Farmer could sow the seeds for city's financial recovery

Faced with the enormous debt crisis, we have, on the one hand, the education leader, whose competence, at best, is questionable.

At the same scene we have the epitome of the local lad made good, Sir Tom. This is the man who worked his socks off building up a business which became the place to go to when your car needed sorted.

He then did something only those with real business acumen can do. Sir Tom sold his business to motor manufacturing giant Ford for a huge price, then set up doing the same thing again under a different name. Result? Ford struggled and sold it off, while Farmer Autocare seems to be doing fine, thank you very much.

Could we persuade Sir Tom to sprinkle some of his financial magic dust on the city where he was raised?

What about making him an adviser to the city council and giving canny counsel?

A professional shining a torch would lead the amateurs out of the morass. It's time to let those who know what they are doing lead from the front rather than rely on blundering amateurs.

Peter Thomson, Dalry Road, Edinburgh

Get on the buses and give answers

I'D LIKE to invite all city councillors to be a passenger on an Edinburgh bus, with each to undertake at least four journeys, from, say, the city centre and a return journey.

The buses and their routes would be selected by the bus managers and distributed by drawing lots. This would in my opinion ensure that the general public knew that each councillor had the experience of the bus driver's job and the state of the roadways, with the resultant effect on both passengers and the buses themselves.

On completion of this simple democratic task the councillors would be in an ideal position to understand and to reply to the citizens from their practical experiences and the overall pothole concerns.

This would surely be democratic expression of genuine concern for the travelling public and the buses and the drivers.

Given these simple conditions together with the councillors' travelling diaries then many of the public concerns would be addressed by an experienced cohort of responsible persons.

Tom Reilly, Esslemont Road, Edinburgh

Labour simply not wanted any more

THE Labour Party is finished.

It was unelectable in the 80s, and, only just, acceptable in the 90s to the English "aspirational" middle-class by becoming another right-wing party.

The Brown regime has now been dumped wholesale in 2010 and replaced by a couple of second rate public school boys.

Labour is a party that represents no-one at all; it is not "New" Labour but "Fake" Labour.

What really puzzles me, though, is why in an organisation where "unionism" used to mean the TUC there is now a delusional belief in the "United" Kingdom.

It also baffles me why they dismiss the mere idea of an independent government of Scotland.

England doesn't want Labour, and, if the Scottish Labour MPs, and MSPs, carry on with their anti-Scottish rantings and pro-London rule ideology, then eventually Scotland won't want them either.

Gary Smith, Ardshiel Avenue, Edinburgh

Wonderful care and food at ERI

HAVING just come out of the Royal Infirmary, I wanted to write to say what wonderful treatment and care I had in there.

The nurses were all very kind and caring, and contrary to public opinion I thought the food was very good.

Ann B Tidy (Miss), Balmoral Place, Edinburgh