Sir, – First of all I would like to congratulate Darvel Football Club on their momentous win over AFC.
I wrote a letter last week to this newspaper telling the Dons manager Jim Goodwin to walk away before he tarnishes his good name in the football world.
He didn’t – nowhere to go now, I think – but as for the players, they too must share the same disgraceful shame as the manager. The whole team are a laughing stock in Scottish football history.
Owner Dave Cormack and the board are also to blame for their ignorance and lack of brains, by not listening to the fans who pay over the odds. It seems to me that relegation may be a good learning curve for AFC as right now they are worth nothing.
Lewis Capaldi’s concert in Aberdeen was more exciting going by the crowd. Again disgraceful.
Joseph Durno, Cummings Park Circle Aberdeen.
City paying price of oil ignorance
Sir, – The claim by Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce that it is a case of “anywhere but Aberdeen” when the city is passed by as the UK Government hands out “Levelling Up” funding needs addressed.
The real embarrassment was spending £20 million on adverts in the city centre, as if it were some kind of done deal and completely ignoring the inconvenient truth of about £10 billion worth of recent albatross debt from the imbeciles who brokered it when the city purged itself of petrochemical interests.
The lack of political will to support the last vestiges of petroleum petulance and pomposity as the world’s climate savages humanity and wildlife – as predicted by credible scientists and ironically backed up by the oil industry’s own data – is only likely to increase as the planet pays the price of oil, reaping what it has sown.
Anyone who doesn’t recognise that windfall taxes should have been created decades ago, and would have saved so many from energy poverty is missing so much that’s patently obvious.
And the entire energy disaster which is being played out is another outcome of political games being played by people out of their intellectual depth and sadly lacking in sense to know when they’ve been duped.
Ian Beattie, Baker Street, Aberdeen.
Scotland’s wealth is all in plain sight
Sir, – Re Andrew Dingwall’s letter in reply to one from Peter Smith, (January 19). He asked for supporters of independence to give him some figures of the vast natural resources and inherent wealth Scotland currently has and future income it will have, but how can we do that when we are not yet independent?
Anyone with common sense can see how wealthy we are and we won’t know our true wealth until we are fully independent.
Projections of GDP, tax take, incomes and spends are not the stuff of a letters page but just because they don’t get published in The Daily Telegraph or the Spectator that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
He dismisses others’ opinions based on hard facts and statistics about the failing UK as “the usual guff” but if you want data supporting independence I say: Look and ye shall find.
It seems Mr Smith and his “letter-writing friends” are seen as a threat to the comfy status quo judging by this kind of reaction.
I hope they are, and I know that most Scots likewise want to see a more equal, greener and more healthy and wealthy society. It makes you wonder why some folk resist.
Herbert Petrie, Parkhill, Dyce.
Sturgeon has less than a full tank
Sir, – I have to wonder where Nicola Sturgeon is with regard to policy.
When asked on TV about the ability of 16-year-olds to make life-changing decisions she mentioned getting married, joining the Army at 16, among other things.
She then said she saw no reason why a 16-year-old couldn’t drink alcohol in a pub. Given that it is her government’s policy to reduce drinking alcohol and to reduce Scotland’s love affair with booze, her statement appears to fly in the face of Holyrood aims.
She also said in relation to the Gender Recognition Reform Bill that Westminster had considered something similar but rejected it.
She articulated this as one-up for her – the usual Scotland good, Westminster bad. It might well be that Westminster rejected it for very good reasons.
She is looking and sounding tired and jaded, perhaps she might consider doing an Ardern soon? The only downside being who would replace her?
M J Salter, Glassel, Banchory.
Scientific evidence overrules opinion
Sir, – You always know that you have won an argument when your opponent stoops to words like “exaggerated near-hysterical alarmism”.
So to Mr Wardrop I say, every letter I have written to this paper has been based on solid science, millions of data points and the contributions of thousands of scientists in research that spans nearly two centuries.
I do not argue on the basis of forecasts of what climate change might or might not do. All I ever look at is the science.
None of this is disputable – it is scientific fact and it all shows what we are doing. The number one cause is also not disputed, it is the extraction and burning of fossil fuels.
Finally, to claim as he does that there is “a climate change gravy train” in a year when fossil fuel interests have held the world to ransom, brought a huge smile to my face. What a joke.
Lesley Ellis, Reekitlane, Tarland.
Eco-zealots wrong on oil and gas use
Sir, – The latest statements from the Labour Party (who seem to be a shoe-in at the next general election) should worry most of us in the north-east, but also the rest of the UK as well.
Keir Starmer announced that there would be no further North Sea oil and gas exploration under a Labour government, and also that it would double down on the windfall tax.
The SNP claims to stand up for Scotland, but wagged by their Green tail, are singing the same song as labour.
We’re already seeing the effects of the current chancellor’s actions on the windfall tax, with Harbour Energy and Total – among others probably – moving their investments elsewhere, presumably to less risky locations.
The oil industry is well used to operating in risky environments with unstable governments. It’s worrying for us all surely that the UK is becoming one of those countries.
