Letters Page

Published:

Decline in British standards just not cricket

SIR, – We moan a lot about declining standards in education, manners – in general living, in fact – but is it any wonder when our young people are being led down the garden path by those who should know much better?

We pay a licence fee to Westminster to receive broadcasts by the BBC, an English-based organisation which has a duty to uphold British values, yet among the information we actually get are weather forecasts in which the forecaster openly regrets that England may not win a cricket match because it may not rain at the cricket ground.

When I was young, schools insisted that we learn English poetry, such as Sir Henry Newbolt’s famous work, Vitai Lampada. For those who don’t know, that’s the one where English soldiers are encouraged to behave according to the rules of cricket.

Now, however, England’s idea of a famous win seems to be glorying in the fact that the weather stopped the other team winning.

Pyrrhic victories, perhaps, but it seems to fit the modern English psyche. Whatever happened to “Play up, play up. And play the game”? Can anyone suggest what can be done to stop the pervasion of this poisonous attitude into the minds of Scottish schoolchildren.

Dougie Don, Murrayfield, Castletown, Caithness.

Eden Court Theatre concert

SIR, – Earlier this month, my wife and I and 74 other ticket-holders attended the concert in Eden Court Theatre given by the Noordhollands Youth Orchestra from the Netherlands, which was visiting Inverness as part of the recent Aberdeen International Youth Festival.

The stage was packed to capacity, with over 100 well-presented musicians aged 12 to 26 forming a full symphony orchestra, while the auditorium was occupied by only 76 people.

In his opening remarks, Bas Pollard, the concert-master, even thanked us for being there. What was the reason for the extremely poor attendance? Was it because the concert was being held on a Sunday evening? Perhaps the items on the programme were not popular enough. Or maybe the publicity by the theatre was inadequate.

Whatever it was, I hope it will not be repeated should a similar concert be held in Eden Court Theatre in the future.

Incidentally, those who were not there missed a superb musical occasion.

Ken Watson,

Easter Kinkell,

Conon Bridge, Dingwall.

Immigration to Scotland

SIR, – One wonders how long it will be before the Scottish people realise how bereft of commonsense are the Scottish separatists (alias Nationalists) whose whip at Westminster, Pete Wishart, recommends further waves of immigration to Scotland.

With unemployment rising at the daily rate of hundreds in Scotland, a prescription for more employment seekers from abroad is nothing short of lunacy.

Quite apart from the economic facts, for a Scottish “nationalist” to recommend further adulteration of the native Scottish population by folk “frae a’ the airts” shows how essentially anti-nationalist Salmond’s separatists really are.

If immigration is permitted to rise at the same rate as it is in England, the indigenous Scots will follow the English example of heading for a minority status in their own country within the next 40 years.

Nations like ours are made of blood ties and familial kinships over thousands of years. Pete Wishart and the civic “nationalists” should make it plain that what they want is not a nation of Scotch, but a nation of hotch-potch.

Alastair Harper,

House of Gask,

Lathalmond,

near Dunfermline.

Problem of youth unemployment

SIR, – As the latest round of unemployment statistics – as well as lessons from previous recessions – highlight, youth unemployment tends to be significantly higher than that of total unemployment, with over one in six young people jobless, compared to the Scottish average of just 7%.

However, this is not a recent concern; it has been an enduring and largely unchanged social thorn for a decade. The real long-term problem for society is not the majority of the 900,000 young people who will find work when the economy recovers. It is the 300,000 young people currently on the dole queue who, a recent report suggests, need intensive support to become job ready. And that’s what we, at Fairbridge, along with many others, do on a daily basis. For the most marginalised young people, the job market has never seemed further away. Many face multiple barriers to participation (lack of jobs, poverty of aspiration, substance misuse, homelessness or mental-health issues) and, as a result, they are currently lost in the noise surrounding youth unemployment as attention focuses on those closest to the job market, such as school-leavers and graduates.

Supporting those young people who are ready and able to work is, of course, vital, but we must also invest in those that require more intensive support.

Tom Watson,

Director, Fairbridge in Scotland, Albion Road,

Edinburgh.

Oats no longer seen in north-east

SIR, – In the programme, Scotland on Film (BBC1, August 11), there was a scene where men – in the rain – were stacking sheaves of oats. This reminded me that, nowadays, oats does not seem to be grown in north-east Scotland. It’s barley predominantly, with some wheat and, of course, oilseed rape.

As oats is, supposedly – or was – the staple diet of the Scots race, why is this? In all my wanderings in Aberdeenshire, Banff, Kincardine and Angus, I only recall seeing one field of oats last year, and it evidently was not going to ripen at the usual harvest time.

Dorothy Mair,

Abbey Square, Aberdeen.