Letters: Show each other a little respect when on the road

I am a nurse at the Western General and have cycled the same route to and from work for seven years with very little incident.

I have the strongest lights money can buy and an ultra-high visibility jacket. I have lived on the Continent where cyclists mainly use off-road cycle paths and I firmly believe that bikes should not be on the road.

Indeed I sympathise strongly with drivers. I am holding you up, I don't have a "cycling licence" and I make you nervous. But I don't have any choice! I am barely going faster than a pedestrian, I get blown about in the wind and I have to veer unexpectedly for potholes. This road sharing is totally bonkers, but I have no choice.

Please, dear lady of the Jag, and all road users, can't we just have some mutual respect and compassion for our fellow travellers?

I know there are idiot cyclists, just as there are idiot drivers. The majority of both, however, seem to be doing their best with this non-idea of road sharing. Ultimately one person's impatience or prejudice can equal someone else's injury or, worse still, death.

Christina MacDougall, Pilrig Heights, Edinburgh

Trams not worth another penny

LAWRENCE MARSHALL (Letters, November 22), erstwhile Edinburgh councillor, argues that Phase 1b should not be axed on the basis that we should build our way out of recession.

Well, I have another suggestion. Why don't we do something about our crumbling schools, or Meadowbank Stadium, or upgrading the Commonwealth Pool?

How about supporting our bus services and businesses, or equipping our schools properly, or even doing something unusually sensible like improving access to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh?

Anything, but have mercy – not a penny more on trams!

Ron Hastie, Silverknowes Neuk, Edinburgh

Glad to see back of unpleasant sheriff

LIKE many, I'll be glad to see the back of Sheriff Andrew Lothian, whose deeply unpleasant and often vindictive behaviour so long plagued Edinburgh Sheriff Court. Nevertheless, there are several aspects of the circumstances of his resignation that trouble me deeply.

Firstly: as he had committed no criminal offence, why did police take it upon themselves to inform his employers about his private activities?

Gay men have suffered greatly in the past from being informed on in this way – is this a precursor to a new "moral" crackdown by individuals within Lothian and Borders Police?

Secondly: why now? Was he about to sit on a case considered "sensitive"?

John Hein, Publisher, ScotsGay Magazine, Edinburgh

Homeland security must be put first

THE first of the identity cards for foreigners have been issued.

The ink is hardly dry before we have had people shouting foul. They have stated that because of the identity card people will not come to this country and that this will put us at a disadvantage.

For far too long our government has lost control of immigration to this country, and if the identity card can do something to get control of that, I am all for it.

If people do not have an identity card they have no right being in this country.

The way people can come to this country without any challenge is wrong. We cannot keep taking people who are only here because they think Britain is easier to get into.

Homeland security must come before anything else given the changing world that we are living in. Our government's record on keeping data has caused me some concern and it is time for those losing the data to be made accountable.

If the identity card is going to be successful, our government has to show that it can look after the data it collects properly.

We are all going to be given an identity card eventually, and I will have no problem carrying it if it helps in the fight against terrorism.

Britain can only be secured by knowing who is here and what they are here for.

Andrew Murphy, Royal Mile, Edinburgh