Letters: ‘City’s people are to blame for mess,’

Cigarette mess round bus stops and pubs, chewing gum stuck to the pavements and fast food wrappings blowing around are the detritus of the untidy people who live and work here.

While I am keen that the litter bins are emptied regularly, I cannot see that it is the fault of Edinburgh City Council that some people are unable or unwilling to dispose of their own rubbish thoughtfully.

These same people are the first to complain about vermin such as rats and gulls which dine out on some of the debris.

Quite apart from the city’s cleanliness rating being downgraded, the taxpayers ultimately are the losers if more street cleaning needs paying for.

Jenny Mollison, Inveresk, East Lothian

Solution smacks of common sense

I THINK it is about time to use a bit of common sense concerning smacking children. In the old days, if we misbehaved at school we would receive the dreaded belt. We all feared it and did our best to steer clear of that long leather strap. It was a good deterrent.

If we stepped out of line at home we got a smack. My mother occasionally used a leather belt on me.

So what has happened since I went to school back in the 70s? Well, since corporal punishment was banned at school and smacking children at home was deemed wrong, look at the society we have created.

Kids have little or no respect for their teachers or parents. Of course, most children’s parents these days didn’t experience corporal punishment themselves, so they haven’t experienced proper discipline either.

Every generation we have will certainly become more and more undisciplined. Look at what’s being created.

OK, so the tawse at school will never be reinstated, but surely at home every parent should have the right to smack their children if needed.

Mrs J Davies, Leith Walk, Edinburgh

Taxpayers should choose cutbacks

It may have escaped the attention of the government that neither the Treasury nor the MoD own the armed forces and are in no position to demand cuts.

It is the voters who provide the money through their taxes and are the shareholders. Government departments give advice and carry out instructions.

It is not the armed forces who are causing the country’s deficit, and there are many ways to sort the financial problem for the Prime Minister, who appears to be following a certain leader (the lady’s not for turning).

Let the country share the task and forget Brussels.

CJR Fentiman, Polwarth Gardens, Edinburgh

Frankly, this is headline news

If the new Pope Francis makes a visit to Edinburgh, your headline could be ‘Frankie goes to Holyrood’.

J Watson, Edinburgh