AS best I understand the process of gas supply, firstly, based on predicted geology, you drill a hole in the ground or on the sea bed. If you are lucky enough to strike gas you connect a pipe to the hole and the gas flows out. You then connect lots of pipes together, in a line, and the gas flows to an installation of some kind where the gas is cleaned up and stored.

More pipes fan out to connect the installation to smaller installations, and from there lots of smaller pipes take it to the gas meters of millions of homes. The capital cost of all this will have been spread over many years and will not have changed very much in the past few months.

So, inflation aside, the cost of getting the gas from the hole in the ground to your gas meter should, in principle, vary very little over the years. The gas itself has formed as a by-product from the decay of lots of small sea critters who sadly passed away many millions of years ago and therefore thankfully have no further financial interest in the process.

However, we are now being told that the “wholesale” price of gas has greatly increased over a very short period of time. Somehow by some miracle of financial wizardly the value and cost of the gas has now greatly increased as it makes its merry way from the same hole in the ground to the same gas meter via the same pipes.

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It is hard to avoid the conclusion that some individual, company or financial institution is making an enormous, even obscene, amount of money for no additional effort or expense on their part.

Perhaps the Scottish Parliament or at least one of its committees could spend some time taking a look at this so called energy market and could explain which corporate pocket the cash from our ever-increasing gas bills is being stuffed into.

Brian Lawson
Paisley

THANK you for printing my letter anent Scotland’s anthem and strip (October 14 ). At one level I am pleased that a debate has been generated but I am disappointed that none of the responses seem to “get the point”. If I may quote some of them: “The blue of Scotland is any shade you prefer”; “Flower of Scotland is only a dirge now because crowds can’t sing properly; “Our national rugby team wears the same colour shirt ... what’s wrong with it now?”; and “I can’t imagine a Scotland team without a home strip in a dark blue shirt.”

Even R Walker, who did agree with me (up to a point) induces some despair with his suggestion of 500 Miles by the great Proclaimers.

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A national anthem should be noble and uplifting, not “funny”, a folk or pop song, or murdered in pubs. A cursory look at those of other countries offers many good examples – Norway’s Yes, I Love This Country, La Marseillaise, obviously, and many others.

I persist in encouraging Scots Wha Hae, usually played too slow. With a drum roll, crash of brass and jauntier tempo it is guaranteed to raise the hairs on the back of your neck (I have such a recording by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra), and as for the cringey guff about it being too warlike in sentiment, many national anthems refer to their nation’s struggle for freedom from an overweening neighbour or empire, and nobody thinks they are being incited to bloodshed and aggression.

A Scottish Parliament committee should be instructed to get on with examining contenders asap. Unlike T Carroll, I believe a great anthem will be worth 100,000-plus votes come the referendum. (No “competition” though, these things are usually sponsored by a redtop newspaper, with embarrassing results).

As for the strip, though, I would encourage The National to invite readers to submit suggestions; guaranteed to keep the debate alive and, who knows, shame the SFA into doing the right thing.

David Roche
Coupar

THE problem with Flower of Scotland, to my mind, is the third-last note, which cannot be accurately rendered on bagpipes, resulting in a weaker ending – a bit of an anti-climax.

By revamping it slightly – ie repeating the fourth-last last note in place of the third-last – a stirring final flourish would enhance the bagpipe accompaniment.

James Stevenson Auchterarder THE following appeared on the BBC’s sport website (October 17) and I would suggest provide another example of the BBC’s openly anti-Scottish bias: l“Britain’s Cameron Norrie reached his first Masters 1000 final at Indian Wells as he breezed past Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets.”

l“England’s [Charley] Hull shot a third-round 65 – the joint lowest of the tournament – to finish on 12 under, one stroke ahead of American world No 1 Nelly Korda.”

The problem appears to be that the BBC is nothing other than a Westminster propaganda machine and not answerable to the people in Scotland and yet these very same people are forced to pay the licence fee – a propaganda tax – otherwise they face prosecution and a criminal record.

Thomas L Inglis
Fintry