Sir, – A photo of the Old Coach House Hotel, Buckie in the September 12 edition of The Press and Journal had in the caption written underneath that it used to be a coaching inn, which is wrong. It never was a coaching inn as such.
The nearest coaching inn to Buckie was a mile away, the Inchgower Inn, which stood at the junction of the present A98 and A942.
Up until the opening of the coast railway in 1886, the Earl of Fife Stagecoach made the once-per-day trip between Fochabers and Banff, leaving Fochabers at 8.25am and reaching Banff at 12.20pm.
A stop was made at Buckie toll bar on the away trip at 9.53am and the return at 3.14pm.
We are told that in 1862 a Dr Duguid en route from Aberdeen to Buckie dismounted from the Earl of Fife at the toll bar and was carried to Buckie by a dog car, quite possibly supplied by the Commercial Hotel which used to advertise that it had a number of different types of horse-drawn vehicles that could be hired.
The title of The Old Coach House Hotel was coined a number of years ago now, replacing that of the Commercial Hotel for publicity purposes.
Allan A Fraser, Cornroadie, Sutherland Street, Buckie.
This is no time for political bile
Sir, – While by no means a royalist, it saddens me that certain individuals choose to write to these pages spouting angst, bile and vitriol in regard to our elected government and the SNP and Green parties in particular at a time of national mourning. Their letters tell us a lot about them as individuals.
We have just lost the nation’s mother – a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother herself.
Now is not the time for politics. They should have some respect and decency in these sad times.
Ron Campbell, Richmond Walk, Aberdeen.
Attack corrupts any open debate
Sir, – Lesley Ellis attacks the good sense of The Press and Journal, which allows the expression of opinions contrary to those he holds on climate change (Letters, September 13).
This erosion of the democratic process, which corrupts open debate on what is probably the most emotive issue of our time, is both foolish and dangerous.
The much vaunted 97% body of scientific evidence that supports the concept of human-induced climate change that feeds the narrative of the impending catastrophe which Mr Ellis, much of the media and policymakers clearly believe in, has been shown to be a statistically contrived conjuring trick.
We are further bombarded with countless lurid illusions of extreme weather events such as raging wildfires, winter storms, and monsoon floods.
Yet, strangely enough, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change no less still fails to detect any significant shift in the frequency or severity of such events.
The blame for the recent tragic flooding in Pakistan, for example, has more to do with the human folly that has coincided with unusually heavy monsoon rains.
Vast swathes of protective forests that used to protect its watershed have disappeared, altering the local climate, exposing the soil to massive erosion and subsequent downstream sedimentation of watercourses.
Administrative incompetence and corruption have added to the misery, which had coincided with an unusual though not unprecedented combination of two natural climatic phenomena known as La Nina and the negative Indian Ocean Dipole. This is the reality that seldom makes the headlines.
Neil J Bryce, Gateshaw Cottage, Kelso.
Families on £44k can afford energy
Sir, – Although we are not at war, the fallout from Vladimir Putin’s folly in invading Ukraine is reverberating throughout the free world with the cost of energy likely to remain high for many years.
With this in mind and much as I enjoy the opinions of David Knight it is disappointing he has joined the harbingers of doom (Opinion, September 5) where he predicts many apart from low earners will be wiped out by the energy crisis.
There will always be exceptions but the idea that households earning as much as £44,000 per annum would be sucked into financial disaster is ludicrous.
Their lifestyle will change with money that could have gone towards a holiday in the sun or as a deposit on a new car being spent on energy bills. But to call such changes a disaster is adding a dozen eggs to the pudding.
Being midway through my eighth decade with remaining hair most definitely silver, I belong to the group Mr Knight refers to as maintaining a modest lifestyle from a state and small private (substitute NHS) pension after decades (retired at 72) of hard work and paying taxes. The benefit of this simple way of life is I have no need to put out the begging bowl for government help to meet the cost of energy.
I hope Mr Knight is not one of those wobbling along a path adjacent to the gutter.
But if he is I suggest he shops like I do in those fantastic discount supermarkets and not our leading retailer where you pay through the nose for meeting better class folk, never shop in the presence of a senior citizen in a threadbare coat gazing myopically at two tins of soup wondering if he can afford both, or a distressed young mother telling her daughter to put back biscuits saying: “Blame your father who never pays a penny of maintenance.”
