Sir, – I would like to respond to the article by Fiona Rintoul in the Press and Journal of October 11 2022 which was passed to me as we were away last week.
Firstly to say that I have a lot of sympathy for her struggles with delivery to “remote” places.
I live in Skye and we have battled more than once to avoid a courier-generated £15 cost for an item worth under £5 and small enough to be easily sent by first or second-class Royal Mail post.
I hope that her issue with her broken smart and new cooker is eventually resolved satisfactorily.
My issue is over her anger with writer Edward Docx.
On the surface, her reactions are totally valid but I would like her to think a little more deeply.
Mr Docx came first in November many years ago to a fairly isolated cottage in one of the wettest parts of Scotland. At that time there were no visitors after the October half-term so to get the rental for a week at the cottage was a plus.
The only possible place to buy anything was the Co-op in Portree over nine miles away which was not going to benefit any local businesses. He was not a tourist in most senses of the word but wanted to “recharge his batteries”.
He could have chosen to do so in many other places but he didn’t and not only survived the November elements but enjoyed the experience, walked over the hills and returned.
Surely that doesn’t deserve such condemnation when so many – in Skye at least – block the roads, destroy the verges, get out of their vehicles for seconds to take a selfie, mostly spend nothing although they may visit one or two craft shops, and vanish with that place “ticked off”.
Also many residents, both so-called incomers and indigenous buy from the internet or supermarket vans that stream over from the mainland.
His way of writing up his experience may jar as the feeling of being treated as second-class citizens and, in some way inferior still remains, but to single out one person for enjoying self-contained holidays in this part of the world is unkind, unnecessary and not helpful to anyone.
Deirdre Peppe, Carbost, Skye.
There are plenty of insults to hate
Sir, – In response to Mhairi Rennie (letters October 17) regarding “insulting” Tories – I hate the insult of having more foodbanks in this country than there are MacDonald’s restaurants.
I hated the insulting behaviour of Boris Johnson partying while the rest of us were in lockdown.
I hate the insult of people in work having to claim benefits.
I hate the insult of the Tories having the sense of entitlement that they should always be in power.
I hate the notion of “trickle-down economics” where the rich can be as rich as they wish while the rest of us are expected to feed off their scraps.
I hate the insult that is the Tory mantra of “sixth strongest economy in the world” while child poverty in this country has never been higher. Where is this wealth? Certainly not shared equally.
I hate the insult of the Tories courting Russian oligarchs, taking vast sums in donations and promoting one to the House of Lords.
I hate the insult of tax havens where billions are lost to the Exchequer with the result of poorer public services.
I hate the insult of the sheer waste of Tory austerity where it hurt the poorest hardest.
I hate the insult that because the Tories mismanaged the economy we now borrow such huge sums of money that the interest paid on this debt is more than the entire education budget for the UK.
So, yes, I hate the Tories.
D Fraser, Rosehill Drive, Aberdeen.
Rant may deter ‘borrowed’ voters
Sir, – Widespread expressions of indignation for the “detest” rant is water off a duck’s back to the FM who got precisely the media reaction and attention she wanted with a calculated and perfectly timed soundbite.
The failure to interpret and expose what she actually said has let her off the hook. That failure should be understood by all in the electorate not just the Tories she detests.
Twenty years ago, the SNP had significantly lower levels of electoral support before independence ideology gained traction but where did these voters come from?
They are supporters of other political parties who have steadily embraced the independence dream.
It is they who have put their personal political leanings to one side to attain, first and foremost, an independent promised land.
These two decades have seen Labour’s slide from dominance in the central belt and in larger cities around Scotland where their votes were once weighed not counted.
But, so too further north, south and west and into more rural and agricultural areas. These were largely traditional Liberal or, shock horror, Conservative areas!
Now, rather than acknowledge these facts, Sturgeon plumbs her repertoire and states she “detests” some of these very voters who have been instrumental in her being able to scent her holy grail.
Fast forward another 20 years to an independent Scotland. The raison d’etre for the SNP will have gone, so what do their parliamentarians and, more importantly, their voters do?
We all have “traditional” political-ideological views of a sort surely? By then, not only the now-assuaged SNP voters, but all voters, will need to know what choices will exist for their democratic views to be subsequently expressed. The landscape will be different.
Many, but not all, of the current SNP express themselves as left-of-centre/soft socialists. The SNP will need to rebrand and redefine itself. How will they present themselves to the electorate then? Equally, surely some form of the existing Labour party will still exist?
As will Greens, Liberal Democrats and, shock horror, Conservatives!
Thousands of votes temporarily borrowed to achieve independence will find their way back home to Liberals and Tories.
Wait a minute though, they are “detested”!
It will all be irrelevant anyway as the population densities of the central belt, together with our electoral voting system, will mean that anyone who doesn’t live in a city north or south of it will ever again be able to be governed by a party of their choice.
Poor “detested” souls and many others beyond the central belt should be more mindful of what they wish for.
Alan Petrie, Provost Drive, Oldmeldrum.
Tory members must take blame
Sir, – Well the media is buzzing. The chancellor has gone but they came as a pair and they should go as a pair.
Liz Truss should stick at what she apparently was good at – selling pork to China. The Conservative party members made a horrendous selection. The only thing she got right was her attitude to the first minister, but as it turns out they are just two sides of the same coin.
Finlay G Mackintosh, Forres.
King-sized quip was a real classic
Sir, – While by no means a royalist, I have always taken a great delight in our new King’s ability to raise a wry grin with his witty musings over the years.
His put-down to Liz Truss (“Dear, oh dear”) was a classic. Of course, he was only conveying the thoughts of 90% of the nation, the other 10% bewailing the removal of their tax cuts.
Ron Campbell, Richmond Walk, Aberdeen.
Just stop, it’s wasting soup!
Sir, – What were Just Stop Oil eco-zealots trying to prove when splattering a painting with tomato soup? (EE, 15/10, p10).
Activist Phoebe Plummer, 21, said, “is art worth more than food?” Well, she wasted two tins of soup that could have fed a family!
Fellow activist Anna Holland, 20, said, “UK families will have to choose…as fossil fuel companies reap record profits!”
Well, green energy firms, wind turbines, will also reap record profits! Do these youngsters live in the real world? And making rash statements and activities doesn’t help their futile objectives.
Clean white T-shirts washed at 30 degrees by mum!
T. Shirron, Aberdeen.
GPs must see patients again
Sir, – As hospital clinics are now running normally and GP surgery nurses have been working with patients since well before the end of Covid lockdown, isn’t it about time GPs were seeing patients rather than fobbing them off with phone consultations?
How can they possibly diagnose some illnesses over the phone? It seems to me that having got used to not treating patients face to face – their attitude has become very detached and uncaring.
It’s almost as if we are an inconvenience, interrupting the smooth running of their patient-free working hours!
We are being told to stay away from A&E but until GPs start seeing patients as they did pre-Covid, people will continue to turn up at A&E if they are anxious about their health and can’t see a GP.
CS.
Conversation