Letters: No need for long faces over horse-meat menus

Vegetarians, I can understand. I'm far too fond of a good steak to agree with them, but at least there is some consistency there.

There seems to be an idea, however, that if an animal is either cute, like rabbits, or an obedient, handsome companion who obligingly leaps over small fences in a field after you've parked the Range Rover, it . . . well, somehow becomes an unpalatable idea to consider them as food.

Pity poor Daisy the cow in the next field. She's just seen as a big grass-eating fatty, only good for supplying our daily 'pinta' before ending up in a fast-food supplier's bap.

Unlike the French, we have a hypocritical, sometimes hysterical, attitude to the use of animals as food supply.

It's a far better idea to look on the beasts of the field as being within the food chain, with us as their ultimate users.

Look after them well while they are alive, then do the needful. Nothing to get your jodhpurs in a twist about.

A Innes, Haddington

Civil servant cuts are a false saving

ACROSS Edinburgh, thousands of workers are fighting their employer to keep hold of their pensions and severance packages. These are the civil servants currently being affected by the Superannuation Bill being forced through parliament. This Bill is a clear attempt to force government workers to accept much poorer terms and conditions.

The government, as part of its drive to cut public spending and the deficit, is targeting the people who keep our public services, and the government itself, ticking over.

Scores of my constituents have contacted me, rightly, to express their concern that – should they lose their jobs in the October Spending Review – their severance package will have been drastically reduced. Like you or I would be, they are worried.

Civil servants in Edinburgh earn on average 19,000. They work for lower wages than the private sector and accrue a settlement package for years of committed service. This is their security.

In parliament this week I spoke of the Conservative and Liberal Democratic attack on the public sector and public service. They see it as a "drag" on our economy.

I believe that making too drastic cuts in public services not only harms those who depend on these services, but will also make it harder to get us out of recession.

Employment in Edinburgh has taken a hit over the last few years.

Finding new jobs won't be easy and this means more people claiming benefits and fewer paying tax. How will that help 'reduce the deficit'?

Sheila Gilmore, MP, Edinburgh East

Don't stamp on Royal Mail users

COALITION government proposals to press ahead with Royal Mail privatisation are being made at the worst possible time and will hit rural areas hardest.

Even part-privatisation would spell the beginning of the end for Royal Mail, and open the door to job losses, service cuts and a deterioration in the working conditions of postal workers.

The part-privatisation of Royal Mail will inevitably lead to pressure on the universal service obligation, which is so important to rural communities, many of which already have a reduced service.

Royal Mail cannot be viewed as just another company, providing an essential public service especially to smaller communities and small businesses which do not have access to alternative carriers.

Alex Orr, Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh

Pope in safe hands without millions

WHY do police feel the need to spend millions of pounds on security for the Pope's visit?

Any devout Catholic knows that the prayers of the faithful are all that are required to keep the Holy Father safe if that be God's will.

John Eoin Douglas, Spey Terrace, Edinburgh