Letters: Get on your bike and cycle away from 'Carmageddon'

With National Bike Week now upon us, the long-suffering motorists of Edinburgh should themselves take to two wheels in protest at the rising cost of motoring, ongoing disruptive roadworks, the general state of some roads and worst of all, a transportation system that teeters and totters on the brink of chaotic breakdown.

Years ago driving in and around Edinburgh might have been viewed as both a pleasure and privilege but with the ever-rising volume of traffic amongst other things, these days quite the opposite is the case.

Furthermore, with no end in sight to these particularly stressful factors like all cities in the world where the car is king, could Edinburgh be heading towards a "Carmageddon" scenario?

Angus McGregor, Albion Road, Edinburgh

Labour has turned its back on NHS

WHILE David Cameron is under pressure to rethink his plans for more private and voluntary sector involvement in the NHS, he knows he will face little opposition from New Labour.

However much Ed Miliband may try to score points, Mr Cameron knows that New Labour has long since capitulated to Tory thinking on the NHS. Both parties are committed to its ideological break-up.

What is taking place is not outright privatisation, but a creeping step-by-step approach which, if not stopped, will lead to a market model of health care similar to that in America which provides a good level of care for those who are well-off or sufficiently well-off to have insurance, while the rest have simply to join the ever-lasting queue for diminishing services.

Shamefully, Mr Cameron and his sidekick Nick Clegg, know full well that our NHS is the one institution that still regains favour with the British public with a perception that it should be separate from the market. Sadly, New Labour has betrayed the founding principles of an NHS established by a Labour government - health care for all in our time of need from cradle to grave, funded by fair and progressive taxation.

Jack Fraser, Clayknowes Drive, Musselburgh

Blue badge is proving costly

I HAVE just received my renewal paperwork for my blue disabled parking badge and find I have to pay 20.

My cousin and I are at the same address and are both disabled. We rely on the blue badge for hospital appointments and also to get as close to the shops as possible. We have had the blue badge for free and we are both on benefits and find it hard to pay the 20.

People in the city who have a blue badge and live in a Controlled Parking Zone can get a free residents' parking permit.I myself think that they have got it the wrong way round and they should charge for the residents' parking permit instead.

David Wakelam, Ardshiel Avenue, Edinburgh

One-issue stance is not enough

THERE'S a strong case for the role of independents in politics.

Who can say that Margo MacDonald and, before her, Dennis Canavan, have not enhanced the Scottish Parliament?

However, both were long-term products of political parties and brought with them a range of views on many topics.

Less successful have been the single-issue independents. For example, Dr Jean Turner is widely-judged to have been a dismal failure in her one term as an MSP, having been elected on a ticket of stopping a local hospital closure.

Here in Edinburgh, voters are to be invited to back independent candidate, John Carson, standing in the City Centre on an anti-trams ticket.

There is little doubting the populism of the stance in the midst of the dismally mis-managed project. But there is more to city centre life than trams, and voters are entitled to understand where Mr Carson stands on, and what he will do about, any number of issues that affect local people.

They need to know how he will align himself on the 98 per cent of non-tram business that the city council has to address. Otherwise voting for Mr Carson is a shot in the dark.

Andy Saunders, Comiston Drive, Morningside, Edinburgh