Kelly has right to hold Glasgow advice sessions

David Spence asserted in his letter in the Reformer of August 29 that during the last Holyrood parliament, while James Kelly was the constituency Labour MSP, he“never saw any other Glasgow MSPs writing in our local paper nor any other MSP holding a surgery”.

I can assure Mr Spence that, in relation to not seeing “any other MSP holding a surgery”, he is totally wrong.

During the last Holyrood parliament Bob Doris was an SNP list MSP for Glasgow and on his contact page of the Scottish Government website he had surgeries scheduled in Royal Burgh House in Rutherglen.

Ruth Davidson was a Conservative list MSP for Glasgow and she held a meeting in Rutherglen Town Hall where any constituents who wished to go along to speak to her could do so.

I find Mr Spence’s statement that Mr Kelly should hold surgeries in “his own constituency of Glasgow” incomprehensible since, by holding a surgery in Rutherglen, Mr Kelly was in part of the Glasgow region for which he is an elected list MSP.

I also do not understand his comment “Move on, Mr Kelly” since James Kelly was re-elected to the Scottish Parliament as a list MSP for the Glasgow region (of which Cambuslang and Rutherglen form part).

In this Holyrood parliament the Glasgow regional list comprises four Labour MSPs, two Conservative MSPs and one Green Party MSP.

If it was acceptable for Bob Doris, as an SNP list MSP for Glasgow in the last Holyrood parliament, to choose to hold surgeries in Rutherglen then why should it not be equally acceptable for James Kelly or, indeed, any other list MSP for Glasgow in this Holyrood parliament to do exactly the same thing if they choose?

Or does Mr Spence think no Glasgow list MSP in this Holyrood parliament should have the right to hold any surgeries and/or meetings in Cambuslang or Rutherglen - and if not, why not? Elizabeth Allan via email

Mr McAvoy’s article ‘Rise in council tax’ in last week’s Reformer omitted to mention the rest of the SNP’s reforms, which state they will extend the council tax reduction scheme to low-income households with children.

In the government’s own words: “This will directly benefit 77,000 low income households by an average of £173 per year, including 140,000 children.

“Many low-income families living in high band properties will already be in receipt of council tax reduction but we’ll extend this to put in place an exemption for higher-band households who are below average earnings, up to a maximum of £25,000 net income. This will exempt 54,000 households from changes, one-third of them pensioners.”

South Lanarkshire Council fought for nine years against their female employees who were demanding equal pay. The women rightly won, receiving a £75m payout. With legal fees it cost SLC around £90m.

In 2010 the then head of finance Linda Hardie took early retirement and SLC paid £427,000 to her pension and a further £63,000 for six months paid leave. During her watch a scammer emailed finance, requesting payment of £100,000 which was paid, and finance made £38m of “arithmetical errors” in budget cuts.

In May this year Peter Hendry, SLC’s passenger services coordinator and election agent for SLC’s Labour deputy leader, was given a written warning after he awarded taxi contracts to his nephew.

SLC’s internal investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing by Hendry but they believed, because of the family link, he should not have been involved in the awards (Herald, May 1).

I agree with Mr McAvoy that the voters should take note when casting their votes but only when they know all of the facts. Charles Andrew address supplied

Taxreliefplan Flyingvisit

The Lanarkshire Philatelic Society was delighted to welcome John McGonigle and Keith Walker, both members of the Dumfries Philatelic Society, to the meeting on Friday, October 7.

Keith Walker displayed New Zealand airmails and gave a fascinating insight into the movement of mail by air from New Zealand to countries around the world. He showed many airmail covers, starting from 1932, from New Zealand to Scotland. Many covers tracked the details of the journey taken by the mail to get to its destination.

A cover showed mail to England which began with a Quantas flight then transferred to BOAC. Many covers mailed to other countries showed similar flight exchanges by different airlines. Also a little different was the cover showing that to deliver mail from New Zealand to the Pitcairn Islands necessitated a ‘mail drop’.

Keith also displayed beautiful stamps of Finland, all designed by Signe Hammersten-Jansson: definitives, commemorations, anniversaries and many stamps issued with an extra charity charge for the Red Cross and also anti-tuberculosis.

John McGonigle was next-door in Sweden with his display of Swedish first-day covers and corresponding booklets of stamps and also some stamps issued in coils. These showed a great variety of subjects, including famous people, FIFA World Cup 1958, notable buildings, ice hockey championships, the changeover from right-hand to left-hand drive, the tercentenary of the Swedish Post Office and many sports.

It was amazing to view stamp booklets covering such a range of subjects.

Other first day covers included many Swedish events, including the 50th anniversary of Swedish Flag Day and 50 years since dissolution from Norway.

Brian Dow led members in giving warm thanks to the guests for such varied and enjoyable displays.

Our next meeting in the Caledonian Bowling Club, Motherwell Road, Hamilton, is on Friday, November 4, at 7.30pm when members look forward to welcoming Lynn Robinson with her display of USA.

Anyone with an interest in stamps, postal history, postcards, etc, is very welcome to attend. More details of the society’s programme can be obtained from our website at www.lanarkshireps. co.uk. Elsie Miller Lanarkshire Philatelic Society