Sir, – I concur with Gordon Bruce’s letter (EE, October 5) regarding our “international” airport receiving an award. I also had to check the date on my calendar.
Like Mr Bruce, we also had a 40-minute wait for our luggage on our return from holiday recently, which was followed by a 50-minute wait for a taxi.
Surely an international airport should have a rail link to its city centre, but our Mickey Mouse airport is limited to a few taxis per hour, and a bus with a route that doesn’t suit most.
I note that a so-called backwater by many – Inverness – is currently working on a rail link to and from its city centre. So I’m afraid it’s the Oil Capital of Europe that is the backwater.
On a holiday earlier this year I departed and returned via Edinburgh Airport, and compared to Aberdeen, Edinburgh is miles ahead.
I honestly feel that Aberdeen’s airport bosses should look hard in the mirror with regards to their performance, as should the council, who should be “beating the drum” to push for a rail link to our airport, as well as other city establishments, such as TECA.
Gordon Park
Angus MacNeil MP, it’s time you spoke up on the ferries fiasco
Sir, – The P&J on October 5 carried a piece headed “Progress on ferries for Islay”. Lucky Islay and I sincerely hope all works out well for them.
However, what about the Outer Hebrides? Many column inches, much airtime and TV coverage have made reference to the utter shambles that surrounds the construction of the Glen Sannox and the somewhat anonymous Hull 802. Hard to believe it could take so long to get baptised!
So, good luck to the Islay folk who contribute so much to the treasury via distilling Uisge Beatha.
But, what about those who are not so fortunate in terms of a high-value industry on their doorstep?
Having been brought up in Benbecula I grew accustomed to “things” taking longer. The required article could be a tyre, or a fan belt for the tractor, or a part for the hay bailer. It was accepted that procuring said parts would have a longer lead-in time than would be the case if you lived on the mainland.
But, you accepted that.
Where is the Western Isles member of Parliament in all of this fiasco of cancelled sailings, long overdue delivery of much-needed new vessels, refurbishment of piers, etc? Well, the answer is that he is keeping his head well below the parapet. So, why on earth would you vote for someone who appears to not think a jot about his constituents!
Previous MPs in the shape of Malcolm K. MacMillan and Donald Stewart put their constituents first every time.
So, Angus Brendan, I invite you to get involved in sorting out this mess which your colleagues in Holyrood have propounded.
I think you owe us that, at the very least.
Angus MacCuish, Macaulay Walk, Aberdeen.
Greens’ opinions should be ignored
Sir, – Roy Turnbull (P&J, October 5) and I could argue about the causes and alleged risks of man-made global overheating until the cows come home.
Whatever the precise causal mechanisms responsible for climate control, the salient and practical points are these:
1) The UK’s release of greenhouse gases including man-made carbon dioxde (CO2), is very small, at less than 1.3% of the world’s output.
2) Therefore, whatever might be the role of CO2 in influencing the Earth’s climate changes, the UK’s share of it is immaterial.
3) We and the governments risk becoming broke and, meanwhile, are in desperate debt.
4) By decarbonising, which would neither help us nor impress any other nations to follow suit, we would certainly go broke by spending at least £3 trillion by 2050. The money and resources would thereby go completely to waste.
5) The worried Greens’ and Climate Change Committee’s impractical, ruinous opinions on our decarbonising can therefore be safely ignored.
From these, and additional considerations, we must drop climate greenery if we want to survive as a viable nation.
Charles Wardrop, Viewlands Rd West, Perth.
What does ‘buck stops here’ mean?
Sir, – I have been wondering what the term “the buck stops here” means.
Our First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is very fond of using the term.
But in reality, nothing ever seems to happen afterwards.
After the scandal of people with Covid being transferred from hospital to care homes, Nicola accepted that as first minister that the buck stopped with her.
Then we had the revelation that Scotland has the highest rate of deaths from drug overdose and again Nicola admitted the buck stopped with her.
