A town like Florence
Fines might focus Covidiots’ minds
DAVE Henderson (Letters, December 28) claims we are heading for a police state as laws are being brought in to enforce pandemic rules.
Over the past couple of days I have been made aware of someone who travelled home from London to G12, someone who lives in Bristol posting pictures with their family in Glasgow, and as I have previously mentioned, the London crowd who appear to have decamped to their holiday homes in South Devon where my daughter stays. I’m sorry, but if these “Covidiots” cannot understand simple plain English statements and advice like “do not travel out of level 4 areas to minimise spread of new variant” then hell mend them. Enforce it with laws. We are already seeing cases where it appears the Kent strain has been exported to Europe.
If folk are too stupid or arrogant to adhere to advice then perhaps a substantial fine or worse will focus their attention.
Douglas Jardine,
Bishopbriggs.
I HEARTILY agree that masks should be worn when outside (“Scots should be told to wear masks outdoors, medics say”, The Herald, December 28). It’s the only way to help fight this virus. First Minister of Scotland and Prime Minister of the UK please note.
Barbara Steel, Bishopbriggs.
I LOVED Rosemary Goring’s article (“Spending Christmas away from Florence is like waking up to no gifts under the tree”, The Herald, December 23). As a frequent visitor to Italy’s quieter regions out of season, I felt I could step into that tiny Tuscan hillside town “in the frozen silence taking in the white lights strung across the narrow medieval streets… only marginally brighter than the frost that glittered on the cobblestones and the stars overhead”.
That idyll also raised a wry smile when it reminded me of a line from the sitcom Frasier when Niles, the fastidious psychiatrist, was describing a rural Tuscan hilltop town where a local craftsman made the most beautiful leather shoes. Each pair was lovingly crafted and the final result so exquisite that the people of the village gathered together when a pair was completed and the church bells rang out in celebration.
At the end of this tale, Niles’s brash colleague, looking at him in disbelief, finally commented: “Boy! There’s a town that really needs a bowling alley!”
Worlds apart, but I know which one I prefer.
P Dunbar,
Newton Mearns.