Why do we let litter spoil our beautiful city?
INTERESTING to hear Scotland has been nominated as the secondtop global holiday destination.
Edinburgh is a beautiful city — but the state of our streets are a disgrace due to rubbish accumulating on a daily basis. Why such a shortage of rubbish bins?
Please don’t say there is no money available to supply more. There seemed to be unlimited amount made available for an unwanted and unnecessary tram system.
And the parking facilities are abysmal – does the council plan to ban visitors from driving into our country from distant parts of the UK? The few car parks we have are always full and using meters doesn’t allow people time for relaxing sightseeing.
We have a good bus system, but why have these clumsy great double-deckers, which are usually empty apart from at peak times, thundering around town? Surely single-deckers would be more in keeping with the town’s streets and character and not so obtrusive.
The town is also chronically short of public toilets. Having to direct people into hotels and pubs seems to be the only solution but unless they use these places for lunch or coffee, this is not acceptable.
As a Scottish Blue Badge Tour Guide, I love my city and encourage people from all over the world to come visit Edinburgh and Scotland.
But visitors find it hard to accept that a capital city lacks a general post office — or a city-centre hospital. How do you explain the absence of these facilities to intelligent, well-travelled people?
I feel we, and tourists, deserve better. Anne MAncini, edinburgh.
Serious hit
WHEN A new flagship hospital has a ‘hit team’ on its wards trying to fix serious problems, it doesn’t matter if they are from England or from Mars — the mere fact they are needed in a shocking indictment of the NHS in Scotland.
Nicola Sturgeon seemed to suggest in First Minister’s Questions that because only a couple of the hit squad experts who are at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital are from England, that it’s acceptable. Talk about complacent. SuSAn RobeRtSon, Paisley, Renfrewshire.
Lack of talent
JOHN COOPER was so right when he wrote (Mail) about the talent of the SNP’s Holyrood contingent and referring to Derek Mackay as ‘the tip of the ice cube’.
Is Nicola Sturgeon happy to be surrounded by the paucity of talent in her cabinet, or is it a case of that’s all she has to choose from?
Look at the lineup. Derek Mackay, who was less than convincing at transport; Humza Yousaf who succeeded Mr Mackay; Angela Constance, who was an embarrassment as education minister, yet, like Mr Mackay gets another cabinet role; Shona Robison continues to oversee health despite her record, and Mike Russell, erstwhile fumbler at education, is brought back from the wilderness to cover Brexit. Then there’s ‘Honest’ John Swinney at Education now... The thought of this administration in control of an independent Scotland is so scary — so let’s hope it never happens!
e. nichollS, Dunfermline, Fife.
Nats’ fantasy land
GLAD Jonathan Brocklebank (Mail) hasn’t fallen into the SNP ‘You’ve never had it so good’ trap.
This all goes back to that ‘talking Scotland down’ rubbish that we heard in 2014.
Now the Nats’ plan is to pretend everything in Scotland is wonderful and that anyone disagreeing is thick or a Tory and probably both.
Trouble is, as Jonathan points out, there are so many problems with life under the SNP today and independence would worsen, not improve, them.
Julie DuncAn, edinburgh.
VIPs first . . .
THE Government will provide more resources to enable the NHS to cope with the present crisis only when a member of the Government, the Royal Family, a major donor or one of their nearest and dearest suffers a traumatic experience in A&E.
Remember how stalking, which had blighted the lives of many, mainly women, for decades, was made a criminal offence only after a member of the Royal Family became a victim and the perpetrator was acquitted in the courts?
As long as evils are happening to others, it’s easy for those who are ‘all right, Jack’ to turn a blind eye. Nothing will happen to improve social care because these people have enough money to provide for themselves and their dependants.
But in the case of a motor accident (as in the case of the Princess of Wales) all the private health care in the world won’t save you.
You’ll end up in A&E like everyone else and even getting priority attention will only mitigate the effects of overworked staff, overcrowded wards, poor hygiene, MRSA, C.diff and other problems. Statistically, this is surely bound to happen soon.
JAcQuie PeARce, cowes, ioW.
Head for freedom
THE recent story of a dog with its head stuck in railings shows that neither the animal inspectors nor the firefighters were paying attention in their First Aid courses. There’s no need to ‘cut the metal bars’ or even delay until the cutting equipment arrives.
