Readers’ Letters: Edinburgh’s Tour de France ‘Grand Depart’ could be a 'Grande Débâcle’

Cars can sometimes avoid the potholes if careful, but not always, such is the state of the roads. Travelling by bus is another matter. I like to read when on the bus but there are stretches of road where this is nigh on impossible due to the shaking.

There seems to be money for a multitude of cycle lanes but not for roads. And aren’t bus lanes for cyclists too?

James D Paterson, Edinburgh

Training collars

Scotland faces a choice: uphold evidence-led animal welfare, or surrender to ideology. The delay in banning so-called “electric shock collars” is not a “farce” as it has been described – it is restraint in the face of immense political pressure and lobby-driven pseudoscience.

The Association of Responsible Dog Owners represents thousands of dog owners and professionals across the UK. We categorically reject the misrepresentation of electronic training collars (ETCs) as abusive. Our position is grounded in data, law, and lived experience.

In more than 2,500 reports submitted through our five-year user survey 98.6 per cent of users reported no negative effects from ETC use, and 93 per cent stated that the inclusion of the tool helped resolve their dog’s problem behaviour. This is not conjecture. It is the lived experience of real, animal-loving people.

Contrast this with the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission (SAWC), whose 2023 recommendation to ban ETCs fails to declare conflicts of interest: seven of its 11 members are directly linked to organisations already lobbying against these tools.

ETCs are not quick-fix substitutes for considered and effective training. They are often the only effective means of interrupting deeply ingrained behaviours like predation, aggression, and compulsions.

The welfare calculus is simple: how many dogs have been harmed by a responsibly used e-collar in Scotland in the past seven years, versus how many livestock animals have been mauled, maimed, or killed by out-of-control dogs?

In a formal submission to the government, both the Kennel Club and the British Veterinary Association admitted to having no evidence of abuse or harm caused to a single dog in Scotland.

Policymakers must not ignore the weight of international research—including studies showing that e-collars used in accordance with best practices cause no significant distress and are often more effective than treat-only methods for high-stakes behaviourslike recall when chasing and livestock avoidance.

The world is crying out for non-lethal, evidence-based solutions to dog predation. Scottish ministers hold one in the palm of their hands. To discard it for the sake of optics or ideology would be a profound betrayal – not only of the responsible people who rely on these tools, but of the very animals this debate claims to protect.

James Penrith, Association of Responsible Dog Owners

Pension minefield

Once again, the Westminster Labour Government is going after Pensioners with the announcement of a review of the State Pension Age. The last State Pension age review took place in 2023 and is scheduled to take place every six years, which would mean a further review in 2029, yet the Government are in a hurry once again.

The current state of affairs regarding state pension age currently stands at age 66, with an increase to 67 planned for the next two years with further increases to follow to 68 in the next 20 years.

Continuing to raise the state pension age is all very well for those who have been fortunate enough to work in dry and heated environment where the heaviest load lifted is a pen. However, for those working and keeping the infrastructure of the country operating in our harsh winters or very hot sunny days (more to follow), lifting heavy loads, then having to work till 68 and above is an outrage.

Pensions are a minefield and the introduction in 2012 of auto-enrolment certainly brought the future of the State Pension as we know it, into question, begging the question, has the State Pension got a future. And while we are on the issue of State Pensions and just in case the Labour Government are in any doubt, WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) women are still waiting for the justice, which incidentally the Parliamentary Ombudsman recommended.

Catriona C Clark, Banknock, Falkirk

Joking apart

The long-running ‘Funniest Joke of the Fringe’ award is to be scrapped this year. Is this because no matter what the joke, someone will be offended? Or could it be that the best joke of the lot is our current Labour government so no other contenders can come close, except for our very own SNP government?

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Tariffs trap

The latest meeting of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ was notable for the first-time attendance of President Donald Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, and Senators Richard Blumenthal and Lindsey Graham. The involvement of these politicians is concerning because it suggests that Washington's primary objective is not to discuss further aid to Kyiv, but rather to advance US economic interests.

Recently, Lindsey Graham introduced a bill in Congress that would impose tariffs of up to 500 per cent on goods imported from countries that have a strong trade relationship with Russia. There is a risk that, under the pretext of discussing the future of Ukraine, Graham was trying to draw the coalition members into a tariff war. However, it’s important to remember that Donald Trump hasn’t made any decisions about the bill yet. It's possible that Graham could just be luring European countries into a trap only to abandon them later in this tariff war.

This scenario is dangerous because it could further strain relations between Europe, India, and China. The participation of London and Brussels in the tariff war will make them implacable enemies of Beijing and New Delhi. This leaves Europe without alternative economic allies and makes it dependent on Washington.

Henry Byers, Glasgow

Trump must act

Your editorial (22 July) is highly critical of Israel and rightly so. Benjamin Netanyahu and his gang are responsible for war crimes.

Professor Nick Maynard, an Oxford surgeon currently working at the Nasser hospital in Gaza, has described the most awful scenes he encounters there daily. Civilians including children are being brought in, the victim of Israeli snipers as they scramble for food at the American-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s food distribution centres, where they are corralled through tall wire fences. He and other surgeons have noticed a pattern which makes this even more reprehensible: on different days the snipers target different parts of the body.

Prof Maynard also describes the horrendous malnutrition affecting Palestinians because of Israel’s restriction on supplies entering Gaza. “The malnutrition I have seen here is indescribably bad,” he says. UNICEF reports that in May 2025 more than 5,000 children were treated for acute malnutrition,making the total number in that category between January and May over 16,000.

Separately the BBC has carried out a thorough and detailed survey of the controlled demolition of thousands of buildings throughout Gaza by Israel, supplying photographs showing bulldozers clearing the rubble after the explosions and levelling once thriving neighbourhoods. They have released before and after satellite images which shows exactly the crimes against international law the Netanyahu regime is committing. And just as the US supplies planes, bombs and missiles for air attacks on Gaza so it supplies bulldozers to demolish not only damaged buildings but perfectly intact ones as well. The BBC reports that last week America supplied “dozens” of Caterpillar D9 bulldozers for that purpose. Without American support Netanyahu’s regime would collapse. Preseident Trump must act.

William Loneskie, Lauder, Scottish Borders

Enemy’s friends

It’s about time Israel’s assistance to Argentina during the Falklands War was made more widely known.

Via Peru, Israel supplied aircraft, missiles and other lethal weapons to the Argentinians.

The Israeli Prime Minister at the time was Menachim Begin, a former Irgun terrorist and no friend of Britain.

Now Benjamin Netanyahu is constantly grovelling and wheedling to Donald Trump for more fiscal and military assistance.

In the Falklands War, 255 British military personnel died. Seven Royal and Merchant Navy ships were sunk.

Should we be assisting Israel in any way now?

Doug Morrison, Tenterden Kent

Careful now

As Israel sends tanks and snipers to attack civilians queueing for food, David Lammy warns that Israel is “tarnishing” its reputation. Careful, David, don’t overdo it.

Graham M McLeod, Kinross, Perth & Kinross

Vested interests

Eric Knight, chief executive of the Knight Vinke Energy Transition Fund, a long-term shareholder of SSE plc, is somewhat out of touch, urging readers “Don’t listen to Donald Trump” (Scotsman, 21 July).

In fact, the Scottish Government’s wind farm fiasco is so despised most Scots actually agree with Donald Trump.

Let’s have no more nonsense from the vested interests of the wind industry!

George Herraghty, Lhanbryde, Moray

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