Interactive: Flyers are paying for gain in Spain

This illustrates the major failings of private finance initiative (PFI). While private operator Consort will still own the hospital we, the taxpayers, will effectively pay them seven times the capital value of the building by the time the contract ends. At the end of this period there is no obligation for the operator to retain the building as an NHS hospital and they would have every legal right to evict NHS Lothian.

While Tory PFI proposals, later rebranded Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) under New Labour, had the advantage of delivering gleaming schools and hospitals, it was a cruel deception that will see this and future generations left picking up exorbitant bills due to this Pilfering from the Public Purse.

Alex Orr, Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh

Flyers are paying for gain in Spain

BRITISH Airports Authority (BAA), which runs Edinburgh Airport is owned in turn by Grupo Ferrovial, a Spanish company.

Ferrovial has its share holders to satisfy, of course, but its profits are essentially, without meaning to be chauvinistic, Spanish. Edinburgh is a second level airport in national terms, although whether it is an airport at all in the old understanding of the word is debatable: it is more of a shopping mall with budget airliners.

I have used similar second level airports in Spain, and, oddly enough, have never been asked to pay a "kiss and fly" tax. If ever I am, I am sure that it won't end up in the coffers of a British company. If we are stupid enough to pay the drop-off charge at Edinburgh I hope that airport users enjoy reading Ferrovial's balance sheet at the end of the year.

David Fiddimore, Calton Road, Edinburgh

Learn lessons but no need for ban

THE oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has, perhaps with some justification, created a feverish backlash in Brussels.

A similar disaster in the North Sea could potentially destroy the Scottish fishing industry. That is why MEPs are now demanding assurances from the European Commission.

We must insist on the highest standards of safety and security being put in place, while suitable compulsory EU-wide insurance schemes are designed to compensate fishermen and other affected businesses in the event of a spill. But in the meantime they must also tell us what they intend to do to secure the safety and security of oil extraction operations, and to insist on the highest level of environmental protection and disaster prevention in EU waters.

The Commission has already announced that it will conduct "stress tests" on existing EU legislation in this area, to enable it to identify any gaps and weaknesses in the regulatory framework at EU level.

However, some MEPs want to go even further and are calling for a moratorium on all drilling until such time as guarantees on safety can be given, but I believe that this would be a step too far.

We cannot simply close down the oil industry indefinitely. The UK would be the biggest loser in Europe with more than 6 billion of investment and oil revenues at risk.

Struan Stevenson, MEP

Armour would be healthy for staff

INDEED it would be safer for Lothian ambulance workers to be offered protective body armour (News, July 16) as many paramedics and ambulance staff are being attacked by mindless louts and are also injured.

The sooner body armour is issued for them the better

June Fleming, Hercus Loan, Musselburgh

Probe into 1988 tragedy needed

THERE can be no inquiry into the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi without first a proper investigation into the shooting down of the Iranian Airbus in 1988 by the captain of the USS Vincennes which preceded the Lockerbie tragedy.

Andrew J T Kerr, Castlegate, Jedburgh