Fitba’ crazy

I agree with the push for Scotland to be recognised as “the home of football”, but not, perhaps, the area of Glasgow that wishes to claim it for itself (Scotsman, 11 March). To the best of my knowledge, the oldest football in the world was found in Stirling and dates from Mary Queen of Scots’ time, so Stirling has a few centuries’ lead over Glasgow.

However, the story of football is illustrated best in The Steel Bonnets by George Macdonald Fraser. He tells how the Border Reivers, who were as clannish as the Highlanders, were a menace for a long period in the 15th and 16th centuries, even creating an area without recognised government on the borders of England and Scotland called "The Debatable Lands" as neither Scotland nor England effectively ruled them.

The Reivers' violent conduct spawned such well-known terms as "freelance", meaning a "moss trooper" with a lance for hire and blackmail, which is self-explanatory. Many families were “bereaved” after an encounter with these ruffians who often left the menfolk dead and the cattle rustled.

Where did they plan their devilment? Often, they would meet their fellow Reivers at football matches, which were wild affairs with little or no rules. As a descendant of the Grays, which is a Borders family, like the Dicksons, Elliots, Armstrongs and so forth, I would say that the right to claim historical ownership of football is firmly in the Borderlands of Scotland and England.

ANDREW HN GRAY

Edinburgh

quakes and contaminated ground water.

Nuclear power, apart from the unsolved problem of toxic nuclear waste, is uneconomic. A German study of nuclear plants constructed around the world since 1951 found the average plant made a loss of 4.8 billion Euros. Small modular reactors (SMRS) won’t save the day. There’s just one in Russia, and SMRS in Wales and Cumbria have both folded. That’s why the UK Government is forcing consumers to bear the costs of nuclear, not private companies, with its Nuclear Energy Financing Bill.

Renewables generate nearly 100 per cent of Scotland’s electricity and there’s capacity for far more. Scotland possesses a quarter of Europe’s offshore wind and tidal power, and ten per cent of its wave power potential. Renewables projects can be developed quickly and are six times cheaper than gas generation. Yet the UK’S privatised Ofgem has prevented new renewables projects by charging Scottish generators £7.36/MWH and just £0.49 in England and Wales.

Westminster controls energy policy and would rather subsidise nuclear power and Big Oil than develop Scotland’s vast renewables potential.

LEAH GUNN BARRETT

Edinburgh