When a dog — or a child — gets their head stuck, the head has gone in forwards, narrow end first. When rescuers try to pull the head out backwards, the ears get stuck in the same way as the barb on a fishhook prevents the fish from escaping.
The solution is simple, if inelegant: turn the dog or child upside down. With feet in the air, the face is pointing at the railings and should come through narrow end first.
It might sometimes be possible to turn the dog or child onto their back and let them just sit up. Remember the advice given to airmen in the war: ‘If you get shot down, captured and put in a prison with bars rather than a grille, if you can get your head through the bars, you should be able to get the rest of your body through, too.’ bRiAn M. RuSSell,
chadderton, Gtr Manchester.
Mum’s the word
AS A mother, I have a little sympathy for working mums (Mail), but please look at the issue from an employer’s point of view.
We pay salaries and benefits, provide training and holiday/sick pay, take risks setting up and running a business and pay large sums in corporation tax and VAT.
If we were to provide all employees with a work/home life balance (using Facebook, social media, personal phone calls and emails are standard nowadays) we would make no profit to pay bonuses. All we ask is dedication to your duties between 9am and 5pm. bARbARA MARShAll, helmdon, northants.
Make the NHS pay
THE NHS is a superb organisation and it has served us well. However, all things have to change to meet changing circumstances, and this applies to the NHS as much as anyone else.
Time for thinking outside the box. The NHS has many assets that could be used to offset the drain on funding. Here are a few suggestions for the NHS to top up its own coffers:
The Health service is, as it says, a health service, not a food service. If hospital patients were at home they would be paying for their food, why should it be free in hospital? Why not charge £5 per day per patient. It would bring in a lot of money.
Specialists employed by the NHS often do private work using NHS equipment/facilities. Are they charged for this? Another potential source of income.
Cosmetic surgery should always be charged for.
Gender-change surgery should be charged for.
Health tourists should always have to prove their identity and be charged.
Drunks using A&Es should be charged.
Mike bull, beauly, inverness-shire.
Sorting out crime
WHO could sift and sort out all our recycling?
If the Government Minister for Waste & Recycling were to liaise with the Government Minister for Community Services they would realise that there is an army of people at their disposal.
People with Community Payback Orders are required to work a set amount of hours, so why not send them to work in their local recycling centres?
Those with Community Payback Orders may then think twice about committing more crimes and we would see offenders making amends for the wrongs they have done.
iSAbellA Mckenzie, Aberdeen.
Driven to distraction
VOLKSWAGEN has already settled out of court in the U.S. and is completing a settlement in Spain while our government is faced with heavy fines by the EU for failing to take action against the company.
But VW says it will defend any UK legal challenges over the false statements made about emissions.
What makes the UK a soft option for a company to fool its customers? I received my omissions recall from VW last week and with it a box containing a pen, a small umbrella, a VW key ring and, adding insult to injury, a VW lapel badge. Owners in the U.S. and Spain are receiving thousands of dollars and euros while we get this.
Britain is turning into a dumping ground for third-rate products and is run by a spineless government afraid of confrontation of any description.
FRAnk ADAMSon, northampton. SINCE 2002, vehicle tax has been based on car levels of CO2 emissions. VW having falsified its figures, VW owners paid less than they should have for their car tax.
I can understand why the Government hasn’t tried to reclaim this underpayment: the admin costs are probably not worth the effort in terms of the extra money that might be raised.
But if the ‘class action’ lawsuit now under way is successful, there’s an opportunity for the Government to recover the lost tax at minimal cost. It could introduce a levy of, say, 25 per cent on all compensation awards.
bob cubitt, Daventry, northants.
Slippery slope
LOOKING at the York family at their palatial chalet (Mail), I thank my lucky stars for the happy days in Verbier in the late Fifties before the Royals and the ‘don’t-youknow-who-I-am?’ celebrities invaded that little bit of paradise.
Great skiing legends such as Jean-Claude Killy and Franz Klammer mixed with us locals, with no one alerting the media.
What wonderful memories, now ruined by the Yorks and vainglorious ‘celebrities’.
DAnA PeRRiS, ticehurst, Sussex.