Will ‘cultists’ win?

ers, with more than 4,000 ecclesiastical buildings and 12,500 acres of land with a then capitalised value of around £515.8m – that’s some property business! The churches claim that all their buildings by default benefit the community, something which, no doubt, private schools, sports clubs, universities and others could also claim.

I have no doubt any move to tax the churches would be met with the now-familiar allegation of “Christian persecution” which usually accompanies any challenge to religious privilege. We have already seen this “tax on faith” argument over Sunday parking charges when apparently it is right that Sunday shoppers, workers and tourists should pay for parking but not church-goers. Surely it’s time the churches paid their taxes too, in the interests of fairness and of genuinely benefiting the wider community?

It’s worth recalling that the churches were quick off the mark to condemn the likes of Starbucks, Google and Amazon for tax avoidance. Is this this another case of “don’t do as we do, just do as we say”?

ALISTAIR MCBAY National Secular Society Atholl Crescent, Edinburgh One can’t help but suspect political motivation behind moves to hit independent schools financially.

The SNP’S central education target, unquestioned by all other Holyrood parties, is to “close the attainment gap.” This would entail pupils from the wealthiest families performing at an identical level to those from the least welloff backgrounds. On this view, costly independent schools that provide excellent education clearly contribute to the attainment gap, and are, therefore, part of the problem.

The whole attainment gap philosophy is founded on the false assumption that all children are equally capable of academic progress, or that academic ability is evenly distributed across social classes, and that divergences of outcome must therefore be caused by structural injustices in society. Our education system should provide the oppor- to excel for all pupils, focusing additional attention on those facing particular difficulties. The goal should be raising attainment for all, not “closing the attainment gap”.

Independent schools should enjoy charitable status automatically, as educating children to a high standard is a good to society.

RICHARD LUCAS Bath Street, Glasgow We hear much of Neoliberalism these days. If I’ve got it right, it argues that the free operation of the market will result in a satisfactory state of society. Obstruction of its free operation will result in the opposite. Now, the first statement might be true. But the second is of a different order; it is not a statement ostensibly of fact. It’s a threat. And Neoliberalism, insisting on the absoluteness of its rule, is exposed. It’s a cult.

And it seems to be acquiring ever-greater numbers of proselytes.

We’ll agree that we live in a market environment. The question is, do we do so exclusively and always? The answer must be, no. We create environments where the rule of the market specifically does not apply. The scientist in the lab, the scholar in the class, the sportsman on the park, for example, operate under different rules.

And I can draw your attention to a physical environment created in this same spirit.

Calton Hill is dedicated to the City of Edinburgh and the Civilisation of Scotland and Britain. City and Civilisation are the same thing. It’s the town of Edinburgh where the market rules. We live in a palimpsestical sort of place of aspiration and practicality, where the one overlays or underlies the other.

The time comes for the final decision on the five-star hotel and the Royal High School. It would be a moral and aesthetic error to think that the hotel development could be other than trashy. The prestige of the city, in the long run, resides in it being otherwise.

Sanctuaries are vulnerable. Is Calton Hill to be stained