Named Person cost the SNP its majority
Knew Too Much. I read Jonathan’s book on cosmic ordering, supposedly written by a guardian angel. According to him, anxiety and depression sabotage the ability to make cosmic ordering work, but it’s unlikely that anyone would become interested in such things in the first place if they thought all was well. everybody knows not all dreams come true.
IAN ELLIS, Douglas, Isle of Man.
A sign of disrespect
MAnY years ago, we witnessed black American athletes on the Olympic podium giving clenched-fist salutes and thereby showing disrespect for their country.
Last Thursday, we witnessed the youngest MSP, a Green, giving such a salute at the swearing-in of the Scottish Parliament at holyrood. By doing so he showed his gross disrespect for her Majesty the Queen.
This young man should be thoroughly ashamed of himself and did his cause no good.
B. WOOD, Aberdeen.
Pitched battles
ThIS year, with football at the height of world popularity, and the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, a quote from The Comedy Of errors seems apt: ‘Like a football, you do spurn me thus.’
Is football itself not a comedy of trial and errors? In 1583, for instance, football was denounced by the academic Philip Stubbs as ‘a bloody and murderous practice’.
In those days, it was every man for himself. Punching ‘so that noses would gush with blood’ was common. So, too, was receiving a broken neck or back, experiencing dislocated limbs and joints or even taking steps to ‘cause eyes to bulge’.
Further illustrating the violence of football in those days, Stubbs said: ‘Whoever escaped would not get off scot-free, for some that were wounded and twisted, dieth of it.’
And no wonder: opponents often had grudges to settle: ‘They would dash their adversary against the heart, with their elbows, or hit him under the short ribs with their gripped fists, or with their knees, to catch him upon the hip or come down on his neck with a hundred such murdering devices.’
All of which ‘created further malice, hatred and envy, leading to fighting, murder and great effusion of blood, as experienced daily’.
Does today’s yellow card signify a cowardly tactic and the red card a bloody one? no, merely a few too many submissive dives before the goal in a bloodless battle where the referee’s decision is final. After 400-plus years, football has cleaned up its act.
These days, any player on the pitch with bloody or murderous intent receives the ultimate punishment: a threematch ban. And that’s as civilised as you can get. STANLEY D. BUNTING, London
NW9.
Last word in talent
OF all the live shows of Britain’s Got Talent, more than half have been won by the last act to perform.
Since the show’s inception in 2007, there have been 43 semi-finals and nine finals. Of these, in 26 semi-finals and four finals, the popular vote has been won by the final act, a success rate of 58 per cent.
The other five final winners all performed in the second half of the show, three of them in the penultimate position. The earliest winning performer was George Sampson in 2008 who was on stage seventh out of ten.
The 2015 final was remarkable in that the first six of the 12 performers all finished in the bottom six positions: the chances of that happening on a level playing field are one in 924. Of the 43 semi-finals, only two were won by acts performing in the first half of the show.
I contacted ITv, but was told: ‘There is no correlation between performing last and winning the show.’ I disagree. The figures suggest it is a massive advantage to be on stage late and especially at the end.
JOHN TURNOCK, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Third time lucky?
hAvInG tried to follow the In/ Out debate over the past few months, let me see if I’ve got it right: if we stay in the eU, we’re doomed. If we come out, we’re doomed. OK — what’s the third choice? HARRY IRVINE, Crawley, W. Sussex.
EU made me laugh
The idea that Brussels could stop us from extraditing terror suspects (Mail) made me smile. Our judges have been doing this for years without any help from Brussels. All they need is a sob story from a human rights lawyer. GRAHAM LENCH, Stoke-on- Trent.