Letters: Warning over slow escorts would help bridge the gap

I sing with the Edinburgh Festival Chorus and had to get into Edinburgh for a crucial 10am rehearsal at the Usher Hall on Tuesday, August 31.

My plans were completely hijacked by no warning of an escort over the bridge between 9am and 9.30am at peak rush hour.

On the face of it, ten minutes is not long to wait in a queue, but on Tuesday it was crucial for me and another singer in the Festival Chorus.

Naturally, one always builds in extra time at rush hours, public holidays, etc, but to have to allow more than an hour to get across the bridge and reach the West End of Edinburgh from Ferrytoll is unreasonable.

The alternative is to allow even more time for pressing engagements. Rise at 6am to arrive for a 10am rehearsal four hours later? Camp out overnight on Lothian Road? I don't think so.

Why should we, who live only a few minutes away from the bridge, have to make provision for an unknown, untimed road escort and build in two to three extra hours of our valuable time if we want to beat the rest of the rush-hour traffic for a journey which under normal conditions takes under 30 minutes by bus?

The alternative is the train but these are full.

I personally opted to use my bus pass and the park and ride for my green economy, and re-parking the car and chasing a train was not an option by the time I came upon the flashing signals.

Why cannot commercial firms be told this and that they are unlikely to be given an escort until the rush hour period is fully over?

I doubt the economy would suffer as a result.

Moira Reekie, Mallard Grove, Dunfermline

Poverty to blame for drink culture

ISN'T Sheila Fraser seeking to lay the blame for Scotland's poor alcohol consumption culture at the door of competitive pricing by supermarkets in the hope that a price hike will bring customers back to the pub trade (Letters, September 1). However, this fails to address the real issues.

First, pubs have lost customers because their product is too expensive.

And councils racking up taxes have just added to the problems for pubs.

Second, if we are to solve Scotland's binge drinking culture then we have to realise that cheap alcohol is not the problem. In Spain I bought five litres of table wine for less than six euros. Yet kids hanging around in the village parks late into the night were not out of their face on alcohol or drugs.

The reality is that in this supposedly "best small country in the world" there are many who are living in poverty. For them the pressures of life are only ameliorated through the social "anaesthetics" of alcohol.

But then, isn't it easier for a failing Parliament to dream up alcohol price fixing rather than tackle social inadequacies?

Jim Taylor, The Murrays Brae,Edinburgh

Bring on the Blair biography

I WOULD imagine that a biography on Tony Blair would be immensely more interesting than his own autobiography.

How can he say in all honesty that he regrets the loss of life in Iraq, but he does not regret the decision to invade Iraq? Even Peter Mandelson said that Blair had developed "tunnel vision" in his commitment to the 2003 Iraq invasion.

William Burns, Pennywell Road, Edinburgh

Forget the trams: look at positives

MORE stories of doom about the tram project abound.

I salute the News for putting such a momentous project under the microscope, but let's look at the positive in our city. Edinburgh is still buzzing with enthusiasm: tourists flood our streets. We should be thankful we live in a place people pay to visit.

Ken Welsh, Easter Road