In more recent times she accepted that the buck stopped with her after the Alex Salmond inquiry and the doomed Ferguson Shipyard fiasco.
These have cost the taxpayers of Scotland millions of pounds, and yet nothing has actually been done about any of them.
The recent programme on BBC TV showed the award of the ferry contract to Ferguson Shipbuilding in Port Glasgow was, in many people’s opinion, corrupt.
And now we are finding out the shipyard needs another £84 million to complete the work.
But Nicola sees no criminality in the deal, and her deputy John Swinney has promised another inquiry into the affair.
Also in the news, but tucked way from the headlines, is the news the inquiry into the Edinburgh trams is going to cost more than the inquiry, held by the British Government, into the Iraq war.
How much more are the people of this country going to put up with from this inept Scottish Government?
And how much more public money are we willing to spend to make up for their ineptitude?
Hugh Millar, Castlegreen Road, Thurso.
Woefully simplistic ‘growth’ nonsense
Sir, – PM Truss and Chancellor Kwarteng appear to have stumbled on a new economic “plan” – growth. Strange, I thought almost every past administration had been aiming for the same. I must be wrong and it’s an entirely novel concept. Oh, and we’ve been warned against “the anti-growth” mob, who appear to include everyone other than this right-wing pretend government.
This is woefully simplistic nonsense.
Notice the term “sustainable growth” is not the aim, just growth, for growth’s sake. How are we to measure this growth – gross domestic product (GDP), or by reference to how it might foster the wellbeing of the population and communities?
An American economist described GDP as “a chain smoking, terminal cancer patient going through divorce who crashes his car on the way to his job as an arms dealer because of texting while eating a take-away hamburger.” Maybe that’s the template they’re after.
In 1968, Senator Robert Kennedy was scathing about a simplistic desire for increasing GDP for its own sake: “…gross domestic product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials.
“It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”
Roddie Macpherson, High Street, Avoch.
Much talk about additional ‘levers’
Sir, – An angry first minister is starting to realise that, in the real world, her budget options are limited.
There is much talk of more levers but what levers exactly? I suspect she just means more power.
She is starting to acknowledge she has to make difficult financial choices entirely dependent on the actual financial situation of Scotland which is not as rosy as was made out in the original independence white paper.
How will Scotland’s economy be sustained and improved? That is the nub of the problem.
What levers does she need to deliver a limited and economically-constrained independence? Would the markets see her as more credible than Truss or about 10 times less credible?
There are no “bonnie” Banks of Scotland to bail her out. The SNP have no immediate solution. It will take time and an awful lot of effort. They are economically illiterate and completely incompetent.
The as yet unanswered question: can the SNP maintain their high moral standards and honesty with respect to independence?
They lost the last referendum as no one believed their fanciful oil price which was going to make Scotland rich beyond their dreams.
They then asked a knowledgeable individual to come up with a revised masterplan, but the potential problems were identified and timescale to overcome the lack of growth in the Scottish economy was such that it would take at least 25 years.
This has therefore been discarded and as yet we have no alternative.
David Philip, Knockhall Way, Newburgh.
Give tax relief on new machinery
Sir, – Tax cuts benefit the economy by putting more of peoples’ income at their own disposal.
Naturally, they are of greater benefit to those who pay more tax than others, the so-called rich. That is the entire point of the exercise. Tax cuts would have no effect otherwise.
Another good move would be to give businesses 100% tax relief for money spent on new equipment and machinery. That would stimulate the economy and create employment.
The obsession we have with the “fairness” of everything to do with tax is a huge brake on our development.
Malcolm Parkin, Kinnesswood, Kinross.
England ‘the knife crime capital’
Sir, – Not more stabbings south of the border. England must be the knife crime capital of Europe, time they got their house in order. Not a week goes by without reading about this and sorry to say it is getting worse.
J.Macdonald, Isle of South Uist.
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