Letters: Protesters must do more to get their point across

I am surprised that demonstrations and protest marches to the Scottish Parliament so often occur on days when the MSPs aren’t there. Why?

Is it hard to find a day when the MSPs are there?

Are MSPs are a lot brighter than we give them credit for?

Are protest organisers a lot dumber than we were when we marched in the 1960s and 70s?

Is 21st century Scotland is more of a police state than it was in the 1960s? Can the establishment now so dictate time, date and place of protest that their effectiveness is neutralised?

Protests have recently become simply part of the rich pageant of the Capital’s life, but achieve little except entertaining tourists.

If the powers are to be made to listen to the citizen again we need a 21st century form of protest.

David Fiddimore, Nether Craigwell, Calton Road, Edinburgh

Labour repeating same mistakes

Labour leader Ed Miliband has argued that the future of the United Kingdom is “too important” to be debated only in Scotland, and that not enough has been done to promote English identity.

However, it is Mr Miliband’s own Labour Party that is responsible for this, and Scottish independence would be of huge benefit to the people of England.

The current UK constitutional arrangements are unsuitable not only for Scotland, but unfair for England. What Mr Miliband desires for England can only be delivered by Scottish independence, giving both nations a new relationship based around a partnership of equals, bound by a social union of our shared history and culture.

Implying that this can be delivered through the current constitutional set-up condemns the Labour Party to making the same mistakes again and again. The lack of alternative offered by Mr Miliband and his Tory allies in place of independence leaves huge questions about exactly what they do plan.

If Mr Miliband genuinely wants to move the United Kingdom constitutional debate forward, he should be laying out just what constitutional change is on offer to both the people of England and Scotland.

Alex Orr, Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh

A pint of view over measures

I WAS surprised and amused to read in the Evening News that an Edinburgh pub, the Hanging Bat, was to stop selling beer in pint glasses and offer customers only two thirds of a pint glasses.

I am sure this will not be popular with the most serious beer drinkers, but it does remind me of a visit to Blackpool many years ago.

My wife and I decided to have a refreshment in a “posh” Blackpool hotel. In the bar I asked for a gin and tonic and a pint of beer, only to be told by the barman that pints of beer were not served in this hotel . . . but he added that I could have a half-pint or a quart of beer.

It could only happen in Blackpool!

Ian McLaren, Bramdean Rise, Edinburgh