Letters Page

Published:

Safeguarding ships from pirates

SIR, – After the increase in the reported acts of piracy off the Horn of Africa, I still believe that little is being done to safeguard the journeys of the various tankers, container ships and so on.

I was always led to believe that international organisations such as Nato and the United Nations would find it paramount to protect these shipping lanes as ships enter and leave the Gulf of Aden and Suez Canal zones.

I would hate to think that the next targets could be cruise ships.

These acts of piracy have gone on for many years while governments have sat on their hands.

Do shipping companies need to employ their own onboard private security/militia to deal with this escalating problem?

Patrick Murphy,

Rosebank Place,

Aberdeen.

Variations of Gaelic names

SIR, – Neil Dunbar, of Thurso, stated (Letters, April 16) that in the quarter century he had lived in Caithness, he had never once heard Gaelic spoken in the street or in any of the shops, bars and restaurants he had frequented.

Has he never heard his own name spoken, given that Neil is a variation of the Gaelic Niall (champion) and that Dunbar is the Gaelic rendering of the earlier Cumbric (P-Celtic) Dynbaer (as recorded in 709 AD) meaning “summit fort”?

Indeed, even the name of Mr Dunbar's home town of Thurso is from the earlier Gaelic Thorsa (as recorded in 1152 AD) and the Modern Gaelic Theorsa, as from Tarve-Dunum (the Romano-Celtic name for the nearby Dunnet Head), meaning “bull fort”.

Alexander S. Waugh,

1 Pantoch Gardens,

Banchory.

Bilingual road signs

SIR, – Bilingual road signs are worth having because bairns in the Highlands used to get the strap if they were caught using Gaelic in school or in the playground. Also because, after Culloden, a serious and long-lasting effort was made by successive British governments to get rid of all things that identified the Highlanders and their way of life, which particularly included their language. Later, to their shame, the education bigwigs in Edinburgh saw to it that lowlanders were parachuted in as teachers in Gaelic-speaking areas.

But I think there are other, more-modern, reasons for welcoming these signs – clear black letters for the anglicised names and softer colours for the corrected older forms. It gives visitors a sense of coming to a “foreign" part of Britain. You are coming into the world the rest of Scotland has adopted as its own, with the kilt and bagpipes and uisge beatha as our new symbols of identity, even nationhood.

Even for us locals, these new signs teach us the original meaning of the places we visit or in which we live. So, for the French-named Beauly, you get a Gaelic name telling you it was a monks' town. Gairloch is meaningless until you see Gearrloch and gearr means “short”, and so on.

In short – and out of a very big Highland budget – it is siller weil spint.

Sandy Grant Mitchell,

5 Seaton Cottages,

The Dock, Avoch.

Windfarm proposal

SIR, – It was reported that on a recent visit to the Western Isles, Jim Mather, minister for enterprise, energy and tourism, would announce ministerial consent for a large windfarm proposal at Eisgein, in the south of Lewis. He did not do so, citing unspecified reasons for his delay, much to the disappointment of the developer and of wind enthusiasts on Lewis, such as the leader of the council.

The Scottish Government's planning guidance comes in various forms. One, NPPG 14: Natural Heritage says that all National Scenic Areas are of national importance and it is government policy to safeguard them to ensure that their important natural heritage features are conserved. Eisgein is in a National Scenic Area.

The guidance stresses that development which would affect a designated area of national importance should be permitted only where the objectives of designation and the overall integrity of the area will not be compromised; or any significant adverse effects on the qualities for which the area has been designated are clearly outweighed by social or economic benefits of national importance (my italics).

The minister will want to follow his own guidance, which is imperative in this instance.

If the minister consents the scheme, how will he be able to demonstrate that this windfarm, proposed for an island location with no satisfactory connection to the mainland, will deliver social or economic benefits of national importance? I respectfully doubt if he can.

Catriona Campbell,

chairwoman, Moorland Without Turbines (MWT),

North Bragar,

Lewis.

Restaurant sign on side of building

SIR, – In the Your Life supplement (the Press and Journal, April 11), you featured The Quay Restaurant, Montrose.

We are delighted that you have drawn attention in this way to one of Angus’s fine restaurants.

However, your piece mentioned that Angus Council had refused the owners permission to erect a sign on the side of the building.

Angus Council approved an application from the restaurant owners in October 2008 for alterations and the erection of a new sign for the front of the restaurant.

We have not received a proposal to erect a sign on the side of the building, but would be happy to consider such a proposal if the owners wished to put this forward to us.

We wish the owners of The Quay Restaurant every success for the future.

David Lumgair,

convener, development standards,

Angus Council,

The Cross,

Forfar.