INSIDE TRACK: Serious or silly, it’s all open to debate
IS it New Year already? It seems no time at all since our columns were looking forward with relish to 2015. Our lead letters on January 1 last year were focusing on how the nation would move on after the independence referendum. Since that day, we have, by my extremely rough reckoning, published around 3,120 letters – a matter of 717, 600 words or so. And the substantive issue is still being debated with vim and vigour.
Of course, 2015 was a General Election year, so much of the debate on the Letters pages has revolved around politics. But among the thousands of contributions we have published, we have also discussed virtually every subject under the sun.
In January, for instance, we looked at the future of renewables, considered the issue of religious education in schools, had a lively debate around key aspects of the life of Winston Churchill around the 50th anniversary of his death, and looked at the fallout from the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris.
In February, we had a foretaste of discontent to come with rumblings about anticipated transport and parking problems for Glasgow’s new superhospital. March saw us discussing GM crops and electric vehicles; April brought in assisted dying, the future of Scots law and the teaching of German.
In May, aside from the aforementioned Westminster election, we covered the Human Rights Act and the Mediterranean migrants crisis was beginning to get an airing. In June we talked about Latin and Gaelic, lamented the loss of The Arches as an arts venue, and looked at the Greek financial bailout.
July saw a furious debate over the new name for what is now the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital; many of our correspondents to this day call it anything but.
In August, there was a discussion over whether unpasteurised milk would be a viable proposition; in September the same question was being asked about the Scottish steel industry. In October we had a call to ban sniffing in public places; November we returned to Paris, the setting for another terrorist atrocity, and this month we have looked at the management of our national parks.
There has been something for everyone in our Letters pages, of weighty import and touching on everyday issues. There have been many profound epistles, often passionate, sometimes deeply intellectual and frequently thought-provoking.
As we strive to cope with the aftermath of our festive excesses, however, let me end with picking out a couple of my favourites. On the matter of misleading railway announcements, the Rev David Geddie regaled us, in August, with the tale of the lady who asked the porter: “Does this train stop at Gourock?” and received the reply: “There’ll be a hell of a splash if it doesn’t.”
And one from February, when John Birkett of St Andrews recalled the meeting in 1961 between then Kirk Moderator Dr Archibald Craig and Pope John XXIII – “Supposedly His Holiness laid a hand on Dr Craig’s shoulder, saying: ‘Arrivederci, Erchie’, to which Dr Craig responded: ‘Ca’ canny, Giovanni’.”
Let’s start 2016 with a smile. We might be grateful for it soon enough.
‘‘ Much of the debate has revolved around politics. But we have also discussed virtually every subject under the sun