The sleeping giants that are changing the Highlands - Readers' Letters

Is the sheer number of wind farms in Scotland causing problems?

I live in Sutherland in the Highlands. I sit at my kitchen window and every day I watch the wind turbines on the opposite hill. They seldom turn. They stand tall and white dominating the countryside, but they do not turn. Every now and again one will slowly wake up and flex its long carbon fibre arms for a short while before returning to its dormant state of slumber.

It won’t be long now before the wind farm on the hill to my left is built and I wonder if these turbines will also stand like guardsmen on parade waiting for the wind, tall and prominent amongst the background of the heath and heather.

I wander into my living room and again I look out of the window, this time at the hill that stands on the other side of the river behind my house.

It is also earmarked for a wind farm, this one called “Garvary” which will complete the encirclement of me and my little property from which I will continue to watch the sleeping giants that seldom stir.

When all the hills near me have a wind farm the developers will move on to find another area to develop. I will still be here but life for me will have changed.

No longer will I look out at the beautiful fauna and natural environment of Scotland’s Highlands. Nor will I hear the call of the eagle as it soars majestically overhead or witness the breathtaking flight of the osprey. The winter skeins of migrating geese will be gone, flying home on a different route to avoid the sleeping giants that now stand where they once flew.

Graham Bruce, Culrain, Highland

Nuclear deterrent

It is quite astonishing how naïve, however well-intentioned, people can be. Brian Quail illustrates this amply in his argument (Letters, 12 January) against the UK nuclear deterrent.

Its name should tell anyone who hates nuclear weapons what its purpose is. It is there to deter aggressive, hostile powers. As anyone of a CND inclination knows, the UK has never used its nuclear arsenal, nor has it ever threatened anyone with it. It is there to prevent any power that threatens our freedom and that of our democratic allies being tempted to attack us. As we do not keep enormous standing armies, we need to prevent the sort of things that have happened to Georgia and the Ukraine happening here.

Anyone who has even the slightest interest in world affairs will be aware that Mr Putin's Russia is currently helping the autocratic regime in Kazakhstan prevent being held to account by its people. Russia is also massing 100,000 troops on the borders of the Ukraine, having already taken the Crimea from it.

Without the nuclear arsenals of the UK and France, we too would have faced considerable problems from Russia had Donald Trump been re-elected to the presidency of the USA. He it was who was drawing down US involvement in western Europe. Had that happened, Europe could have ended up under Russia's boot.

If the UK is a pariah state for defending itself, so be it. Better a free pariah than a subject state in which opponents of the regime are liquidated.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Beach blast

Take care going to Coral Beach in Skye (Scotsman, 12 January). It can be very crowded with no parking spaces left, as we experienced last October.

It was almost impossible to turn and we even saw large campervans which were too big for passing places. Farmers had angry signs not to park with them. We did not make it to the beach itself.

Cor Groeneweg, Amstelveen, Netherlands

Contrasting styles

Jose Alberto Mujica Cordono was the president of Uruguay from 2010-2015. He lived a frugal life as president, giving much of his salary to charities which helped the poor. When his term of office was over, he returned to his humble farm and lived a similar lifestyle.

How different from the occupant of 10 Downing Street. His term of office so far has been defined by policies which make poor people even poorer, while doling out contracts and peerages to wealthy chums and party donors. All funded by taxpayers, of course. The whole rotten edifice of this Tory government is poisoned by sleaze, corruption on a grand scale, and a scramble to line pockets.

It is oft quoted that the UK is a democracy – what a preposterous claim! It is possible for a political party to win a UK general election with less than 31 per cent of votes. Even Johnson’s Tories with their 80-seat majority only managed 43.6 per cent in 2019; meaning that 56.4 per cent of voters have no representation in government. So much for the discredited first-past-the-post “winner takes all” voting system. As for that anachronism the House of Lords – don’t get me started!

The UK is one of the very few territories without a written constitution, which means the Westminster government can do more or less as it pleases – and boy, has this Tory government demonstrated just that.

Richard Walthew, Duns, Scottish Borders

Doric Tories

Well done Ruth and Douglas for proving that Doric Tories are a breed apart from the Eton toffs that they rely on to subjugate the natives here (Scotsman, 12 January).

Meanwhile, the Labour branch office, based in Glasgow, assertd itself by espousing the same democracy-denying trope decreed by their London bosses, that any burgeoning new Keir Hardy will not be allowed to stand in Scottish elections, if he or she believes in “home rule” (Scotsman, 11 January), as the opposition leader’s namesake did.

Ian Hiddleston, Dundee

What a show!