Readers' Letters: Decline in arts funding means poorer songs

But her grating chanting, with little melody and an infinite excess of ostinato cliches, along with the trite juvenility of her lyrics (she seems hardly to have lived or experienced very much at all) can leave one stunned by the banality and dullness of her songs. Unless the listener is in a certain age group, who hasn't grown up listening to popular music made by those with talent and rare genius.

The Bee Gee Robin Gibb told me when I interviewed him in 2003 that the demise of the art of songwriting was the reason no British artist had a song in the Billboard Top 20 for the first time ever.

It must surely be a reflection of this decline in popular music that Swift's is by far the brand most sought after by young people. The causes of that decline must surely lie in the craven de-funding of arts teaching, and music in particular, by administrations of all parties, and the loss of so many performance opportunities as a result of planning decisions by councils such as Edinburgh, ever desperate to build lucrative student flats on premises where bands once played.

Every generation looks down its nose at the creations of its successors, reluctant to admit they might have something truly new. But the ear doesn't lie, and the sound of ecstatic pop-joy cannot be fabricated out of today’s repetitive electronic beats.

Bruce Whitehead, South Queensferry, Edinburgh

Vote Europe

Really, one would hope Les Reid and Martin Redfern (Letters, 10 June) would see that the EU elections are much more of an exercise in democracy than the forthcoming Westminster elections could ever hope to be.

In the 2019 UK general election, for example, the Tory government received an 80-seat majority with only 43.6 per cent of the vote. On top of that, the upper chamber is not elected at all. How can that ever be called a democracy? The UK system is as democratic as that of Belarus, where the “last dictator of Europe” rules in the only other European country that has the same voting system as the UK.

To correct some apparent misunderstandings about the EU, it is the Council (of Ministers) that are the “real decision makers” and these ministers are all elected democratically in each member country. The EU Commission is the administrative body of the EU, corresponding to the UK Civil Service. Why would anyone suggest that Ursula von der Leyen, as a civil servant, should be elected?

The EU Parliament, as we have just seen over the weekend, is directly elected by the citizens of the EU. It adopts and amends law proposals; it decides on the EU budget. It also supervises the work of the Commission and other EU bodies. It co-operates with national parliaments of EU countries to get their input. Maybe it is this relatively more democratic nature of the EU that appealed to the majority of Scots who voted emphatically to remain in the EU.

So, I would agree that democracy is important. That is why Scotland must break free from the domination of the toxic Westminster and apply for membership of the European Union in line with the expressed will of 62 per cent of Scottish voters.

Peter Glissov, Edinburgh

Different country

In response to Hilary J Cameron's letter (11 June) about the presence of the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, being an insult to D-Day veterans, surely it was entirely appropriate for him to be there. He is the leader of the benign, democratic and non-militaristic Germany that rose from the ashes of the Third Reich. His presence is also an indication of how much Germany has moved on. The majority of Germans I have known are pacifists and there is genuine shame and regret in Germany regarding the country's militaristic past and for having caused two world wars.

Disappointingly, many people always think of Hitler and the Third Reich whenever Germany is mentioned even though almost eight decades have passed since the Third Reich ceased to exist.

Robert Kelly, Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire

Magic money

The various election protagonists are now assuring us that each of their schemes is fully costed, and will be financed from savings made elsewhere.

But now that we are simply creating unbacked fiat money from thin air, via the banking system, there is no need for such fiscal responsibility. In 1997 our national debt was a mere £350 billion, today it is about £2.6 trillion, that is to say eight times as much, all of it magic fiat money, only supported by our belief in its issuer, and without any real backing such as gold.

So for as long as we have faith in the ability of our government, it can continue to finance the whims of its various ministers with this magic money. The key word here, of course, is Faith.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinnesswood, Perth and Kinross

Labour pains

Folk seem to have forgotten that New Labour bankrupted the country up to 2010.

Hence “austerity” etc – there simply is not enough money to go round. The huge Covid handouts simply exacerbated the situation.

John Wright, Edinburgh

Broken system

In his letter of 10 June, Les Reid points out that the European Parliament has no direct say in choosing the members or president of the European Commission and contrasts this with the UK system in which he claims every vote in a general election counts in choosing a government.

Unfortunately this is not the case. In our General Election there are in fact 650 separate separate elections for a Member of Parliament, each decided by a simple majority. This means that all the votes cast for the losing candidates in each constituency – probably the majority – do not count at all in choosing the next Government.

This means a party can win 70 per cent of the seats in a Parliament even if it won only 40 per cent of the total votes cast, as happened with the Blair administration. Or a party can attract widespread support without winning a single seat, as happened with UKIP.

The root of the problem is that our present electoral system evolved when there were only two parties in contention. I would suggest a rethink is required.

S Beck, Edinburgh

Migration theory

While Scotland has many features to attract people to live here, I wonder if the SNP hierarchy have ever thought that its failure to attract sufficient workers may not be a product of UK Government immigration policy. That, after all has resulted in net increase in population for many years. Perhaps the toxic atmosphere generated by the independence debate and a possible reluctance of people from other parts of the UK to settle here is one outcome.

Richard Perry, Burntisland, Fife

Signs of times

Douglas Cowe seems to have a problem with bilingual road signs in Scotland (Letters, 11 June). Without quoting any evidence to back up his argument he seems to think that having road signs which include Gaelic, “must cause accidents”.

In Wales most road signs are bilingual, in Welsh and English, which doesn't seem to cause too many problems. In Ireland, road signs are bilingual, Irish and English, and again, that doesn't seem to cause drivers, many of whom will be tourists, any great problems.

If Mr Cowe ever goes to China he’ll notice that many road signs are bilingual, Mandarin and English. In Thailand, many road signs are in Thai and English. In much of the Middle East, road signs are in Arabic and English. Again, people in these countries seem to cope with bilingual road signs quite easily.

And goodness knows what Mr Cowe will think if he ever visits Israel, where many road signs are not in one language or even two languages but are in three languages: Arabic, English and Hebrew. Using Mr Cowe's logic, one might assume there is daily carnage on Israel's roads!.

George Shanks, Edinburgh

Stationary tongue

With the tourist season in full swing I’m sure many American visitors in search of their Scottish roots will be disappointed if they happen to arrive in Edinburgh by train. Having passed through Gleann lucha (Linlithgow) and Margadh an Fheòir (Haymarket) en route from Glasgow, or through Dùn Bàrr (Dunbar) and Nuadh-Treabh Fada (Longniddry) from the South, they will scratch their heads at the name Waverley. Where’s the proper “Scottish” version of this name, they will wonder.

Even the crazed zealots of the Pàrlamaid na h-Alba didn’t quite have the crust to invent a Gaelic version of “Waverley” for the simple reason that the hero of Walter Scott’s novel that gave its name to the station was English. But the American visitors don’t need to know that. Why go on disappointing them?

Get the sign-writers to add Dùn Èideann Tonn Tràth. To save you looking it up, the phrase means “Wave Early” in the Gaelic. But that would be cheating, I hear you cry. So what else have the Scottish language police been doing for the past 20-odd years?

John Tavner, Dedham, Essex

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