Readers' Letters: Church of Scotland took care of young mothers

I was particularly gratified, indeed, because I served on the Kirk’s Adoption Case Committee for many years and can assure her (and the general public) that the Church of Scotland’s Glasgow Home took the greatest care possible of the young mothers, while our Committee employed high-minded social workers to try and ensure that the children would be placed with ideal parents – you would not get a baby if it was to “save your marriage”! Nearing 97, and perhaps the only survivor of the prevailing circumstances, I’d like to spell out that many, and possibly most, of the teenage mothers came from working-class households that just could not cope and provide a good life for the child of a teenager’s pregnancy.

The first such distressed expectant mother – and her mother – whom I met came from a mixed family in two rooms with no electricity or hot water, sharing an outside toilet, with an alcoholic father prone to violence, where the mother frequently had to pawn her wedding ring. In such circumstances, girls were glad that their mother had managed to get a place for them in the Home. There, the caring staff helped the girls make clothes so their baby could look its best for the Matron to make the hand-over. And then the girls’ main concern was to get to their private window and check that the new parents were not old!

(Rev) Jack Kellet, Innerleithen, Scottish Borders

Who abstained?

Once again, Stan Grodynski (Letters, 4 July) wrecks his separatist argument in one final sentence. He states: “according to a recent academic study, Brexit is costing Scotland around £30 billion a year”. He doesn’t name the study, as usual.

So can he explain why, in 2019, the SNP abstained from a vote, which if they had not been playing their usual petty politics and voted to keep the UK in the EU Customs Union – the vote was lost by just three votes, – perhaps a large chunk of the “£30bn” might still be rolling into UK coffers?

You can’t have your cake and eat it, but then, that’s exactly how the SNP work – division for division’s sake and to hell with the consequences. Unfortunately, others have longer memories than the Scottish Nasty Party and their diehard followers.

David Millar, Lauder, Scottish Borders

Hunt the bikes

It has been reported that, since Covid, there has been a drop in the number of primary school pupils able to cycle. One factor, it is said, is that some parents cannot afford to buy their child a bike.

But how can this be? In 2021 did not Nicola Sturgeon promise to provide free bikes for all children who could not afford them? What happened to that pledge?

Jane Ann Liston, St Andrews, Fife

Undemocratic?

Doug Clark (Letters, 6 July) claims the EU is an undemocratic bureaucracy from whose grip we are now mercifully free. Really?

The European Council consists of the elected heads of government from each member state. They meet to decide policy direction on topics for the European Commission (the civil servants) to follow.

The EC then prepares draft legislation for both the elected MSPs of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union to discuss. The latter is different from the European Council and consists of elected Ministers from each member state who have that topic in their portfolio. Only when all are in agreement is the directive referred to member states with a deadline being set for implementation. The Commission will already have issued a copy to member states’ parliaments at the start of the process so that their concerns can be fed into the process via their ministerial representatives on the Council of Europe.

It is thus not dissimilar to the UK structure where civil servants prepare legislation for both Houses of Parliament to discuss and agree the text often via the committee system. The main difference is that here the House of Lords is unelected and unaccountable whereas under the European system the legislating bodies are all elected.

In addition, the Council of the European Union has a rotating presidency, which means that the smallest nations have a say in what gets passed and what does not, whereas under the UK union the devolved nations are always subordinate to Westminster and have no such rights.

As for the European Commission being overly bureaucratic, at the time of Brexit the EC had 33,500 employees serving 450 million people whilst Scotland had 43,050 civil servants for 5 million people.

Robert Menzies, Falkirk

Kill the quangos

The chairman of troubled Historic Environment Scotland, Sir Mark Jones, has resigned after only nine months in the role (your report, 3 July).

What was shocking was that there are 1,600 civil servants employed in this quango and it is extremely hard to comprehend what they all do. In fact, what do the 438 quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations (quangos) in the UK actually do? They employ 500,000 people and they cost taxpayers £400 billion every year, which is £1 in every £3 of government spending.

This government is increasing taxes from people who are already struggling but ignoring the cuts they should be making to the bloated quango sector. It’s time for a bonfire of quangos and their highly paid staff with taxpayer-funded gold-plated pension contributions – but under this Labour government that is just wishful thinking.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Fuels rush in

If A McCormick is correct in claiming it requires 5 units of electricity to produce 1 unit of hydrogen gas (Letters, 4 July) then energy consumers should note that electricity from hydrogen generators will cost £1.35p per unit, meaning an annual electricity bill will be over £4,500 when standing charges are added.

That debt will see a wide-scale deindustrialisation in Scotland plus a massive increase in the number of Scots living in fuel poverty.

Hopefully, the Economic Secretary can inform voters of the steps the SNP will take prior to organising a campaign for IndyRef2. The First Minister should also be aware that, if the SNP ban gas, the average Scot using 15,000 units a year faces a bill of around £20,000 !

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway

Horrible history?

The picture on Saturday's front page shows Lauren Brogan reaching the Flag Heritage Centre in Athelstaneford in East Lothian with the King's Baton and adds that it is the place “where the St Andrew's Cross originated at a battle in 832 when Picts and Scots defeated Anglo-Saxon invaders”. Wrong. I have heard this claim made previously and it is simply bogus history. Any battle against invaders would have been a defence by the local people of East Lothian, who were Northumbrian English at that time. That is why we speak English.

A study of the works of the Venerable Bede written 101 years before the supposed battle at Athelstaneford shows that in 684, Trumwine, a Northumbrian bishop, fled from Pictland after the defeat of an English army at Nechtansmere (Dunnichen in Angus) after King Ecgfrith had invaded their land. Trumwine settled in “Aebbercurnig (Abercorn), in the country of the English”. The territory remained English-speaking, although whittled down over the following centuries. Even in the late 11th century it remained English and many English fled north to escape Norman rule. Although “Lothian” was by then under Scottish rule, Malcolm Canmore “went with his army out of Scotland into Lothian in England and waited there” in 1091 for the English King, William Rufus, who was invading. They settled their differences amicably, however.

The Anglo-Saxon king, Athelstan, credited with being the leader of the defeated English at Athelstaneford, united England and later invaded Scotland in 934 but was not killed or defeated. The Pictish king seeing the St Andrew's Cross the night before the battle is clearly drawn directly from the vision of the cross seen by the Roman Emperor, Constantine, and the words, “In hoc signo vinces” (“In this sign you shall conquer”) before he won the battle of Milvian Bridge.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Above Pars

Every Dunfermline Athletic fan will support our manager, Neil Lennon, in his public endorsement of Steve Clarke. The most successful manager Scotland has ever had felt compelled to quit after the public fallout with the Tartan Army, some of whose members frankly need to get real. I still have my German 1974 Weltmeisterschaft wall poster and was immensely proud as Clarke took us to three tournaments in seven years and got us to our first World Cup since 1998 – our first win since 1990.

The hysterical attack on Clarke, after the slender 1-0 defeat to Morocco – the best nation in Africa, ranked sixth in FIFA rankings, and now powering into the World Cup Quarter Finals – today looks misplaced, if not outrageous.

As Lennon has said, Scotland does not have a star striker like Messi, Haaland, Mbappe or Ronaldo and the new manager will face that very same problem. He too will have to get used to rearranging the chairs on the Titanic.

John V Lloyd, Inverkeithing, Fife

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