Letters Page

Published:

Highlighting Christmas toys of bygone days

SIR, – I read with interest and much enjoyment your excellent article on the toys of Christmas past (Press and Journal, November 5). I am sure I am not the only reader who enjoyed the trip down memory lane and the thought-provoking comments on today’s toys. Many of us must remember White’s in Correction Wynd, Aberdeen, and the late and much-lamented Beattie’s in Market Street.

Some of your readers may be interested to know that they do not have to wait until a trip to Derbyshire brings them to Steve Fulford’s Toys of Yesteryear Museum to relive some of their past Christmas mornings.

Tomorrow, in the Treetops Hotel, Aberdeen, Grampian Model Transport Collectors are staging their Autumn Swap Meet. Hornby, Dinky, Corgi and Matchbox will be on display, and for sale, among other new and old models. Visitors are welcome to come along just to look. Profits from the meet are distributed to local charities.

No doubt your readers are already aware of James May’s latest series on BBC2 on Tuesday evenings exploring toys of the last century. Next week, he will be building a bridge over a canal in Liverpool, Frank Hornby’s birthplace, using Meccano.

Angus Plumb,

Nellfield Place,

Aberdeen.

Congestion in and out of Inverness

SIR, – It’s all very well for C. Scatchard living in Inverness (Press and Journal, November 3) to criticise drivers causing congestion in and out of the city.

Raigmore Hospital appointments are often at 9am for all patients on that day for scans, and so on, and some will have to travel from Thurso, Wick, Golspie, etc, and cannot know if anyone else in their area is also going.

Some drivers are going to pick up family, and so on, for the return journey, or are buying a carload of shopping to take home. Others may be returning alone after having taken passengers into Inverness.

Not everyone can use public transport because of disability, or would not be able to carry large quantities of shopping home without a car. So please put yourself in others’ shoes.

Mrs Vivienne Forsyth,

Rhives Lodge,

Golspie.

Black Isle swimming pool

SIR, – The continued failure of Highland Council to back the Black Isle swimming pool project is a disgrace. Black Isle councillors were elected on promises to support it, which they reiterated last year at a public meeting in Fortrose, but they have completely let us down.

Why has Highland Council failed us so spectacularly? It is strange how it somehow manages to find money for the things it wants. How much money has been poured into the Aquadome recently?

The Scottish and UK Governments are little better. We were promised that “all parts” of Scotland would benefit from the London Olympics and the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, but the opposite is happening.

Please, Black Isle Swimming Pool Foundation, after more than 30 years of hard work, the fantastic fundraising, the tremendous local support, the great and growing need and a brilliant business plan, don’t give up on us. Perhaps you should bypass the council altogether and set up and run this facility independently?

John Wood,

Duke Street,

Cromarty.

Some MPs just ‘do not get it’

SIR, – Systematic fiddling of allowances at the taxpayers’ expense has to stop. The venality of MPs, as evidenced by the details exposed in the media, shocked the nation. Now some MPs are suggesting that they should have a £40,000 pay increase as compensation for lost allowances. They simply “do not get it”. Sir Christopher Kelly’s proposals should be implemented in full. If an MP believes they are hard done by they can resign and seek other gainful employment.

Many of their CVs would be modest in the extreme. They might discover it difficult to find commensurate remuneration in the real world. Possibly they might like to try living on the current modest state pension.

There are far too many MPs – we need to see a sensible reduction. Parliament is top-heavy and, to succinctly quote Sir Stuart Rose, of Marks & Spencer, “the UK is skint”. If we hear MPs bleat for a further £40,000 per annum, they may rest assured that we will not vote for them. I, like countless others, have had enough.

A. Morland,

Whitbred Road,

Salisbury.

Reconvening the Scottish parliament

SIR, – I agree with Dougie Don’s analysis (Press and Journal, November 6) of the constitutional position of the Scottish parliament which has been in suspension since the Union of 1707. There is a constitutionally binding referendum which we hold regularly every four to five years which can legitimately decide if the Scottish parliament can be reconvened. It is called a general election.

If it really is the will of the Scottish people to reconvene the Scottish parliament, it is only necessary to return a majority of Scottish MPs (30 at the next election) who are willing to recall the Scottish parliament without the unnecessary expense of holding a constitutionally non-binding referendum as proposed by the current Scottish Government.

Jim Conn,

Ardieknowes,

Maud,

Peterhead.

Dispatch from Battle of Culloden

SIR, – Following your excellent two-page history of the Aberdeen Journal/Press and Journal on July 27 by Morag Lindsay, I was intrigued that the inspiration for James Chalmers (1713-64) to start the newspaper was the reception given to his eyewitness account of the Battle of Culloden.

I have unsuccessfully approached many institutions to get a copy of this dispatch, including the Press and Journal, Culloden Visitor Centre and the new Highland Archive and Registration Centre in Inverness. The visitor centre is, of course, very keen to get a copy. Can any reader help?

Brian L. Burnett,

Drummossie,

The Greens,

Mintlaw.