Sir, – The piece regarding a horrifically-wounded stag being found and humanely dispatched by stalker Michael Ross (January 28) near the John Muir Trust’s (JMT) Quinag property in Assynt makes for distressing reading.
Equally distressing is the JMT’s flat denial that the stag in question was originally wounded on their land while the burden of evidence would indicate otherwise.
Of course the JMT are no strangers to being in denial about their shortcomings in the ethical, humane and respectful management of deer on their properties.
Two years ago when a dog walker reported on deer carcases left in full view of the hillwalkers’ path at Steall in Glen Nevis they claimed it was a photoshoot staged by persons hostile to the organisation, while a few years earlier they attempted to justify littering a Knoydart hillside with rotting stag carcases by claiming they were impossible to extract and they would feed the resident eagle population.
The collusion of NatureScot (formerly SNH) in the lead-up to this incident by granting the authorisation for out-of-season shooting on the flimsiest of grounds is nothing short of scandalous.
But of course they are driven by the current SNP political agenda, aided and abetted by their Green Party bedmates, which appears to dictate that deer numbers should be drastically cut by fair means or foul.
Our iconic red deer are now reduced to vermin status while alien species such as beaver and wild boar, stemming from illegal releases, continue to multiply unchecked!
I have worked in upland estate management for the best part of 50 years and used to be confident that there was a future for my way of life.
I am now becoming increasingly despondent.
Mike MacNally, Home Farm Cottage, Invergarry.
Chairman’s ego an own goal for Dons?
Sir, – In my opinion the mess at Pittodrie is down to a chairman on an ego trip to run a football club, but with no idea how, and certainly it’s not his job to tell the press where the team is weak.
Collectively, the way the Andy Considine situation was handled by both Cormack and Goodwin was disgusting – all season we have struggled with the defence.
The irony is that, had Considine still been at the club, Goodwin and the chairman might look less clueless.
Neil Shand, Season ticket holder, Cairnorrie, Methlick.
Energy firms hang on to their profits
Sir, – Wholesale gas prices over the last year have steadily fallen from their peak in the summer and are now less than a third of the peak price. The price has not been this low for about two years.
So do we hear the energy suppliers shouting about how much excessive profit they are making now and how they need to rapidly bring the price down to be fair? I think not.
Big profits are being made and I think we as customers are being taken to the cleaners.
David M Edes, Brudes Hill, Inverness.
Sinking feeling over cruise ship visitors
Sir, – It is reported that 25 cruise ships will visit the new deepwater harbour in Nigg, Aberdeen, this year and 25,000 passengers will visit the city and, on average, spend about £134 each.
In my experience when I have travelled I always want to see the historic parts of the place I am in, sample the food and, of course, go shopping.
The best place for this is the main street with all the fashion shops.
Well if their guide takes them to Union Street, let’s hope they like charity shops, bookies, etc, because that’s all there is to offer except Primark who have a wide range of low-cost fashion.
I don’t think they will spend £134 there as you could buy a couple of racks of clothes for a quarter of that sum.
Don McKay, Provost Hogg Court, Torry, Aberdeen.
Independence will give Scots a voice
Sir, – Mark Openshaw asks (Letters, January 28): “why leave one union for another?”
I think most people can see the difference. We would have free movement across Europe, a free trade deal.
Owing to Brexit we don’t have the protection of the EU. The Westminster government can now do as it pleases with Scotland, trying to undermine our Parliament wherever they can.
As part of the UK we don’t have a voice at Westminster, being ignored and side-lined. As an independent country within the EU we would have a veto.
We would pay no more than 2% of our tax take with all the benefits, whereas at the moment we pay an estimated 70% to be part of the UK with few or no benefits.
This percentage could be a lot higher, we won’t know until we are independent.
Herbert Petrie, Parkhill, Dyce, Aberdeen.
State ‘freebies’ no longer sustainable
Sir, – Amid the hysteria emerging from Westminster that the ex-chairman of the Tory Party Nadhim Zahawi had been lax in his tax affairs and Boris Johnson had sought help from wealthy friends to arrange a sizeable loan, a most important snippet of news escaped the headlines, – the alarming realisation that the UK is sliding into unsustainable debt.
Borrowing in December amounted to around £27 billion, reflecting the huge cost of energy support and soaring debt interest linked to high inflation.
