Letters: Many people are happy to see Gaelic tongue flourish

Gaelic is spoken fluently by many more Scots than “hardly anyone”.

They are not all in the Highlands and Islands, and a lot of people in Glasgow and Edinburgh, for example, are keen to see our first native language continue to flourish.

By learning other subjects in a Gaelic-speaking environment, pupils get the extra stimulus of stretching their awareness of language in general, and by the time they go to secondary school, they are ready to pick up “foreign” languages. And which countries will be world powers in the future?

The Bonnington project is not just for an elite. Gaelic learners get satisfaction from learning a language which has survived many attempts to wipe it out.

Bilingual teachers are an essential part of the process.

Bonnington will pick up the baton that Tollcross Primary carried so well. Pass it on.

Alasdair H Macinnes, Granton Road, Edinburgh

Commuters are taken for a ride

Thanks to ScotRail’s recent rise in ticket prices, it now costs a not-so-nice round eight quid for my peak-hours return ticket for my daily commute from Livingston to work in Edinburgh.

That might not sound much, but that’s £40 a week throughout the year, and if you factor in wages that don’t rise while prices in shops constantly seem to, it adds up to a fair old sum over the months.

Following the latest rail ticket price increase, I have got together with three work colleagues and we have agreed that we will now car-share at a fraction of the cost of our previous train trips.

That’s good for us, but is it good for ScotRail? If more people acted this way rather than being the sheep ScotRail relies on, they might have to think more carefully about the prices they charge for previously loyal customers.

ScotRail may one day regret taking its customers for granted.

Fiona McLaren, Deans, Livingston

Time to ask some key questions

WE should perhaps be asking ourselves some important questions, which have a bearing on the 2014 referendum.

The original Act of Union promised Scotland a Mint. Where is it?

Would you prefer a National Debt of £1.4 trillion to a National Debt of 9 per cent of £1.4 trillion?

If independence is to bring a share of the National Debt, should it not bring a share in the Bank of England?

What will be the stronger currency in 2014, the pound or the euro?

If Mr Cameron’s policies are working, why are we having to borrow more and more money every month?

If Scotland can’t afford free education, as Johann Lamont maintains, how can we afford Trident? Whom has Trident actually deterred?

If Trident is so safe, why isn’t it based on the Thames?....London gets everything else!

If we vote “No” in the Referendum to come in 2014, what are the promised additional powers for Scotland?

If the Olympics were such a nationwide success, how did Scottish firms secure less than 2 per cent of the contracts?

Do you really think the Westminster Government runs Scotland on a philanthropic basis?

These and others are points which all thinking Scots should ponder before the most important vote of their lives.

Joseph G Miller, Gardeners Street, Dunfermline

Watch out for danger on Left

The policies of the Left cause inequality by definition, as socialist leaders consider themselves to be above the common herd, whose fate they have been elected to decide.

A more dangerous bunch would be hard to imagine.

Malcolm Parkin, Gamekeepers Road, Kinnesswood, Kinross

Seeing stars after horoscope feature

I AM appalled by your feature Your Stars For 2013 (December 31).

Astrology has no basis in fact; it is merely useless speculation, yet it encourages people to take its forecasts seriously.

To that extent it is misleading and dangerous nonsense.

Steuart Campbell, Dovecot Loan, Edinburgh