Letters: How can cabbies protect themselves from thugs?

Although the public are protected in the event of a dispute over the level of fare charged through the process of formal complaint to the council, where customers are intoxicated by alcohol and/or drugs discussion can quickly turn to violence, as happened here.

Last year I wrote to Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill and Chief Constable David Strang about my concerns of just such an incident happening because of the way that Scotland's common law of theft is interpreted by Procurators Fiscal.

I warned that it could lead to serious assault - it now has. Both ignored the warnings.

In England the law is clear. The Theft Act 1998 affords cabbies the protection in Law that anyone leaving a taxi without paying is committing a criminal offence.

Because of this the police will respond to such incidents.

In Scotland the common law is interpreted that if the individual has cash on him, as is usual, then the matter is a civil one and the police will not respond. Drivers therefore do not have the protection of Law and any civil redress in practice impossible to impose.

Indeed, a request made to Lothian and Borders Police for the identity of an individual was refused under the Data Protection Act - it would take an expensive request to a sheriff before civil proceedings could even begin, a cost far in excess of the fare to be recovered.

Without assistance from the police, what must cabbies now do to protect our right to payment for our services and ensure that we are not the next victims of the mindless thugs who would harm us?

Jim Taylor, The Murrays Brae, Edinburgh

Airport will be hit in pocket by tax

I READ with disgust that Edinburgh Airport is putting another tax on the traveller.

Did they not realise that not everyone using the airport comes from Edinburgh, with its transport network, which allows passengers access to the airport?

We outwith Edinburgh, especially in West Lothian, do not have any option other than to be taken and dropped off at the airport.

We use flights early morning and late evening when there is no transport to and from our area. Are we being punished for not being city dwellers? If we do not come to the airport, the staff there would not be needed because people would use alternative means of transport.

It will hit the airport where it hurts most, namely in their pockets.

Mary Jackson, West Hall Road, Broxburn

Parties have not listened to voters

IT MAY be that the country is in a financial mess but threatening the nation with an increase in VAT without explaining why we are in a mess is not going to help.

The more the parties interfere, the worse the situation gets and it is clear they haven't listened to one word the voters have said.

CJR Fentiman, Polwarth Gardens Edinburgh

Right to die not a religious matter

DR Libby Wilson's piece in favour of Margo MacDonald's bill was a disservice to the pro-assisted dying camp (News, 6 July).

Firstly, she offered little argument, opening with a bald, tendentious assertion that never received adequate support.

Secondly, although this assertion claimed religious people as allies, a large paragraph of the piece railed against a perceived religious objection to assisted dying.

In this, Libby Wilson erred dramatically, since the public debate about the "right to die" is not and should not be a religious matter.

Christopher Bechtel, Easter Road, Edinburgh.