Signs of our times

Distilling two of your reports (10 July) regarding the airport parking levy and the garden centre owner who has been told to remove a sign advertising his premises that has stood for more than 50 years have an interesting set of commonalities.

Regarding the airport levy: the airport and infrastructure were built by government funds (local and national) in order to build economic infrastructure for the greater Edinburgh area. There are duties, taxes and levies already attached to each ticket, such as the UK passenger service charge.

Ticket-holders are already paying for this luxury, as such the notion of extracting an additional pound for dropping off passengers at a public transportation facility is nothing short of extortion. This clearly is short-term thinking and this is a type of taxation without representation and verges on tyranny.

With regards to the garden centre owner: this sign has a historical precedent of more than 50 years. This sign is no different than the hundreds of pub signs I saw on my way to The Open Championship this week, except this has been in place 50 years longer than these more distracting signs. The garden centre sign has to go as some individual has told the council that they "think" the sign might distract motorists along this stretch of road. If this were so, there would be a statistically different accident rate on this section than other "comparable" sections of road.

In both cases it is a way to gain something from nothing because it suits the few who have ignored the historical record and try to manipulate the present by employing scare and threat tactics. This is no different than the autocracies of the past. At what point do we wake up and say that this is not right? Hopefully the fever of political tolerance in which the British find themselves will be broken while we still have a fighting chance.

STEVEN BRADT

Newbridge

Ironbridge