TIM Baynes’s letter of April 27 contains a number of unsubstantiated assertions about the environmental benefits of grouse moor management. He states that habitat for 57 bird species and mountain hares is created by estates. The critical issue is whether those habitats are improved or worsened by the management of the moors.

Perhaps he should address this question to the 35,000 mountain hares that were culled last year, around 10% of the total population, just because they eat the same food as grouse.

Perhaps he should consult the 41 golden eagles that were lost “in suspicious circumstances” on or near shooting estates.

Or perhaps he could question the goshawks killed in the Borders or the hen harriers, large numbers of which are lost each year to illegal activity.

Although numbers of golden plover, curlew and lapwing have improved on the moors, other birds – notably meadow pilot, skylark , whinchat and crows – are all less abundant, by between 1.5 and 3.1 times, while red fox, weasel and stoat are all regularly shot by gamekeepers, all to keep the number of grouse on the moors artificially high.

Our moors are not without subsidy, as Tim appears to claim, receiving around £4 million in 2014, and how can the burning of heather not damage carbon storage? No matter how well it is done, it releases carbon trapped in vegetation and releases it into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

Unlike Mr Baynes, I can support my arguments. They are not just assertions but can be substantiated with well-researched facts.

Pete Rowberry
Duns

TIM Baynes, representing the enormous landowners and estate groups that own great swathes of our nation, insists the current monopoly held by the landed

gentry dating back to the first of the ethnic cleansings by the British state is the only possible use for our land.

“You can do no better,” he cries. Where have we heard that before?

“We shall see,” should be every Scottish man and woman’s stern reply. The Highlands of Scotland are to this day the most sparsely populated area of Europe. Gone are the towns, villages and culture of the people who lived and worked these vast areas for millennia. The ethnic cleansing of the Highlands was among the most effective crimes against humanity every perpetrated, and that we still allow ourselves to be hoodwinked in the manner described is nothing short of shameful.

The Highlands will open like a flower upon independence. Proper investment and management will bring life back to the long silent communities when ownership is returned to the people of Scotland and not just the handful of wealthy hangers-on we see now.

R Bulloch
Glasgow

AFTER reading the letter from Tim Baynes of Scottish Land & Estates Moorland Group, shouldn’t they be applying for “charitable status”???

To have thousands of acres of our country kept exclusively for the barbaric amusement of a wealthy minority is NOT what (I suspect) the majority of our citizens are happy with. Breeding birds purely to be released then shot for entertainment isn’t indicative of a forward-looking, civilised society, which I would like to think is what the bulk of the independence movement is aiming for (no pun intended).

I’m convinced there must be a better form of land use which will benefit a) the population and b) the wildlife. This Thatcherite view that if we allow a tiny minority to be excessively wealthy then some of that wealth will automatically trickle down and ultimately benefit us “peasants” has been comprehensively discredited by the evidence of the last 40-odd years.

Barry Stewart
Blantyre

I HAVE just received my voting card for the European Parliament election in May. Luckily I have an easy choice, but my son in London would seem to have a bewildering array of variations on Brexit.

Since Nicola Sturgeon is well-known even in foreign parts and is held in a high esteem, why do the SNP not field a few candidates in London (where there are lots of Scots) and even other parts of England? This is a European election and the SNP are a European party and it would also make them eligible for a presence in some media debates where they are not even invited because they are seen to be of a parochial or provincial nature. Who knows what the result might be?

Richard Easson
Dornoch

I WOULD now like the independence movement to have, say, a five-point plan for an independent Scotland, maybe over welfare, Trident, the NHS, climate change and our economy. I feel this will surely win over the undecided.

Stevie, Motherwell
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