Sir, – Your editorial “Cycling is in the mainstream now” says that the Kidical Mass campaign in Inverness shows the strength of feeling about better cycling routes is one-sided (The Press and Journal, October 4).
Specialist cycling routes cost council tax-payers money and since the ratio of cyclists to non-cyclists is one in 40 the cyclist is heavily subsidised.
If cyclists can afford a new bike costing between £400 and £2,000, then they should contribute to the specialist facilities they demand.
Buy a bike and there should be a “cycle tax” added of 20%, thus ending the argument that cyclists pay nothing toward their specialist routes.
Clark Cross, Springfield Road, Linlithgow.
Time to open up Pandora’s box
Sir, – The difference between tax avoidance and evasion is if it can help the political class and their “elite” friends hide their assets from public scrutiny.
I have yet to see turkeys voting for Christmas, and this year won’t be any different. It’s arguable that the only turkeys are us, the general public, who’ll waddle back to the voting booths and put these very same people back in power.
What the “Pandora Papers” have shown is the outstanding, some may say impressive, amount of greed the people named have been afflicted with. This is not just “ordinary” greed, this is greed comparable to an eighth wonder of the world.
Behind the public persona of the politicians and the “elite” is their true nature, and it is parasitic, uncaring and vile in the extreme.
The fact that someone can actually have a billion pounds and still try to dodge a tax bill shows where their priorities lie.
Certainly not with nurses who have to fight extremely hard for a pay rise; those who survive through foodbanks; families who will have to cut back even more because of the reversal of Universal Credit uplift, and definitely not with those who have lost pensions through the utter greed of some of those mentioned in the papers.
Still, all this will just be wrapping for your Friday night fish supper soon, and we’ll continue to blame immigrants and benefit claimants for the state of financial affairs because we’re too busy watching Strictly or concerning ourselves with which “celebrity” will be booted out of the jungle next to care what’s really going on.
Davy Reid, Fordoun, Aberdeenshire.
Nuclear is a green energy solution
Sir, – A very interesting and pointed article in Energy Voice by Brian Wilson raises the question about electricity generation within an independent Scotland.
As Wilson points out, nuclear generation is a clean and green solution to base load electricity.
The requirement for the reliable maintenance of this base load has been amply demonstrated recently with prolonged anti-cyclonic weather resulting in very low wind generation.
The SNP’s visceral denunciation of anything nuclear is not going to help Scotland in the future, making it reliant on electricity imports from south of the border, some of which will be possibly generated by small modular reactors which the UK Government are now sponsoring. Once again this is exposing the blinkered narrow view of policies.
We have “free” travel for under- 22s, “free” bikes for children and other fripperies. Nothing is free – someone pays!
Mike Salter, Glassel, Banchory.
Facebook outage was refreshing
Sir, – I found it almost refreshing to discover that Facebook was offline for a few hours as I spent time in the garden instead.
After years of Facebook participation I now have to spend more and more time trawling through the garbage to find the odd gem of interest. It would be a good idea for Facebook to go offline on a regular daily basis and let us get on with more useful things.
Dennis Forbes Grattan, Mugiemoss Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeen.