Sir, – Boris Johnson says he wants to invest in a bright future for renewables in the UK.
100% renewables will not be enough to keep the lights on. We have to have other sources of power such as nuclear power, gas and wave and tidal power along with hydro and photovoltaic.
Michael Baird, Dornoch Road, Bonar Bridge, Sutherland.
Not all wrongs can be righted
Sir, – Our Northern Isles have links to Norway. The islanders have always been rightly proud of those links.
In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue…
And landed, not in North America, but the Bahamas or Hispaniola.
So how many of our current history students have heard of Leif Erikson? Tree-ring analysis appears to provide evidence for Viking settlement in eastern Canada in 1021 CE. Sorry, Chris!
But none of this matters. The North American continent was already inhabited. By “First Nations”. So rename British Columbia and Columbia University, New York, accordingly?
No. Look to the future but be mindful of the past. The United States Declaration of Independence (1776) is a document born of colonialism.
The wrongs of the past cannot easily be righted. So accept past injustices; accept the scattiness of being human. But confess to that past and try to make amends. Bring tolerance and optimism to the fore.
Without a positive vision, darkness will prevail.
Bill Maxwell, Mar Place, Keith.
Pharmacists are best medicine
Sir, – I wish to concur with Clare Morrison, Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Edinburgh, on the pharmacist role of ensuring “patients are getting the medicines they need when they need them”.
Of all the sectors of our NHS I have had to deal with since the onset of Covid, I can honestly say my local community pharmacy and team have demonstrated a courteous, professional, user-friendly face-to-face – or should I say mask-to-mask – service and, for me, a proven “can do” attitude. This was not just across the range of over-the-counter medicines or sound health advice, but also firefighting and sorting out problems on my behalf from the fallout of difficulties in obtaining access to GP services either by telephone or in person.
So I heartily applaud them for their service, particularly over the last year and a half, when pharmacies were perhaps the only essential part of our health service to maintain a controlled but still continuous “walk in” service.
I also highly commend them to the general public as a reliable first point of contact for professional health advice, treatment of minor ailments and non immediately life-threatening conditions.
Keep up the great work.
William Morgan, Midstocket, Aberdeen.
Walkway puts squeeze on roads
Sir, – Re your update on the Spaces for People initiative in Inverness, I see Highland Council are making the walkway they created on Academy Street more permanent with bollards fixed to the road.
Considering the slagging they got for wrecking Castle Street and Bridge Street, to say nothing of Millburn Road (all of which had to be put back the way it was), it amazes me they persist with this nonsense on one of the town’s busiest arteries. Academy Street is congested enough for two-way traffic without metres of carriageway being hived off for walkways.
What, pray tell, are the existing pavements for?
Highland Council doesn’t seem to learn from mistakes made but keeps repeating them.
Keith Fernie, Drakies Avenue, Inverness.