different views on the sexuality of ministers, in their role as teachers and interpreters of the bible and considers that churches are a location where faith can be discussed and Christianity articulated.
Mr Robertson emphasises that his denomination (the Free Church) welcomes all who want to find out about, follow and believe in Jesus. Clearly, he sees no “slamming of doors” in this, presumably so long as he does not reject the views of those who disagree with his preaching.
Capt McCrae, though not of the Christian persuasion, considers any interpretation of the bible other than literal, to be inconsistent with worship of God.
The crux of the matter is how literally we regard what we read in scripture. Anyone who cares to look up the relevant passages in which Jesus is talking about morals relating to sexuality and marriage will find nothing on the subject. Paul, in his letter to the Roman Christians does have plenty to say, but not by quoting Jesus. Jesus himself taught that many of the laws of God, passed on to the early Hebrews by Moses, were in need of modification.
Much in the Christian bible is not compatible with present-day scientific, biological and cosmological knowledge, and social evolution and the New Testament, written long after the death of Jesus, can be accepted as men’s recollection and interpretation of what Jesus may have said. The core of his message was about love, social justice, compassion, and caring for others. In my view, Christians are followers of Christ, not necessarily believers that every word of the bible is the word of god.
M Dorward. 5 Richmond Terrace, Dundee.