Letters: Belgian shutdown should be a warning to Scotland

When concrete-degradation was found in one Belgian nuclear reactor, all similar reactors had to be shut down for investigation. As these reactors provide over a third of Belgium’s electrical power the country is having to try to import power. Imports from France are dependent on that country having a surplus, which will vanish in the event of a cold spell, and there are technical difficulties with importing power from Germany.

Under the updated “load-shedding” plan, if temperatures drop in the coming months, it is likely that motorway lights will be switched off, industrial production will be halted and domestic consumers will suffer three-hour rolling power cuts.

As Scotland continues to reduce its baseload generating capacity of real power stations and increasingly relies on part-time sources of electricity, it is a question of when, not if, we will experience the operation of a similar “load-shedding” plan, with all its implications for our economy and standard of living.

Otto Inglis
Edinburgh

WITH John Swinney accepting all 33 recommendations of the education working group, seemingly without formal approval of Parliament, doesn’t it seem that the LGBT lobbying group have now taken over control of Holyrood?

As one who does not accept the myriad gender descriptions being promulgated by campaign groups, I have to say that as a parent I would not sanction my children attending such instruction. I’d rather remove them from the education system and home school than subject them to instruction based on psychological subjectivity rather than established fact.

I believe wholeheartedly in individual equality and for us all to define ourselves as befits us. And also that such definitions should be universally accepted as equal and supported by the weight of just law.

However, it is not the remit of the education system to promote or encourage sexual or gender direction, and yes, this is a journey experimenting teens can be encouraged to embark upon through the power of peer-group pressure.

If equality is to be taught and learned, shouldn’t it be founded on the legal requirements and obligations of existing equality law, rather than wandering through a menu of potential sexualities and genders with impressionable minds– a psychological maelstrom?

It seems to me Swinney is seizing on something he and we don’t fully yet understand. His action is premature.

I am now reaching the position where voting for anyone to this legislature seems a folly.

Isn’t it time for Holyrood to get its act together and respond to the real needs of the electorate, particularly in relation to the many known existing failures of education, rather than wandering into the abyss with follies such as this politicisation of sexuality and gender?

Jim Taylor
Edinburgh

IN his long letter (November 8), Douglas Turner spends a long time establishing his credentials as a non-sectarian Hearts supporter, but when he eventually makes his point he relies on the old defence of the bigot – Neil Lennon’s problems are of his own making.

Those black people only got hanged because they took white people’s seats on the bus.

I have been to Tynecastle and I know the bigoted rantings that are showered on the opposition. Neil Lennon sat for 90 minutes listening to these delights before he responded. He has also been physically assaulted at Tynecastle in the past.

Can I suggest to Mr Turner before he questions the mote in Neil Lennon’s eye he first considers the beam in his.

Perhaps the sectarian bigots of Tynecastle should consider moderating their behaviour.

Peter McLaughlin
Edinburgh

IT would seem according to media reports that the “running costs’’ of NHS Scotland are climbing to almost unsustainable levels at an seemingly uncontrollable rate.

In all honesty I have to ask why. Do we in Scotland still need to stick to the old Westminster route of reaping the monetary rewards of human weaknesses such as drink, smoking and drugs by way of taxes, only to use the bulk of that revenue on almost anything other than the overwhelming costs of medical care and attention that is being provided by the NHS in an a blind effort to cope with the problem?

I feel that there is only one way to handle this seemingly impossible situation (at least in Scotland), and that is that all costs incurred by NHS Scotland and local authorities to cope with use or misuse of “legal” drugs, alcohol and smoking should be recovered from the suppliers by way of direct taxation of those suppliers. Those who suffer “normal“ ailments would benefit from the additional funds.

Dave
The Borders