Sir, – With regard to the free parking proposed by Aberdeen City Council, I have just been into the city for the first time in a year and the whole place is very sad.
Free parking – there are no decent shops to go to in Aberdeen.
No Debenhams, no John Lewis, I could go on and on.
The business people in Aberdeen need to get their heads together and come up with a solution to generate life into the centre of the city again.
Try and coax the big department stores back on to the main street or at least into the city.
As for Union Terrace Gardens, I rest my case. What on Earth is that all about?
I was born and brought up in Aberdeen and it makes me so sad to see its decline. Oil capital of Europe – that’s a joke.
Evelyn Philip, Sandy Hamilton Place, Inverurie.
Empty green scheme promises just fossil fuel business as usual
Sir, – Judith Ralston has questioned if we can still save the planet just as Nicola Sturgeon urged leaders to deliver on the climate, which is fair and noble in intent.
However, there are still major unaddressed problems to deal with.
Our politicians need to get their heads out of the sand and realise that most of the north-east’s flagship green schemes being touted as the way forward are just fossil fuel business as usual with major component parts still never having been lab-tested in decades.
Others permanently kill green space vital for human and world health, and if they were to keep being secretly rubber-stamped in the current manner would mean irreparable habitat loss, hastening the effects of oil’s significant damage so far.
With the arrogance of the oil men all too apparent, alongside the blatant lies of oil being green from industry bodies and politicians all too keen to jump through proverbial burning hoops for these fools, what real action to end the addiction to this is there?
The lack of credible action to massively increase all forms of renewables is shocking and has created the lies about Ukraine when its got more to do with Opec getting jittery and all the other suspects following suit.
Ian Beattie, Baker Street, Aberdeen.
IndyRef2 blueprint by SNP clear as mud
Sir, – I’m sure your columnists Struan Stevenson and Euan McColm will have assisted many readers by unravelling the complexities of the SNP’s recently-published blueprint for independence.
Interestingly, Mr McColm revealed that most of the criticism levelled against Nicola Sturgeon’s plan has come from leading figures on the Yes side.
He quoted the SNP’s favourite economist Professor Richard Murphy as saying that their currency plans were “so wrong” that he’d back No in any future referendum.
Other telling quotes included one from Robin McAlpine, the former director of the pro-independence thinktank Common Weal, who dismissed the Scottish Government’s plans as “utter p***”, so you can’t really get it much plainer than that.
Both Mr McColm and Mr Stevenson looked at these proposals in detail and their conclusion was that in the SNP’s make-believe world the paper “Building a New Scotland: A Stronger Economy with Independence” was absolute tosh.
We’re indebted to them for explaining these complexities to us in simple terms.
Keith Fernie, Drakies Avenue, Inverness.
Why can’t nurses train on the job?
Sir, – I was listening to a discussion on the Jeremy Vine show about nurses’ pay and their threat to strike.
The nurse on the show said that a band five nurse is paid £27,000 and has a university loan of £60,000.
If these numbers are right why is it nurses need to go to university – why not train on the job like it used to be?
Allan Sutherland, Willow Row, Stonehaven.
Racism extends far beyond UK borders
Sir, – Catherine Deveney in her article (November 4) reckons Britain is still a racist country despite the Conservatives electing Rishi Sunak as the first Asian prime minister.
Actually, it’s Ms Deveney who’s sounding a bit racist – he is a Briton of Asian descent.
For her proof of racism, she churns out a few facts about angry phone-in callers, “England’s” Brexit vote and the regrettable increase in racist incidents.
She doubles down with hey, anyway, Rishi is loaded (so he doesn’t really count?).
Then there’s the obligatory dig at the Tories with some vague point about champagne parties having token persons of colour.
I wonder what threshold the UK would have to pass for it not to be classified as racist?
Quite apart from counting their children born here, the UK currently has about 9.6 million people officially resident who were born overseas and in many parts of England immigration- driven population increase is a phenomenal strain on social services.
Despite that, racist incidents are predominantly minor events like idiots shouting at football matches which pale into insignificance in comparison with the sectarianism at Scotland’s two biggest football teams.
What a contrast to Ms Deveney’s beloved EU where the European Parliament lost 20% of its multicultural members when Britain left. The same EU, where the far right now constitutes 10% of the European Parliament, where the entire European Council is white, where Italy just elected a neo-fascist premier and where migrants are so poorly treated they’d rather risk their children’s lives in the English Channel to reach our shores.
M R Kay, Lochview Place, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen.
