Readers' Letters: Don’t trash our landscape to save the planet

The UK is now transiting from dependence on fossil fuels to dependence on “green” electricity from renewable resources. Much of this is expected to come from the Scottish Highlands and Islands, where multiple wind farms have already been constructed. Most of this power is required in the south, far from the wind farms where it is produced. A massive programme of reinforcement and extension of the National Grid has begun to take this electricity from where it is generated to where it is needed. These new power distribution lines will extend into every part of the UK.

For the past 70 years, we’ve lived alongside the many hydro-electric schemes in the Highlands which produce “green” electricity. The hydro pioneers who built all this back in the 1950s did an excellent job of blending what had to be, into what was already there. In comparison, emerging proposals for the new power transmission networks needed today are quite shocking. They show extensive, utilitarian, obtrusive facilities sited in locations that seem to have been selected solely on grounds of convenience and cost.

Little consideration is shown for those who may have to live with them for the next 70 years; hundreds of miles of overhead transmission lines, supported on ugly, lattice pylons; sprawling compounds at interconnection points, some larger than several football fields, filled with visually intrusive industrial equipment; huge industrial hangars containing switching and other process equipment, and so on. It is staggering that those who present such a view of the future seem to believe that we – as a nation – should accept anything so obtrusive and ill-thought out!

In Denmark, they woke up and smelled the coffee several years ago. There, lattice pylons are no longer accepted for any new power line construction. This respect for the environment includes extensive undergrounding, and aesthetic design of components such as pylons to reduce their visual impact. Why should we all be expected – in 2023 – to accept something that falls so far below the norms set so appropriately in the 1950s? Why doesn’t the electricity distribution industry use some of its embarrassingly large windfall profits to offer us something a bit more fit for purpose in 2023? We need to revisit the standard against which acceptability of what is now being proposed will be assessed. We need to ensure we are offered systems in keeping with today’s expectations and that are fit for purpose for the next 70 years.

Lattice pylons should no longer be accepted for any new power line construction, a reader writes

The landscape belongs to everyone. In our efforts to save the planet we shouldn’t end up trashing our own little bit of it. The significant benefits we all enjoy when we treat nature with the genuine respect it is owed must be recognised.

​Bill Fraser, Eskdale, Highland

Dirty secret

Sir David Attenborough tells us that “nature is in crisis” (Scotsman, 13 March) and wildlife charities, including the RSPB, have joined together to warn us that wildlife and wild places are being “destroyed at terrifying speed” .

We know wind farms both on and offshore play their part in this destruction, the RSPB website tells us so, yet there was no mention or sight of them in Sir David’s wonderful Save Our Wild Isles programme on BBC1, nor were they mentioned in the extensive coverage of the campaign on the BBC news the following day. It is also worth noting that any mention of wind farms is avoided on Spring, Autumn and Winter Watch, screened live every year on BBC2.

Have BBC presenters been banned from talking about them for fear of the general public waking up to the fact that they are nothing but environmentally destructive killing machines?

Aileen Jackson, Uplawmoor, East Renfrewshire

Cathedral tickets

You report that visitors to St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh are to be charged for entry for the first time (Scotsman, 13 March).

Whilst acknowledging the real issues and costs of maintaining St Giles’, this beautiful building provides a place for comfort and quiet prayer every day for those in need.

If ticketing is the way forward, perhaps an hour could be set aside each day for free entry to the building or a small area designated for private reflection.

Lesley Reid, Aberdeen

Arrow’s Theorem

While the SNP is in the throes of electing another leader, I thought it might be a good excuse to mention Arrow’s Theorem, which states that there is no perfect voting system.

Suppose three voters – Alice, Bob and Clare – are choosing between three candidates, let’s call them Ash, Kate and Humza for want of better names. Alice prefers Ash to Kate to Humza. Bob prefers Kate to Humza to Ash. And Clare prefers Humza to Ash to Kate. So a majority prefer Ash to Kate; and a majority prefer Kate to Humza; and a majority prefer Humza to Ash.

So, preferences obtained by majority voting between pairs do not give a coherent ranking. Or, put differently, the outcome depends on the order in which the options are presented. If the first choice is between Ash and Kate, then Kate will be eliminated, and then Ash will be eliminated when compared with Humza. But, if the first choice is between Ash and Humza then Ash will be eliminated, and then Humza will be eliminated when compared with Kate. Still with me? Finally, if the first choice is between Kate and Humza, then Humza will be eliminated, and then Kate will be eliminated when compared with Ash.

This is a special case of Arrow’s Theorem. Do check it out on Google. Maths can be fun!

Doug Clark, Currie, Edinburgh

Up for debate

In the most recent TV grilling of candidates for First Minister (Scotsman, 14 March) I watched a clip of Ash Regan being questioned on currency in a separated Scotland. Even for those of us on the pro-UK side, it was excruciating to view. She was so clearly out of her depth and did not have a clue on the whole currency subject. M ost watching would have hoped the embarrassment would end quickly.

The Health Minister came over as arrogant and cold and if he is the best that the SNP can come up with they are indeed in dire straits.

It goes almost without saying that the one candidate who would surely make a fist of the FM job and is honest and straight, seems to be dropping out of contention. Maybe honesty is not the best policy to get on in the SNP.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Who’s counting?

As voting commences in the SNP leadership race, inexplicably (sic) Stalin’s infamous quote springs to mind: “I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how, but what is extraordinarily important is this – who will count the votes, and how.”

Martin Redfern, Melrose, Scottish Borders

Bills to be paid

In Jackie Baillie’s column (Scotsman, 14 March) she does not refer to “the same Tory policies” of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI)/Public Private Partnership (PPP) that the Labour Party imposed on Scotland’s councils. PFI was introduced by John Major’s Tory government, and continued by Gordon Brown and former Labour First Minister Jack McConnell.

The Scottish Government and local authorities still owe £15.46 billion under PFI/PPP, and the annual charges in the current year amount to £1.46bn.

E Campbell, Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire

Spooked by trams

I’m a bit mystified by the announcement that “ghost trams” are running up and down Leith Walk in Edinburgh (Scotsman, 14 March).

We already have them running along Princes Street without any passengers, scattering millions of pounds as they go by.

Peter Hopkins, Edinburgh

Life expectancy

Hugh Pennington (Letters, 11 March) selects data on life expectancy to counter Mary Thomas’ claims about the performance of the NHS in Scotland.

However, when "selecting” further back than the SNP coming to power, the data clearly shows that life expectancy in Scotland has been comparatively lower consistently since the 1920s.

I do not know the reason for this but I think it is fair to rule out Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Government at least.

Robert Davidson, Edinburgh

Proper football

Who needs Gary Lineker and his assorted band of pundits, commentators and analysts anyway?

The pared down version of Match of the Day over the weekend was a revelation and most enjoyab le, with only the sound of the smack of the ball hitting the crossbar and the “oohs and ahs” of the crowd audible.

Let's get back to the good old days when footballers were footballers who knew the way to goal and were not afraid to take a sore one on their way there. Let’s get rid of the presenters and pundits, VAR and all the silly recent rules and regulations etc.

Football as a spectacle has not improved at all in recent years.

Francis Provan, Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire

Ultimate goal

What a relief it was to have BBC newsreel pictures of the weekend’s socccer goals without the pundits’ comments.so that viewers could make their own judgments on what they had seen.

They may have been good at playing s occer in their prime but few of them can speak in full fluent English sentences, so we are well off without them and would be better spending their inflated salaries on other matters.

CD Evans, Edinburgh

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