The RSPCA is wrong. Puli dogs are a joy
The RSPCA has left many of its supporters seeing red following an ill-informed post on social media.
The post on the charity’s official Twitter feed during Crufts read: ‘Sad that dogs like the hungarian Puli can find it difficult to even see! Can affect behaviour, eg. react fearfully as often startled.’
That a large organisation should make such a foolish remark provoked disbelief among Puli owners. Some are thinking of ending donations to the RSPCA.
I’ve owned Puli dogs for 20 years, and currently have four. Though the cords on their heads fall over the face, they have never had a problem with seeing or ‘reacted fearfully’ when ‘startled’.
The Puli, a breed that has existed for at least 2,000 years, is a hardworking, intelligent herding dog. It would hardly be capable of herding if it couldn’t see.
Posts such as these have a direct impact on Puli rescue charities. Please, RSPCA, do your research. CORINNE MUNFORD,
Epsom, Surrey.
Auld enemy
IS IT a fallacy to think england is full of racists who hate the Scots?
Look at the comments on the BBC News website relating to the proposed referendum. ‘Parasitic scum’ is one of the nicer ones. Most of the others would have attracted the attention of the police if directed at another race.
Two weeks ago, the Chancellor said on Radio Scotland, in a voice dripping with condescension, that the Scottish Government should ‘stick to the day job’ — in other words, look after the little things they are graciously allowed to manage, and leave important stuff, such as Brexit and Trident, to the grown-ups in London.
EDDIE LAUGHLAN, Cumbernauld, Lanarks.
Expat Scots can’t vote
I’M A Scot in england. I have always thought of myself as a Scot, and people identify me as one.
I was surprised to read that everyone over 16 who is an eU or Commonwealth national living in Scotland will be able to vote in a new independence referendum, but Scottish-born people living in the rest of the UK will not.
I wrote asking for a vote when the first independence referendum took place, but was told No. British people, eU citizens and people from 19 different countries were eligible to vote, but not us.
When I left school in the Fifties, I couldn’t get a job in my native Glasgow due to my religion and the school I attended. A firm in england took me on to serve my trade before going into the Army.
With IndyRef2 coming up, we received the consultation paper and wrote to the Scottish Office in plenty of time, asking for a vote for expats living in the rest of the UK. The reply we received was that the Scottish Government is blocking a vote for Scots expats. MATTHEW O’CONNOR,
Blackpool, Lancs.
No-frills flight
MARK PALMeR enjoyed five-star treatment on the world’s longest passenger flight: 17½ hours from Qatar to New Zealand (Mail).
he was lucky! During the war against Japan, our crew was sent to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) for endurance flying to Malaysia. We carried explosives, firearms, cameras and currency on a 3,500- mile round trip.
We trained on B24 Liberators at Nassau, Bahamas, and flew over the Bermuda Triangle so we had complete faith in our instruments and the four engines which could keep us airborne with only two working.
Bomb racks were removed to make way for an extra 500 gallons of fuel, and all armaments were removed except the rear guns. We carried only 200 rounds of ammunition — a single burst to frighten off an enemy.
The trips went down the Malacca Strait, along the edge of Sumatra, flying below 200ft to avoid radar on the cliffs there.
Our meeting place was usually a clearing, about 12ft in diameter, with a white cross in the middle. Men on the ground cleared away everything we dropped in minutes, disappearing into the jungle.
On the long trip home, we were alone over the Indian Ocean. As engineer, I checked the fuel level, and the pilot reduced speed to conserve fuel if necessary.
The noise was horrendous: there was no insulation, and the electric cables, hydraulic pipes, flight operation levers and wires were exposed in the fuselage.
There were no seats as such, and the toilet was a chemical unit. We arrived back at base 19½ hours after leaving. A. G. BRIGNALL, Scarborough, N. Yorks.
Not going Dutch
The BBC is fond of telling us that Geert Wilders, in the Netherlands, wanted to pick up the mantle of Trump and Brexit.
The Corporation is telling us that if we voted to leave the eU, we are supporters of a Dutch Right-winger whose utterances on banning the Koran and forbidding Islam are highly inflammatory, and back a U.S. President who has espoused misogynistic and xenophobic views.
I find this offensive. I voted to leave an organisation I see as deeply flawed and, at times, bordering on corrupt. I am not a supporter of either Trump or Wilders, and I’m sure the majority of us who voted to leave the eU don’t share their views.
ST JOHN COX, Taunton, Somerset.
Don’t bank on us
hOW much more pressure are pensioners going to be put under? We are expected to open the ‘Bank of Grandad’ before we’ve closed the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’.
Many of us have several grandchildren and few resources to fall back on. There is now the worry of care in later years, as families are not in the habit of looking after the old. Pensioners lucky enough to own property are drawing on equity to compensate for miserly returns on investments.
Youngsters who expect financial help cause guilt for elderly relatives who can’t stump up.
If they work hard, go without smart cars and holidays for a bit, and get on the housing ladder under their own steam, they will come to value that independence. It is character-building. JAN MILLINGTON, Southborough, Kent.
Grammars work
We ARe an ordinary working family with two sons, one who was educated at a comprehensive, and another who went to grammar school. The difference in their schooling was phenomenal.
At the comprehensive, there was no discipline, and although our son was expected to do well, he came out with only two O-levels. his maths is good, but because he hadn’t been taught calculus, he failed, and had to resit after being taught by a friend.
The son who attended grammar school went on to get a first at Cambridge, and an Oxford PhD.
If children from working- class families have the ability, they deserve the opportunity of a grammar-school education.
Mrs JEAN TAYLOR, Birmingham.