Sir, – The alliance of SNP and Greens’ intention to have impoverished bill-payers thermostats reach the mythical net-zero has almost arrived.
In the depths of winter on Sunday, December 19 2021, 7.40am GMT, the entire contribution from renewables to the National Grid was as follows:
l Wind – 0.957GW,
l Solar – 0GW,
l Pumped Hydro – 0GW,
l Hydro – 0.518
Better get the firewood and candles in to keep warm before the lights go out.
Yours, soon to be shivering in the dark, George Herraghty, Elgin, Moray.
Gaelic will enrich communities
Sir, – As always, it is a pleasure to read Aonghas Padraig’s (Angus Peter Campbell) writing (Save Gaelic to save our communities) and your readers might be interested to know some more about Bord na Gaidhlig’s work.
Like Aonghas Padraig, Bord na Gaidhlig is strongly of the view that retaining an economically active population in island and rural communities where Gaelic is still spoken by the majority of people is critical.
A key role for us is to draw attention of government and other public bodies to Gaelic development, and this is done through responding to a wide range of consultations, eg housing, ferries, economy, education and human rights.
Bord na Gaidhlig first became aware of Professor O Giollagain’s model of Urras na Gaidhlig (Gaelic Trust) in 2016 through a presentation he gave to Highland Council.
The research for the book referred to in Aonghas Padraig’s column was started in 2017 and culminated in publication several years later, with its recommendation to establish such a model.
As a response to the research, Bord na Gaidhlig and many others engaged in discussions with community representatives about the findings.
From these wide-ranging conversations it was apparent island communities recognised there was much good work under way and they wanted to strengthen and expand those existing structures.
The Bord has demonstrated its support through additional funding for our partners, Comunn na Gaidhlig and Feisean nan Gaidheal, for an increased number of
Gaelic officers.
We established a new collaboration with Community Land Scotland to engage with various island-based trusts and devolve decision-making to the community. The pandemic’s impact on home working has led to several members of Bord staff being located in the islands and this will continue. This is in addition to several board members who live in the islands.
I trust this provides readers with a useful understanding of ongoing work to support and promote Gaelic in island communities.
Mairi MacInnes, Chairwoman of Bord na Gaidhlig.
Johnson SNP’s Grand Haggis
Sir,– What a master stroke it was for the SNP to infiltrate Boris Johnson into the Conservative Party years ago. When we get our independence he should be the first recipient of the Grand Order of the Haggis.
WA Ross, Broomhill Avenue, Aberdeen.
No one could have bettered Boris
Sir, – After reading all the letters lately about Boris, is it not now time to drop this saga and move on.
I thought politics was for running the country not to squabble over petty subjects. Just think, if Boris had not jumped into the buying of vaccines before everyone else, this country would be in a worse state than it is now and probably a lot more deaths would have occurred.
My personal opinion is that all the other parties could not have done it better than Boris.
Is it now time to move on into the new year with a brighter outlook and hope the sooner we get to grips with the changing world, we will all be a lot better off?
DA Norman, High Shore, Macduff.