I WONDER if any other readers of The National have had similar experiences to mine?

For example, I’ve experienced this specifically at the WH Smith newsagent at Waverley Station, Edinburgh but at other supermarket newspaper display-points too. At Waverley I have thought it odd when the usual stock of The National has been “absent”, and on closer examination I have found the top copy of the bundle to be obscured by one of the tabloid red-tops or a racing newspaper slipped in over them. Presumably either a Brit-Nat member of the public has done this, or it has been done by a Brit-Nat member of staff. I guess this is a request that other readers be vigilant. Your National may have been hidden and available. have another look! Complain!

Graeme D Eddie, Dunbar, East Lothian

I ENJOYED a trip from Glasgow to see my friend in Bridge of Weir on Tuesday. She was a little late in picking me up from Johnston train station so I got a coffee, lovely homemade roll – and The National from the beautifully-kept station’s wee shop. I was delighted to see it given prominent place. Keep it up!

Pat Bates, Glasgow

I AM really enjoying reading about more and more small businesses paying the Living Wage (Living Wage helps us get into top gear, says car parts firm, The National, Sep 27) and seeing evidence of engaged and happy employees. This is consistent with academic research in this field and companies dealing with customers should particularly take this on board. If employees, working in interactive service, are motivated and happy the staff will deliver better service; thus retaining customers and increasing profits.

The article also stated that staff turnover was down dramatically which can be another huge cost saving outcome of living wage introduction to any business and also good for customer relations. The pressure put on teams in a high labour turnover environment can be extremely demotivating as new faces keep coming and going; meaning strong co-worker relationships are not able to be formed.

The biggest cost of high labour turnover is paid by the organisation itself. The time and resources spent on recruitment, selection and induction processes are some of the highest outgoings for a HR department; consideration must also be given to the astronomical costs for online advertising/agency fees for specific skills. If a company has low labour turnover it will avoid these costs making it more profitable and more harmonious place to work for the employees.

Perhaps the argument of cost saving needs to be seen from a different perspective. The big service sector businesses approach payroll costs in a very short-sighted manner with low wages to keep outgoings down. When considering the case studies brought up in The National they are clearly debunking this assumed behaviour which is rife in this industry. Capitalists may not be willing to change this common practice, with regards to rates of pay, but perhaps being more open-minded and strategic they could actually drive more profit; with a more fair and win-win approach.

Brian Finlay, Rutherglen

ONCE again I thoroughly enjoyed Cat Boyd’s article (Labour must not let the Right have a monopoly on Englishness, The National, Sep 27), though her comments comparing the history of English and Scottish radicalism rather surprised me. EP Thompson’s book is certainly an outstanding contribution to radicalism, though, personally, I prefer Thomas Johnston’s History of the Working Classes in Scotland. Shelley I greatly admire as a poet and radical, but Burns was, in my opinion, more expressive in his radicalism. His poem, A Winter Night, with its emphatic class conscious theme, makes clear why he, not Shelley, was the favourite poet of Karl Marx. Charles Darwin must ever be praised for setting a positive and progressive opinion on the subject of religion; it is, however, worth noting that, George H Sabine, in his classic contribution to political theory acknowledged that, (David) “Hume’s philosophy was the most potent solvent of religious dogmatism produced by modern thought.”

The Tolpuddle Martyrs certainly deserve their honoured place in trade union history, though the martyrs of the Scottish class war of 1820, Baird, Hardie and old James Wilson of Strathaven, are no less so! Finally, I have never ceased in my praise for applauding the outstanding achievements of Thomas Paine. His Age of Reason rocked the core belief of Christianity, whilst his splendid Rights of Man shook the establishment rigid. Yet, in conclusion, I would stress that Robert Burns, in his magnificent anti-clerical satires, reached a wider audience, whilst his verses on democracy, A Man’s A Man For A’ That, gave Paine’s Rights of Man an international audience.

Norrie Paton, Kilkerran Park

CAT Boyd claims that England has a more interesting radical history than Scotland.

This impression comes about only because Scotland’s history is less well-known and, to this day, still less taught in schools.

But where they had Thomas Paine, Scotland had Thomas Muir. Robert Burns, who wrote A Man’s A Man For A’ That, Why Should We Idly Waste Our Prime and Man Was Made To Mourn was undoubtedly a more radical bard than Shakespeare who wrote plays flattering the English kings.

The 1820 martyrs, unlike the Tolpuddle Martyrs [who were transported to Australia] fought – and died – for the cause of political as well as economic reform.

And what of John Maclean, Mary Barbour, and the Red Clydesiders?

Mary McCabe, Glasgow

SEXISM at school in the playground, in the workplace, in films, from the glamour world. Attacking young girls, mature women. Why are boys and men doing this? Is it because there are more powerful women on the international stage? Young girls and women need to be made bulletproof from these attacks and there should be more recognition of their contribution in the workplace etc.

AC, Aberdeen

I DON’T know why Unite are fretting over jobs in the North Sea (Union urges North Sea job action, The National, Sep 28).

Cameron made it very clear that the “broad shoulders” of the UK would support these jobs during lean times.

What? He’s gone? Oh dear. Perhaps his successor will be better. What? disMAY!

John Levack, Edinburgh