So where is the money to come from to halt the descent?
A bit more tax from the deepest pockets will be the universal cry, the medicine that will cure our financial pain.
Those days have gone – we are all in this together.
In the first instance, those who control the country’s money bank must realise that universal state aid to defray energy costs is not affordable.
Those who can afford to pay the full amount, even though it may cause realignment of household spending, must do so.
Stand on your own two feet was a necessity for hard-up families 50 years ago.
It’s much harder in the present day with so many depending on freebies. Our government in Holyrood must be world champions on providing something for nothing, and reliance on state aid is a lingering symptom from the furlough scheme.
Whether the chairman or those who helped Johnson get his loan depart is of little importance – small beer to the dire economic future facing our grandchildren if we continue along our current route.
Ivan W Reid, Kirkburn, Laurencekirk.
Council should salt pavements
Sir, – We all pay council tax one way or another but the pavements in Aberdeen housing estates is beyond belief and we should not be “slip sliding away!”
During this A&E crisis NHS Grampian have faced an unnecessary increase in accidents due to councils not sanding/salting pavements.
What are the bush/grass cutters doing when they cannot do the job they are employed to do? They should be deployed to get a bucket, like in the old days, fill it with salt and sprinkle the offending pavements.
Protecting the young and old should be a priority for our councils.
T. Shirron, Aberdeen.
Good point, for once
Sir-, Herbert Petrie finally posts a letter in which he makes a good valid point. No manipulation of fact, questionable statistics or blaming the Tories.
He questions why humans push animal species to near extinction by interfering with their natural environment and then ignoring the consequences for nothing more than greed.
Perhaps if we had not burnt so much of the forests of the Amazon and west Africa we would not have such a problem with CO2 emissions.
Hats off (for once) to Mr Petrie.
Walter Service, Danestone, Aberdeen.
FM’s ‘non-answers’ devalue democracy
Sir, – The SNP government under Nicola Sturgeon has seriously corrupted democracy at the Scottish Parliament by its management of the committee system.
Sturgeon has further devalued first minister’s questions by her strategy of providing long-winded non- answers to questions.
It took Douglas Ross four attempts in questioning her before she finally admitted that the rapist Isla Bryson had been moved to a men’s prison.
Further, in answer to Liam Kerr’s perfectly reasonable question regarding the timing of the promised upgrade to the A96, again a long-winded non-answer was the response – this being overseen by a supine presiding officer (interesting that Westminster, Canada, both houses in the US, Australia and New Zealand all have speakers’ presiding, but Scotland is different).
Sturgeon bangs on about democracy, but she is presiding over an ongoing deliberate, significant reduction of democratic systems in Scotland.
M.J. Salter, Glassel, Banchory.
Sturgeon’s coat on shaky nail over Bill
Sir, – The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill has exposed how inept and dangerous Nicola Sturgeon’s government is.
The intervention of Westminster has been a lifeline as it became quite apparent to them that not only was this Bill unworkable for the rest of the UK but that so many flaws existed it posed a risk to the security of women and children and that it would cause absolute mayhem for Scotland, as it has.
The right process now for any leader who has caused so much damage and anger would be for them to step aside quickly to allow others with more credibility to take over.
But Sturgeon will never go of her own volition – it will take a challenge to oust her and that challenge is waiting on the sidelines.
Perhaps whoever is next will not be any better but no one could be worse.
A first minister who calls those that quite rightly stood up against the Bill homophobic, racist and transphobic is not the person that should ever be in charge of anything.
Democracy is a word she uses but clearly does not understand. She does not want opposing opinions, she wants to silence them.
Her words give her away as being totally unfit for purpose and unable to control her vicious anger while her actions are now a danger to the women and children of Scotland.
Pauline Eggermont, Beauly.
Tarring opponents with same brush
Sir, – In a recent televised interview Nicola Sturgeon clamed that some of the critics of her government’s Gender Reform Bill, although not all of them, were probably transphobic, homophobic and maybe even racist.
I think if Ms Sturgeon took the time to look she will find that in the general population and even among her own party some, but not all, will be transphobic, homophobic, racist and even bigoted.
This is another case of the SNP dogma that if you don’t support them 100% you must obviously be against them.
Hugh Millar, Castlegreen Road, Thurso.
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