I WILL be interested to see whether drug mule Melissa Reid opts to keep a low profile on her return to Scotland.
Yesterday the tabloids displayed typical hypocrisy by decrying the 22-year-old’s “red carpet” arrival at Glasgow Airport ... despite those security measures being required to protect her from reporters working for those same papers.
Reid committed a serious crime, but she has served a significant sentence, miles away from home, and she should now be given the chance to reintegrate into Scottish society.
She may wish to use her experience to educate others, but she will need to tread carefully if she chooses to do so. While hers is a instructive cautionary tale, her crime also brought her a peculiar type of celebrity as part of the “Peru Two”, from which she should not be seen to profit.
Reid should take heed of the backlash that followed a TV interview by fellow drug mule Michaella McCollum after what some described as an “X Factor” makeover. But at the end of the day, she probably can’t win. Whatever she does next, the tabloids will find fault.
Kenneth Gray
Falkirk
Bullying Trump has shown his disdain for Scots
COREY Lewandowski is not the first person to be “ordered out” by Donald Trump (Trump’s Troubles, The National, June 22).
While on a guided holiday of New York last year, our group was taken into Trump Tower and was told that Trump lives at the top of the building. On the same day, we heard of a Scots lady who had recently been in a lift in Trump Tower when Trump stepped in. Knowing only that he had golf course connections in Scotland, she thought it would be nice to “connect” and told him where she came from. He immediately stopped the lift and ordered her out!
Lewandowski’s exit was presumably due to a perceived fault in his performance, but this lady’s “forced” exit from the lift was crass pettiness of the first order. He is a disgrace to many people and to many things, not least his genetic roots in Lewis, where such behaviour would never have been dreamed of.
So, if you are in a lift at Turnberry this week and Trump gets in, don’t ask him to get out. Just ask him what he’s doing here if he can’t tolerate the company of Scots.
Dennis White
Lanark
I HAVE just read David Mckeen’s Long Letter (It’s human nature, not scaremongering, to fear immigration, The National, June 22). There is only one major flaw in his comparisons he uses of immigration – they were not immigration but invasions, imperialism and colonial expansionism.
You’re not going to tell me that the Syrian refugees fleeing war, the Polish builder trying to get a better life here or the Spanish nurse working in our NHS is intent on imperial expansionism and colonial invasion.
Crìsdean Mac Fhearghais
Edinburgh
WE had a rail strike in Scotland over the introduction of driver-only trains, on the new electrified line that will come into operation from Edinburgh to Glasgow. I can understand the frustration that guards feel at the loss of their jobs, but striking is not the answer.
Modern trains with modern braking systems eliminated the use of the brake man, who would manually slow the train on overrun.
Computerised ticketing eliminated the Kelty clippie, when driver-only buses arrived on the scene. New technology will win in the end: companies cannot afford to have a guard on a train simply to give someone a job.
In China they have underground systems that are fully automated and devoid of staff. The trains are all controlled by computer, overseen by staff in a control room. This will be the blueprint for all newly built underground systems in future; it is called progress.
When the steam-powered looms first came to Dunfermline, the hand loom weavers rioted. So bad did the situation become that troops had to be called up from Edinburgh to quell the riot. Historians called it the industrial revolution, and it’s still going on today and will never stop.
What we as a people have to do is make sure that the progress brought about by modern technology benefits all the people in the country, not as in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was the mill owners who accumulated all the wealth
Walter Hamilton
Elie
I LIKE plain talking. When Mick Cash from the RMT says: “Abellio/ScotRail refuse to talk and are instead holed up in their bunker counting out the cash they have lifted out of passenger and taxpayer’s pockets”, I admire his directness (RMT calls on Scottish Government to ‘get a grip’ on ScotRail, The National, June 23).
I would love to be wrong here, but it was my understanding that all profits went back to Holland, so that makes me suspicious about this company to begin with. Given the dismissive statement on ScotRail’s website that the RMT is “dragging Scotland into a needless, damaging strike”, I would like to read Mick’s responses to Phil Vester’s points about the strike not being about driver-only trains, and not being about the downgrading of the role of conductor.
If this were true, why would the RMT be striking? Is it fun to risk your job? Is it fun to potentially anger your customers? I am a woman who often travels late at night on my own, and, like many other people, have felt intimidated and threatened on trains, so the more staff the better.
Good, happy and experienced staff, good customer service, and – most importantly, not feeling unsafe – is what makes a successful company, not penny pinching and threatening the workforce.
Catriona Black
Motherwell
I AM not a regular train user, preferring to take the bus when travelling between Edinburgh and Glasgow. I confess I find the fare structures bamboozling and catching trains harassing.
However, I recently had occasion to enquire about buying an off-peak ticket. The man in the ticket office advised me that the cost of my off-peak journey would be £12.60 return, regardless of whether I booked the ticket on the day or in advance.
On leaving the station (sans ticket) I passed by an advertising poster on a phone box advertising £10 off-peak returns between Edinburgh and Glasgow for holders of ScotRail Smartcards. I subsequently applied for such a card, so that I may benefit from the best fares in future. What hope do passengers like me have of navigating ScotRail’s ticketing system if the company’s own staff give incorrect responses to straightforward questions about fares?
Joan Brown
Edinburgh
Letters II: The Remainers have been patronising, simplistic and evasive
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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