Betrayal of our sailing heritage
WHAT is happening to our country?
As a founding member of the Glasgow Youth Service Sailing Group that went on to become the Outdoor Centre at Blairvadach and reading now about its closure saddened me on the basis of the loss to the young people who benefit from the activities of this type of organisation. Now reading that the National Water Sports Centre on Cumbrae (“Watersport staff hit out at ‘bamboozling’ move after being told centre will shut”, The Herald, March 7) is to close ,it seems to me that if it isn’t a sports activity with a ball then no one is much interested.
In a small way, when I was still sailing the club that I was a member of had a policy of actively encouraging child and youth introduction to water sports and through the Royal Yachting Association this continues at a high level. But sailing is rarely if ever reported in the press and never on the BBC or other terrestrial TV channels in
Britain.
Compare this with CNBC and its monthly sailing broadcasts often presented by Scotland’s Olympic medalist Shirley Roberson. On this programme the achievements of the world’s sailing youth are displayed.
Next year the Clyde will hold another Fife regatta. This is to celebrate the incredible yachts that were built at Fairlie and even the last one in 2013 got little if any media coverage. Yacht builders in Scotland such as Mcgruer at Clynder and Robertson of Sandbank and Miller’s in Fife have all gone.
With this heritage now gone and probably not known outside the sailing fraternity I wonder now if there is any point in continuing with the celebration of Scotland’s coasts and waters?
Wouldn’t the £1 million-plus earmarked be better spent on indoor ball sports?
Ian Gray,
Croftamie.
Free TV licence must be reintroduced
IN today’s mail, I received a letter from TV Licensing. It confirms that I will require to pay for my TV licence from June 1, 2020. It concludes: “Don’t worry though, you don’t need to do anything now...”
I disagree. Something does need to be done. For many people, the
TV is the principal or only source of news. A free TV licence is arguably as important to many as the annual heating allowance, free bus travel and free NHS prescriptions.
To that end, I would urge politicians of all parties to petition the Government to reinstate the free TV licence for the aged.
Allan C Steele,
Giffnock.
THE BBC should go for sponsorship of some of its programmes. For example, all quiz programmes with cash prizes would have these prizes, which are quite considerable, paid for by the sponsoring company instead of the licence- payer.
This might allow the over -75s licence fee to be partially reduced when it is reintroduced in June. John K Richmond, Lochwinnoch.
The rocking horror show
THE reminiscences of R Russell Smith on his childhood reading (Letters, March 7) brought back distant memories of when I was very young and had just started to read.
To encourage my reading a kindly aunt gave me the present of a colourful book about a rocking horse living happily with a young family. The problem was she hadn’t read the synopsis which would have told her that the book told the scary story of the family moving house but forgetting to take the rocking horse with them and was all about the difficulties the rocking horse faced in its efforts to find the family.
Even though ultimately it had a happy ending, the plight of that plucky rocking horse gave me nightmares for months which I can still remember.
Alan Fitzpatrick,
Dunlop.