Wealth no way to judge PM’s quality
Sir, – In the mind of the class warrior can there be a politician less deserving to be residing in No 10 than a Tory with wealth beyond compare who has been educated at arguably the world’s leading university – not even Rishi Sunak’s Indian descent saves him from the ire of Catherine Deveney (November 4)?
She draws attention to his suits not purchased at high street outlets but designed by a tailor more in keeping with his wealth, whose name is as familiar to those who follow fashion as it is unknown to my fellow off-the-peg shoppers.
But rather than sneer at his wardrobe she should recall that clothes have been important back through history to Shakespeare’s era. The bard, always a natty dresser, weighed in on the matter in Hamlet through Polonius: “The apparel oft proclaims the man.”
So let us not judge in haste the quality of the man just because his wealth leaves the odour of privilege – if he is even half as good as his apparel we will have at last found a PM worthy of the position.
The words of Polonius ring true in the present day, Boris Johnson’s ill-fitting suits were emblematic of how ill-fitting he was for the great office of state.
Ivan W. Reid, Kirkburn, Laurencekirk.
We should beware the politics of envy
Sir, – I do find it strange that people rush to condemn the prime minister because of his family wealth.
Apparently, that renders him unfit to hold the office because he cannot relate to “ordinary families”.
On that basis, perhaps a prime minister should not have attended university as he would not be able to relate to people who had not.
No one person can encapsulate the many types of people who make up the electorate.
Criticism of our politicians is healthy and appropriate where merited, but should be based on objective criteria rather than envy.
David Burnside, Albert Terrace, Aberdeen.
Stop grandstanding over climate change
Sir, – I have watched the recent exchanges in The P&J letters pages between the opposing camps on climate change as to whether it is a man-made phenomenon, or part of a phase in the Earth’s journey through time.
I have to say as a science graduate the weight of evidence I do believe supports the current accelerated global warming as being man-made.
I have also seen with my own eyes the dramatic, but sad shrinking of Europe’s glaciers over the last 40 years. I have watched natural history programmes examining the impact on coral reefs over a similar period.
I have little doubt about the man-made impact of greenhouse gases on global warming.
However, I do think that the claims of increased frequency and severity of adverse weather events of storms and floods as being definitely linked to man-made climate change are far from proven. These events have always occurred as part of the geological dynamism at play for eons and is responsible for carving the world‘s dramatic and varied landscape that we all now live in.
Locally, while crossing the Royal Bridge in Ballater over the River Dee recently, I read the plaque on it with a potted history indicating that between 1783 and 1885 three previous bridges – of which two were stone-built – were washed away in storms.
Anectodal evidence maybe, but this is far from an isolated historic geographical example as they are everywhere in the world.
History and geology show that severe events and subsequent geological change most certainly do not stand still in the total absence of human interference.
So I say let’s stick to and work with the established facts.
People affected by storm and flooding need and deserve assistance, but let’s not hijack mostly natural phenomena for virtue signalling, political leverage and dubious grandstanding.
Are you listening Nicola?
William Morgan, Midstocket, Aberdeen.
Think of others
Sir, – I am not the only one who is reading about people who are going missing recently. Some are happy endings, but some are not. I do feel compassion towards their family and friends.
I am a mother and I cannot imagine how loved ones can cope with this. It is something I would hope that they find comfort from somewhere, to live the rest of their lives without them, especially if it was in tragic circumstances or any circumstances.
Whatever way we lose someone we loved, I hope we can all find compassion for those lost.
If everyone could spend a moment thinking of others less fortunate, the world would be a better place.
We all have to live through what is happening now and it is especially affecting the most vulnerable in our society.
If there was any advice it would hopefully be, to reach out to someone who listens and actually cares.
D Finlayson.
AWPR drivers need patience
Sir, – The AWPR is a brilliant, long overdue road for Aberdeen however can those joining at Dyce/ Westhill/ Peterculter please remember to give priority to vehicles already on the dual carriageway?
Just because you are on the sliproad and indicating does not mean you can just push your way in.
If a vehicle in the inside lane cannot safely move to the outside lane to “let you in” then you are to slow down, regulate your speed and wait until you can safely enter the flow of traffic.
Too often drivers believe they have the right to force other drivers out of the way.
Speeders, tailgaters and outside lane hogs should also all learn to have patience and respect for other road users.
Please don’t spoil it, issues and incidents will lead to lower and variable speed limits and cameras.
Victor Maitland, Westhill.
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