Mind you, I have friends who buy everything from this source, even toilet tissue despite my suggestion they are flushing money down the pan.
To limit the tax burden inherited by future generations I hope the new PM will limit financial aid to those in real need, not those on decent incomes so that they can continue the lifestyle they enjoy.
Ivan W Reid, Kirkburn, Laurencekirk.
Wear It Pink to fight breast cancer
Sir, – Breast Cancer Awareness Month is back again this October and I want to encourage your readers to Wear It Pink.
By taking part in Breast Cancer Now’s biggest and brightest fundraising event, readers can help raise as much money as possible for our world-class research and life-changing support services, helping thousands across the UK.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the UK. Every 10 minutes one woman is diagnosed with the disease and cases have increased by almost a quarter in the last 30 years.
So, on Friday October 21 wear it pink, raise money and help us fund life-changing breast cancer research and support. Sign up today at wearitpink.org
Baroness Delyth Morgan, Chief Executive, Breast Cancer Now.
Queen’s cortege a day to remember
Sir, – I joined the thousands who thronged to the funeral route through Aberdeen to show some respect and get a glimpse of the last journey to be made by Queen Elizabeth.
What struck me immediately when I joined the massive queues on the streets was the warm and friendly atmosphere of the people of all ages that had made the effort to say goodbye to a most amazing Queen and her total dedication of service.
It was truly a day to remember for the rest of my life.
Dennis Forbes Grattan, Mugiemoss Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeen.
Charles commits to peace process
Sir, – A tough, imposed schedule was embraced by our new King, the day in Belfast being the hardest of all.
He and his mother empathised directly with people who had sympathy with an IRA that took his uncle’s life, and he received peaceful intent back.
Even at a time of grief, Charles III engaged on the NI Protocol with entrenched NI politicians, realising this was so urgent for the UK’s future.
What a stark contrast with PM Liz Truss, stone-faced in Edinburgh, appointing two NI ministers with entrenched antagonism to the EU and their own government’s protocol script.
Her confrontational intent seems clear, yet decent traditional conservatives appear forlorn, wanting to give Ms Truss space and time.
But time is urgent and she was not handed a “poisoned chalice”, she fought for it, subservient to non-inclusive and ERG factions.
In Cabinet, she was there and silent when the Parliament proroguement challenge to democratic norms was “crudely put to the Queen” for approval.
The Queen quietly showed her concern by keeping Jacob Rees-Mogg twiddling his thumbs it seems for five hours.
So PM Truss will escalate national debt (to taxpayers, me, you and our children) to cap energy bills. But she cannot temporarily expand windfall taxes, while some companies barely know what to do with sudden cash influxes, because that is “not Conservative ideology”.
I get dividends from energy company shares, but I don’t want more or any on the back of excess profits from the public.
For our future, I have more faith right now in the monarchy and the House of Lords to bring our prospects and nations together.
Perhaps PM Truss may sense, Damascus-like, the required cooperation and gravity of her position, as she trails the King’s difficult tour.
If she does, there may be miraculous hope for Ivan Reid’s “long out of date” misplaced trust in the current UK Government.
Mike Hannan, Cults, Aberdeen.
Gie the Scriever benefit of doot
Sir, – Ah’m hingin’-luggit bit oor spleet new Scots Scriever, Shane Strachan, gittin his reply tae being appointed wrang.
I’m–ah’m; my–ma; folk–fowk; and–an’; broucht–brocht; fishing–fashing; Fraserburgh–the Broch; Peterhead–the Blue Toon; I’ve–ahve; my–ma; life–lyffe; for–fur; of–o’; (September 8, page 17).
According tae Douglas Kinloch, A Doric Dictionary, “there is one monolithic of Doric but a multiplicity of forms, and words can change from county to county but from village to village”
Sae ah’ll gie him the benefit of the doot.
T Shirron, Davidson Drive.
Change the record
Sir, – King Charles III has a real challenge on his hands to follow Queen Elizabeth’s wonderful faultless reign for over 70 years.
What would help him off to a great start would be to have a new national anthem as the existing one we have sung for 277 years and it is time for a change.
Dennis Forbes Grattan, Mugiemoss Road, Bucksburn.
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