By all means continue towards the goal of net zero. But the target of the well-meaning eco-zealots is misguided. It is not the producers of oil and gas who are the creators of greenhouse gases – it is you and I who actually burn the stuff.
There are around 33 million petrol or diesel cars, five million light and heavy vans and trucks and 1.3 million motorcycles. Not to mention myriad domestic and industrial uses. Add to that the 24 million homes with gas or oil boilers.
You can cover the UK in windmills, but they will not power any of these uses until they’re replaced. Cars alone will continue to be sold until 2030, and will last for perhaps 20 years after that. Home boilers will also last well into the future.
Oil also has many uses other than as a fuel. Take plastics as an example, which do not produce greenhouse emissions.
We’re going to need oil and gas for a long time to come, while we transition away from their use as fuel.
Whoever blew up the Nordstream pipelines has done us a favour; demonstrating that dependence on outside supplies, even from friendly providers cannot be taken for granted.
So it would seem to be a logical conclusion to expand our domestic petroleum production as much as possible, even including fracking. That way we get the jobs and tax revenues instead of handing these out to other countries. And we get nearer to energy security.
During the pandemic politicians claimed to be “following the science”. On energy policy I hope that politicians of all parties would follow science and logic instead of dogma.
H Martin, Denside of Durris Road, Maryculter.
SNP no great help to business sector
Sir, – It is a Scottish tragedy that we are afflicted with the most anti-business government in the Western world.
The SNP is doing all in its power to close down the North Sea with no one honest enough to concede that hydrocarbons will be essential for civilised life for decades to come and importing oil and gas generates twice the carbon footprint, at great extra cost compared with domestic supplies.
The whisky industry enjoys worldwide recognition as the jewel in Scotland’s crown. It is worth £5.5bn annually. You might think the SNP would promote and support it but instead they are doing the reverse by planning to clamp down on all advertising for whisky and related merchandise.
Then there is the idiotic deposit return scheme for single-use bottles and cans.
This will cause extra costs for relevant businesses, create a cross-border black market and increase carbon footprints compared with present council-run recycling schemes.
It gets worse.
The SNP intends to outlaw future drive-through restaurants simply to save on the petrol driving to them. Logic dictates this will eventually apply across the sector.
Scottish businesses are subjected to the dead hand of the SNP.
Would someone care to explain how they think an independent Scotland could survive economically?
Dr Richard Marsh, Bellabeg House, Strathdon.
Farming a factor in wild salmon decline
Sir, – I was saddened to see Tavish Scott repeat his view that the decline in salmon numbers on the east coast of Scotland absolves salmon farming from blame for the decline of salmon in our west coast rivers.
John Aitchison and Rachel Mulrenan had already answered this point in the counter article you published.
Marine Scotland had identified three areas where salmon farming is impacting on wild salmon, sea lice, pollution, and interbreeding between escapee farm fish and wild salmon.
The truth is that east coast rivers do not “mirror” the decline in west coast rivers where in some cases stocks have collapsed completely. They have declined because salmon everywhere are under pressure.
While it is poorly understood the main reasons probably lie in the salmon’s life at sea. Global warming and plastic pollution being possible reasons. Within our rivers it is easier to study causes, and there is ample evidence of the threats posed by fish-eating birds, seals, habitat decline and pollution.
In short, stocks of Atlantic salmon are declining worldwide and salmon farming poses an additional burden on what is quickly becoming an endangered species.
Murray Hourston, Hammerfield Avenue, Aberdeen.
Fall in wind speed affects energy bills
Sir, – The TV news at the time of writing is mentioning how some householders will be paid to use less electricity at certain times due to people using more energy in colder weather.
This is only a half truth. Some areas like Scotland, the West Country and western Wales are probably using less energy as temperatures are unseasonably mild in these areas.
But my main point, and they didn’t mention this, is that UK wind speeds have collapsed resulting in electricity from wind falling from around 14,000 MW five days ago to around 4,000 MW just now.
Geoff Moore, Braeface Park, Alness.
The Dons – they’re nae affa pretty
Sir, – At least one good thing can come out of the Dons’ Darvel debacle.
The Aberdeen ultras can have a new chant:
It was Darvel in 2023
When the Dons made historeee
We are the boys from the Granite City
Our team is the Dons and they’re nae affa pretty
Sack Jim Goodwin and hire Graeme Shinnie…yeah (And so on and so forth).
Seriously, Graham Shinnie would be an excellent choice. Not least because he looks like Derek McInnes.
G Duncan. Stonehaven.
Like Truss?
Sir, – Jim Goodwin at Aberdeen reminds me a bit of Liz Truss’s tenure as PM – job too big for them, poor picking of team around them, poor decisions, unable to sort things that aren’t working and, despite all of this, delusional self belief in being the right person for the job. We all know what happened to her!
Ian Craig.
Bad decision
Sir, – While not condoning the shocking Darvel display, once again the Dons were on the end of a very poor offside decision from an official.
Nothing unusual when we visit the west of Scotland.
Allan Ross.
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