Wind waste

Independent research by the University of Edinburgh has found that only those from families earning over £31,000 have benefitted from this policy. The higher education budget has been balanced on the backs of the poor.

Those students from deprived areas in Scotland who are able to be admitted to university find that to study they must take on large loans and try to find paid employment to support their studies.

The forthcoming university exam board season will see students from deprived backgrounds thrown out of university not due to a lack of ability or ambition, but a failure of the Scottish Government to offer these students a fair opportunity to take advantage of the difference a good university education can make. (DR) SCOTT ARTHUR Buckstone Gardens

Edinburgh and I believe that they, more than any other, have the power to change people’s attitudes to cyclists on our roads.

The more women who cycle to work in skirts and heels, who cycle with their kids to school on their sit-up-and-beg bikes or who simply use two wheels to get from one place to another, the more a sense of normality and acceptance of cyclists in towns and cities will ensue.

Where their numbers are on the rise, cycling is seen as a regular part of everyday life.

With government investment in cycling and active travel increasing, and the emergence of many female cycling groups such as Filles a Velo and Belles on Bikes, there is more and more encouragement for women to take up cycling. Long may it continue. BRENDA MITCHELL Cycle Law Scotland

Borders developed world. It is quite ludicrous that we still have queues of heavily polluting buses in all our cities, when the most of the rest of Europe replaced them with trams long ago: electric, clean, fast and almost silent, with up to seven carriages on the busy routes.

They also have the advantage that passengers buy their tickets in advance, and stamp them when they alight, while the driver gets on with driving the vehicle.

There is no nonsense with the driver hanging about at stops, while at the same time trying to sell tickets.

The Edinburgh tram fiasco was nothing to do with the trams per se. It was entirely the result of a stupid council trying to run themselves a project which they didn’t begin to understand, instead of handing it over to professional consulting engineers to manage.

ALASTAIR MAXWELL‑IRVING Blairlogie

Stirling CLARK Cross’ letter (25 April) picks up on one of RSPB Scotland’s concerns about SSE’S proposed wind farm at Strathy South; that is that the carbon benefits of this particular wind farm could be small and, in a worst case, almost zero.

This is due to the location of Strathy South in the heart of the Flow Country, which, as well as being one of the most important and heavily protected peatlands in Europe, is a huge natural carbon store.

Most wind farms in Scotland do provide clear carbon benefits, which, after all, is their primary purpose, and RSPB Scotland therefore remains a firm supporter of wind energy in the right places.

However, the carbon benefits of Strathy South are questionable at best and it would also harm a wide range of important bird species.

Strathy South is clearly not the right place for a wind farm.

It is unthinkable that it might be approved and the sooner Scottish ministers reject Strathy South, the sooner we can move on to delivering carbon benefits from wind farms in more suitable locations, including in other sites that would benefit the communities of Caithness and Sutherland. AEDÁN SMITH RSPB Scotland

Edinburgh If you cannot use it it is not a deterrent. If you do use it you have already lost as it is a weapon of last resort. Pointless waste of money.

- Who to trust The biggest threat to this country was Blair’s party following Bush into an illegal war. Terrorists are the biggest threat, thanks to that decision.

- Itslikethis It is folly to spend £100 billion we can’t afford on a system we can’t fire, all so a few dinosaurs can carry on pretending their “empire” is still a power.

- Deansy Nuclear weapons prevent a nuclear war only.

- JCA Reid The SNP defence budget would be very small, probably only around £5 million. This would be a one-off payment to purchase 5 million white flags.

- Phishphood The responsibility of the UK Government is to defend the UK. There are many ways to do that, including a less expensive method that achieves the same results. If you don’t have nuclear weapons you are less likely to be a target in the first place.

- George Macdonald