Readers' Letters: SNP bus decision isn't good for jobs

News that Greenock-based McGill’s buses missed out on the SNP government’s £45 million funding package for electric buses is a blow for the future of Alexander Dennis (Scotland on Sunday, 12 July).

The troubled bus manufacturer was in line to benefit had McGill’s been successful in its £4.3m bid. Instead, Ember took the most funding to buy 100 Chinese-manufactured coaches, but unlike McGill’s bid this will not lead to the replacement of any diesel buses. Ember is backed by European venture capitalists while McGill’s is wholly owned by the Easdale brothers, Sandy and James, leading Scottish entrepreneurs. Notably, James Easdale has made a donation to the Labour Party. Having looked at the contractual process the brothers are appealing the decision. Sandy Easdale said: “We have questionable decisions being made on large amounts of public money by nameless people in secret rooms who are trying to avoid scrutiny.”

Successful operators also included German-owned Stagecoach and the Anglo-German Rock Group. In this round the Scottish government has chosen to back businesses largely controlled outside Scotland rather than homegrown entrepreneurs. It will be interesting to understand the rationale.

The owners of bus firm McGill's are taking legal action against the Scottish government after being rejected for zero emission bus funding

The SNP does not have a good record on transparency with public money so I’m not hopeful, but if anyone wants to comment from the government I would be both surprised and delighted.

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

Street life

Stephen Jardine raises the perennial question as to what needs to be done to save Princes Street after the latest fire in an historic building (Perspective, 11 July).

In 1974, as part of the urban design unit within Edinburgh Corporation’s planning department, I was tasked with reviewing the 1965 Princes Street plan as a consequence of the new onus on conservation rather than demolition. The original plan was bizarre. It envisioned a first-floor walkway for shoppers in each block, thus requiring you to lug your shopping up and down two flights of stairs every 100 yards.

Even more depressing was the bland modern architecture that had been sketched out and which had already been translated into C&A, BhS, and Marks & Spencer. Together with the New Club this meant about 30 per cent of the street’s frontage was modern, 60 per cent was Victorian and 10 per cent was Georgian. The challenge was how to meld that into a coherent whole while accommodating an ever-changing retail landscape.

The conclusion I came to then was to keep the good bits and rebuild the bad bits. The biggest challenge was the Georgian remnants, which were uneconomic to use as residential but too small and constrained to function as modern retail. These I was reluctantly prepared to sacrifice to conserve the more economically viable Victorian elements.

The Victorian frontages were to be kept using the then new science of facade retention, but with modern structures and fire safety systems being built behind. This was reversed for the modern blocks. Their already compliant structures and fire safety systems were kept and augmented by rebuilt facades in front of the redundant walkways to better relate to their Victorian neighbours.

My preliminary report was never followed through but the principles still hold good.

Robert Menzies, Falkirk

Defund Amnesty

Amnesty International UK has said it regrets publishing a report that labelled various organisations, including a sexual assault centre and For Women Scotland as “anti-rights groups” (your report, 14 July). Regrets? Would this be because several of the organisations named have now threatened legal action?

The Amnesty International UK report “A Growing Threat: The Anti-rights Movement in the UK” criticised and named more than 100 organisations. Amnesty International UK claimed these organisations were working against the rights of LGBT+ people.

The excuse was that the report was uploaded to its website "without going through the established internal review processes". How convenient. But wait a minute, the report was written so what did Amnesty intend to do with it? Let it gather dust? Have staff been. or will any be dismissed for “gross misconduct”?

Amnesty International is a registered charity so the UK Charity Commission should immediately remove their charitable status. Why should UK taxpayers fund their divisive views?

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

What’s the story?

Amnesty International UK issues a W1A style retraction of its report calling JK Rowling's Beira's Place charity and other worthy groups “anti-rights”.

The report, it's explained, was uploaded to its website “without going through the established internal review processes”. Does that mean some zealot took unilateral action? If so, that's a real shame. Too many organisations seem to have let this kind of nonsense happen but, surely, it can't be consequence free?

Stephen Callanan, Guildford, Surrey

So very British

William Loneskie bemoans the fact “unserious” candidates demean our democracy and electoral system and any “fool” can stand for election (Letters, 14 July).

Nigel Farage has proved this to be the case by throwing his toys out the pram, resigning his parliamentary seat unnecessarily and triggering a by-election in Clacton at taxpayers’ expense.

I have been following parliamentary elections for many years now and, to my knowledge, I can think of no by-election when “unserious” candidates had a chance of holding on to their deposits, never mind win. But suddenly we have a prominent far-right political figure calling a frivolous by-election who just happens to be in danger of losing to a frivolous candidate.

For me Count Binface’s candidature represents a type of British decency and eccentricity which would normally be forgotten the day after the by-election but, this time, is in complete contrast to the rhetoric of hate and division promulgated by Farage and his snarling acolytes. And this frivolous candidate could win. He probably won’t but he has a chance.

Now that really is democracy.

D Mitchell, Doune, Perthshi re

Democratic laugh

I read with interest “Bin the Count” by William Loneskie. Whatever we may think of The Count, every opinion matters, every vote counts, and we must all count the concept of democracy worthy of respect. A democracy incapable of tolerating people treating it with derision would not be a democracy. However, when someone willingly sticks their head in a bin, the people should be free to infer something from this and vote accordingly.

It was not always so. Last week, prompted by a local council by-election taking place in Lanarkshire, I was reading an old book entitled The Scottish Covenanters and was reflecting on democracy, freedom and the words of an old banner carried at Bothwell Brig by Mr John Main, the laird of Ballochney. It read: “East Monkland for Reformation in Church and State according to the Word of God and our Covenant.”

Back then what you stood for was a serious matter. This banner remains as a relic reminding us of the real historical cost of our freedoms – both religious and political.

Sir James Knox wrote of this banner:

“You may call it a small bit of bunting,

You may say it’s an old coloured rag,

But freedom has made it majestic,

And time has ennobled the flag.”

What words will history pen for the plastic bin of Clacton? Will it be considered majestic and ennobled?

May the people of Clacton by the power, freedom, and the solemn sober gravity of their vote allow democracy to have the last laugh.

(Dr) Steven William Welsh, Stornoway, Western Isles

Equality always

Brian Forsyth writes (Letters, 14 July) that the Equality Network was “once a gay rights organisation”, and has more recently changed direction to support intersectional equality, including gender identity equality. That is quite wrong. The Equality Network was founded 29 years ago, at a national Scottish conference (of which I was one of the organisers). It was an LGBT equality conference, including workshops on each of lesbian, gay, bi and trans equality.

The Equality Network has always worked on LGBT equality, including for LGBT people with intersectional identities – that is, who face discrimination also on other grounds such as disability. That approach is morally right: equality and human rights mean nothing unless we provide them to diverse people different from us, not only to those who are just like us.

And the approach also works, as evidenced by the successes on LGBT equality of the past three decades. United we stand and progress, while divided we would fall. I am glad to say that Scotland's diverse LGBT communities continue to stand strong together.

Tim Hopkins, Edinburgh

Channel charge

Now both Donald Trump and Iran are charging tolls for passage through the Strait of Hormuz. I am sure there could have been an easier way for both of them to extort money from the world's economy rather than start a war.

If it catches on, how about the UK and France charge all vessels that use the English Channel? With the traffic that passes through there every day, think of the new income we could have – our huge problems with the NHS, Social Services, lack of funding for local authorities etc would disappear overnight.

And while we're at it, let’s fill in all the potholes.

Incoming prime minister Andy Burnham take note

J Moore, Glasgow

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