Sir, – I find it disturbing that there now seems to be a narrative among companies and city councillors to change the narrative and blame voters in the city for the current sorry state it finds itself in.
May I suggest that the article from architect Richard Tinto confirms my misgivings perfectly. May I suggest that, for example, we the voters supported in a postal vote the proposals to redevelop UTG; councillors, not voters, threw it out, they were the naysayers, not the residents – get it right, sir.
May I suggest this gentleman looks round this city to see the mess councillors have made, not residents who simply don’t have a say in how their city is run. Well, maybe just maybe, it’s now time for a change.
James Noel, Leggart Terrace, Aberdeen.
Break down detail on Covid statistics
Sir, – Thank you for your coverage of the Covid figures each day. Readers do like to know what is happening in their area.
Last week, we were told that there were 656 new cases in the NHS Highland board area.
This NHS area covers 41% of Scotland. I do think some further geographical breakdown would be appropriate. Folk in, say, Helmsdale would not have quite the same level of personal worry if any recent increase had been largely in the Helensburgh area and vice versa.
NHS Grampian figures are sensibly broken down to the smaller areas of Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City and Moray. NHS Highland could helpfully do likewise. Even separate figures for the Highland and the Argyll and Bute council areas would be a useful start.
RJ Ardern, Drumdevan Road, Inverness.
Sturgeon failing on climate and energy
Sir, – Nicola Sturgeon’s obsession with developing her image as an environmental crusader risks even further detaching her party’s policies from rational thought.
Graham Bruce (Letters, February 25) rightly observes that in opposing nuclear power opportunities in the Highlands, “the SNP are obstructing the very employment opportunities they say they wish to create”.
As with her alienation of the oil and gas industry in the North Sea, the SNP’s stance on this will not move Scotland even one step along the road towards a “just transition”, let alone towards the 130,000 green industry jobs the SNP promised by 2020.
STUC general secretary Roz Foyes puts it succinctly that “workers were promised the Saudi Arabia of renewables, but all they got was a desert” as green job numbers in Scotland continue to fall year on year (ONS, February 17 2022).
Sturgeon is demonstrating that being perceived as a radical environmentalist is more important to her than ensuring that workers, businesses and government benefit from Scotland’s wealth of resources.
Her lack of a pragmatic and economically sound strategy is doing increasing harm to Scotland’s economy whilst failing to deliver on her party’s own climate and energy goals.
Caleb Whiteside, Rocksley Drive, Boddam.
Orwell and Huxley now so relevant
Sir, – I read Orwell and Huxley 55 years ago and their themes seem horribly current. Animal Farm exists in Russia with “Naputin” in control, and 1984 looms where Winston says much about state control but finally betrays Yulia.
The West seems complicit in financial and political corruption in “Naputin’s” world. Similar lying evolves in the West into tolerance of the absurd with Republican factions in the USA and UK.
Now we cannot save “Yulia-Ukraine”, but we can still help her and avoid her fate for ourselves, by opposing both warm and cold-faced lying.
Mike Hannan, Cults, Aberdeen.