Let’s show support for Perth 2021 bid Serious on climate change
Dear Editor It was interesting to read in Friday’s Perthshire Advertiser the official launch of the UK City of Culture competition for 2021.
No doubt there will be people who roll their eyes at Perth being among the runners for the coveted title although I can’t vouch that it’s favourite as I have placed a bet myself - saying that Perth will need to sort itself out if it has any chance to make it.
That may be true, but those with any understanding of the UK city of culture competition will realise that it’s a two-way street.
Look at previous entries for the title, both winners and losers - Dundee,Swansea Bay and Leicester, all runnersup; as well as winners such as Derry/Londonderry and current host Hull. They all had well documented problemsunemployment, housing issues, or just a bad reputation.
Derry/Londonderry used the opportunity of being the inaugural host of the title to rewrite that bad name. At the heart of the Troubles, the Peace Bridge has helped the cross-community city in its efforts to move on.
Dundee is now midway through a dramatic transformation - and much of that was simply based on projects being committed because the city was in the running for the 2017 title.
Hull has also made a strong start to its year in the spotlight.
Perth is a long way from the problems experienced by those areas.
A win for Perth2021 would be dramatic, in terms of investment that it could bring. The quoted millions of inward investment and regeneration Hull has experienced in the run-up to 2017 has been phenomenal.
Extrapolate those cases, and cities such as Liverpool, from 2008, and Bradford which were involved in the European capital of culture competition - won by Liverpool - and you see the awakening of sleeping giants, just waiting for that opportune moment to highlight their literary and cultural pasts and future.
As one former Perth Academy student said: “Think globally, act locally.”
A Perth man also said: “To live for a time close to great minds is the best kind of education”.
To be involved in the 2021 competition is important. Our entry appears to be a serious attempt and that can only be good for our reputation - and it might just attract the right people to choose Perth. Name and address supplied Because he finds the press releases of Lang Banks, Scotland director of WWF, “continuous”and “monotonous”(Perthshire view, January 6) Clark Cross wants Mr Banks to go away to China. May I suggest that Mr Banks takes Mr Cross with him? First, by his frequent letters to the papers about climate change which make the same points again and again, Mr Cross’s correspondence may also be described as “continuous”and “monotonous”. Secondly, and much more importantly, Mr Cross would see there first hand that, unlike himself, the Chinese government treats climate change as a very serious matter . Gordon Dilworth Pitlochry