Sir, – As someone who follows football as a lifelong supporter of AFC and being 75 years old, I can remember when there was a bar at Pittodrie in the early 60s.
As a teenager my mates and I would pay to go to a reserve game so that we could have a drink outside of licensing laws so I have no objection to alcohol being available at certain games. My only negative thought is regarding the prices that will be charged. If the exorbitant prices for pies, teas and soft drinks at stadiums are anything to go by, they will price themselves out of business.
Alan McPherson, Grant Street, Cullen.
Gas forecast pure fantasty not fact
Sir, – Where on earth did James Murray (Letters, September 24 and 27) dig up the data that the UK had “600 years” of gas reserves?
“Thatcher burnt it all and turned it into electricity” is a laughable piece of rhetoric. Yes, the gas not used for the home heating network did power electricity production essential for the domestic and industry market in the UK. It did not evaporate uselessly into the ether! Should we have increased coal power instead? Of course not.
I am not a hydrocarbon expert, but my memory as an Aberdonian living and working through the 70s to present time is somewhat different to Mr Murray.
The oil industry in the northern North Sea area was fast tracked initially to release us from the economy-damaging vagaries of production control and pricing by a monopoly of Middle Eastern countries. The pressure was primarily to produce oil not gas, but as the giant fields of Forties, Brent, Ninian etc progressed, the realisation that the large volumes of gas being flared as a byproduct was an equally valuable commodity.
The equipment for producing and transporting gas was then retro fitted to the early North Sea platforms to exploit this resource, but very aware that production levels would fall dramatically within a couple of decades. So this nebulous prediction of “600 years of gas” almost matches for fantasy Alex Salmond’s pre 2014 referendum prediction of £57bn of annual hydrocarbon revenues for Scotland to run the utopia that would be independence. That went well!
William Morgan, Midstocket, Aberdeen.
Left behind by fracking fretting
Sir – Where on earth does James Murray get his facts from? He says there is no gas left following the ‘Dash for Gas’ in the 70s and 80s.
There is plenty of gas still being produced in the UK and there would be a lot more if it weren’t for the vociferous and erroneous campaigning by so-called environmental activists.
Gas prices in the US are about one fifth that of the UK and Europe, why? In a word – fracking. Policies made on the basis of emotive noise are now coming home to roost.
We could be in a position to be able to control our sources of energy, the SNP and the Greens can’t see past the ends of their noses.
Mike Salter, Kingdom, Glassel, Banchory, Aberdeenshire.
Time for crofters to add value
Sir, – Patrick Krause, chief executive of the Scottish Crofting Federation, accurately asserted in his article, that the “ Future of crofting is in danger”.
He stated that the Crofting Commission “is failing to manage the system, let alone the crisis crofting faces”.
Never has there been a more important time for Scotland’s 20,000 crofts to grow the healthiest and “greenest” food for their neighbours. With the spread of Covid-19, and the limit to shop or receive orders from distant supermarkets, crofters have ideal conditions for the growth of healthy food. Not only could produce be supplied to neighbours but also to the growing number of tourists to the Highlands and Islands.
Accommodation is insufficient for the three million annual visitors, and with grant aid, additional B’n’B extensions would add value to croft houses. The Crofting Commission would be less “desk bound” in Inverness, if a Scottish Crofting Federation representative were added to their number.
Mark Pattinson, Kishorn, Wester Ross.