These nuisance callers should be cut-off for good

LIKE many, we have been plagued for some time by pre-recorded nuisance phone calls.

However, I thought there might be light at the end of the tunnel with regards to one about ‘ boiler replacement... all homes must be done by 2016.’

The cheerful female asked us to ‘press 2 for more information, or press 9 to be removed from our database’. I duly pressed 9 – as, I suspect, did most people who received this call.

But it doesn’t actually work. Day after day we received the same recorded call. We pressed 9 – but still she came back.

Whoever gains power after Thursday, can you please tighten the regulations on nuisance calls?

I cannot imagine how awful they must be for elderly people who live alone and who make an attempt to answer every time they get a call.

A duthie, Perth

Blame the politicians

A MARKED decline in literacy levels within Scottish schools comes as no great surprise to many who are or were teachers.

In 2004 I retired from secondary teaching after some 35 years.

The problem with education today is politicians, especially those given ministerial responsibility. Frequently their educational experience is limited to their time in school or at university, yet they profess to have greater knowledge and insight than those whose vocation is to educate.

Learning is a long, arduous but hopefully engaging process which must be finely honed by its practitioners. This requires dedication on the part of teachers and above all, time and stability within the system to allow the true experts to develop what is required.

Over five decades I have witnessed many changes in education, some for the better, others introduced purely to satisfy political dogma. It is pupils’ needs and society’s expectations that must be met by politicians, not their own, short-term biased agenda.

Graham wyllie, Airdrie, lanarkshire

This food bug’s lethal

I SUFFERED from salmonella food poisoning (Mail) in May 1982. I was 38 and was told by my doctor after- wards that I would have died if I’d been elderly or a child. We hear a lot about campylobacter but salmonella is very nasty.

h.French, Ayton, Berwickshire.

Unleash the grey power

AS someone who lost her youth many decades ago I hope the good old folks in the Edinburgh South constituency have recovered from the very nasty ageist insults of SNP candidate Neil Hay. Come Thursday I hope they get to their polling stations to make sure he isn’t elected. If he loses I shall have a glass of champagne. And if Alex Salmond loses in Gordon I shall drink the whole bottle! louise middledorP, giffnock, renfrewshire. THE election is no more than a desperate fight for individual survival among politicians, with voters deciding who will keep their job and who will go. Elections are all about the futures of politicians, not our country’s future.

Malcolm Parkin, kinross.

Ed’s flirting with danger

IN the referendum, 55 per cent of the nation voted not for Labour, the Tories or Lib Dems but to stay part of the United Kingdom.

So why is Ed Miliband selling the majority of voters down the river by even contemplating a deal with the SNP, a party committed to splitting the UK? If a deal happens, I’m sure most Scottish Labour voters will never forgive the party.

john Brown, irvine, Ayrshire. WITH Scottish Labour and its proUnion allies fearing a heavy defeat to the SNP on Thursday, they are reverting to fear tactics as used during the referendum campaign to try to scare voters.

One such claim is that the fall in the price of oil would make it impossible for the country to function if the SNP is successful in its demands for full fiscal autonomy.

This could not be further from the truth. North Sea oil revenues since the late 1960s raised around £260billion in taxes. Every penny of this has gone directly to the Exchequer in London. Scotland, with a mere twelfth of the UK population has received through the Barnett formula only a minor share of this, whereas had it full fiscal control or independence, every penny would have belonged to us. Even if there was a 50 per cent drop in oil revenues, it would still be a big bonus for Scotland. john jAPPy, muir of ord,

inverness-shire.

Generating controversy

I’VE always been a bit puzzled as to why a group of wind turbines should be called a ‘wind farm’.

A more appropriate name would be ‘subsidy farm’ on the basis that they are subsidised when they produce intermittent electricity and again subsidised through constraint payments when they don’t.

g.m lindsAy, kinross.

Our debt to Nepalese

I AM appalled at the poor level of financial support committed by the UK Government to assist those affected by the Nepalese earthquake. Thousands have been killed and many thousands more injured, but the UK Government has committed a mere £15million in humanitarian aid.

The irony of this is that this year marks two centuries of outstanding and loyal service by the Gurkhas to the British Army.

Since their foundation in 1815 the Gurkhas have received 13 Victoria Crosses. More than 200,000 fought in both world wars, with 43,000 fatalities.

However, despite such loyalty retired Gurkhas have battled to remain in the United Kingdom and receive equal pensions with soldiers they served alongside – a shameful state of affairs.

The people of Nepal deserve better from our Government.

Alex orr, edinburgh.