Readers' Best Comments

THE suspended director of the Sick Kids appeal is facing questions over "personal" claims on the campaign's credit card

What a mess. There's one particularly telling line in here, about 'reliance on "west coast" contacts'. The truth is that good fundraisers, like good PR people, are good because of their contacts, and success in one part of the country does not always translate into success in another.

Duncan in Edinburgh

I personally refuse to donate to charities unless I have visibility of the distribution of received money. Seriously overpaid chief executives (I mean 70k + 50k bonus, come on!!!). The key criterion is what proportion of the monies received actually benefits the end cause - not the process of collection.

ianpg

Surely the key criterion is the total money which benefits the end cause - not the proportion of what is raised? I mean, far better to get 90% of a million pounds than 100% of a thousand pounds.

Duncan in Edinburgh

If this woman had been capable of doing the job she was employed to do and had raised the large sum of money targeted, I am sure these 'excesses' would've been 'lost' or overlooked so let's not besmirch her character just because she has failed in this one goal.

As for the bonus, if these seven people had managed to raise more than 6 million I would say they were worth a bonus pot amounting to just 110,000. I'm far more concerned at bonus pots of 1.3 billion being paid to Investment bankers, who are only doing what a young child or monkey could do through guess work.

Grad 1

Two of the city's black cab firms are considering a merger amid competition from private hire cars

It's time the Council stopped setting the rates and allowed the taxi firms to set them themselves with a cap on the upper limit. Say it was 50p a mile you could charge 45p a mile but not 51p. All you would have to do would be to display the mileage charge in the cab and have the meter calibrated accordingly.

Linmal

I always use private hire cars, the price and comfort can not be equalled, plus the drivers are very helpful.

The Real Alfonsa Pedrosa

The last time I used a private hire cab he drove the wrong way up a one way street and aggressively cut up another motorist. He had no idea where he was going and had to ask me for directions, which were hard to give as I spent most of the journey with my eyes shut.

Anyone who has ever travelled outside the UK should know to be grateful for our black cab system and should support them.

Sugar

I was given a number for a private hire firm in Livingston last week. I was travelling from Roseburn back home. I spoke to a very courteous gentleman who told me he would be about half an hour, which he was and before booking I was quoted a price of 22, which is what I was charged.

Had I used a black cab it would have cost me in excess of 35. Most PHC drivers are polite and courteous, sadly it is the few who give them a bad name. The same could also be said about the black cabs. There is room out there for everyone. Live with it.

Linmal