Readers' Letters: Enough self-flagellation, Edinburgh University, tackle modern slavery

The University of Edinburgh has already made itself look, at best, foolish by disparaging David Hume. The university for long boasted of its connection with the great philosopher as an alumnus who brought lustre to it – until someone found in one of his books a footnote that in the 21st century is anathema. So the university renamed the David Hume Tower “40 George Square”. Now they are gunning for Dugald Stewart. Who’s next? Adam Ferguson? William Robertson?

It is deeply depressing that a university, of all places, should show itself to be utterly ignorant of history and the way in which manners and mores change over time. But, for reasons that are not hard to fathom, Edinburgh has bowed to the current fashion and repudiated part of its distinguished history and its actors, through its Race Review Response Group. This was co-led by its “equality, diversity and inclusion lead”, who, with unconscious irony, claimed to want to provide a “welcoming and nurturing environment in which all members of our community feel a sense of belonging”. That is, “all” who agree with renouncing the university’s history and its greatest thinkers. As twice a graduate of the university, and once an employee, I am ashamed of it.

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Assess risks

There is an absolute responsibility in both the Highland Council and our Scottish Parliament of duty of care to the population. The planning process for the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) at Mey gives no consideration to a risk assessment, whose purpose is to identify the risks and safeguards the developer must provide to ensure no harm arises.

The developer expects others to provide such infrastructure at no cost to themselves; this is unacceptable in the privatised world of energy supply and places a huge burden on the public purse.

My example is that of fire in a BESS unit. One of the combustion products is Hydrogen Fluoride, an incredibly dangerous and corrosive material that causes harm by acidic burns, skin penetration, corrosion of the victims’ bones and long-lasting damage to survivors. The concentration of HF in a fire efflux is many hundreds of times the safe level.

A battery fire requires huge quantities of water to extinguish. A fire in a single BESS unit in Liverpool required 11 appliances. Caithness only has five within the county and these stations are not fully staffed on a 24-hour basis.

Furthermore, the water supply in Mey is hardly an industrial scale supply. If the fire is not controlled and extinguished promptly, then evacuation is a potential fallback safeguard, however, there is only one main road and the wind would often carry the fire efflux in the direction of any evacuation. Normal safeguards in this scenario would include alternative evacuation routes.

Without a comprehensive risk assessment, neither the Council, nor the Scottish Parliament can assess the risk to the population, nor the cost to the public purse of providing safeguards, nor whether they have met their Duty of Care.

Mike Grain, Thurso, Highland

Double standards

The Scotsman reports on Palestinian performances at the Edinburgh Festival that are giving a voice to their struggle (30 July). What is interesting is that Jewish performers at exactly the same festival are being banned as they are deemed “a risk” to staff at the venues despite the fact they are comedians, not political activists.

This demonstrates exactly what is wrong in the UK. One side is vociferous, the other quiet. A clearer example of double standards, emulated all too frequently by many politicians, is hard to find. Why are we allowing the left wing of politics to dominate our way of life to such a great extent? Where are the rights of everyone else?

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Kidnapped

Increasingly, we live in a world of placards, pointed, witty, illegal and thought-provoking. An Israeli placard caught my eye this week, protesting that “Israel is a Country Kidnapped by its Government”.

Thirty-one “kidnapped” Israeli academics and artists have signed a letter deploring the actions of their government in Gaza and the West Bank, which amount to genocide by multiple means.

The letter stresses that these war crimes that are being committed are not in their name, nor in the name of a large number of fellow Israelis.

It's surely good to know protests are simmering under the surface in Israel, just waiting to boil over. These courageous protesters are surely the ones we should be working with, towards the bright future for Israel, reviving its first socialist principles.

This cruel governmen is desperately clinging to power under the autocratic reign of Benjamin Netanyahu. If only the Knesset had the chutzpah to engineer a vote of confidence ro remove his government there would be light at the end of a very dark tunnel. After all, “kidnapped” Israel proudly claims to be a democracy.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Skewed society

The UK population grew by 700,000 in the year to June 2024, a total of just over 2 million in the last three years, mainly fuelled by legal immigration. That same year 221,000 houses were built. Is it any wonder there is a housing crisis and that what houses are available are unaffordable?

I can't help thinking the problem would disappear if the roughly 1.4m registered unemployed people already here, or the 9.4m aged 16-64 classed as “economically inactive” – many either homeless, in unsuitable accommodation or simply unable to afford a house – were either willing or able to take jobs. This would also cut the country's ballooning benefits bill and create more tax revenue.

The above seems blindingly obvious, and when you then hear from friends living in Surrey who have neighbours with second homes here and abroad and also claiming Personal Independence Payments (PIP) “because we can” you have to wonder why all these ultra left-wing Labour MP “rebels” voted against reform of the benefits system, a process that could have killed at least two of the above birds with one stone.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

Bus problems

I am disabled. I can no longer walk. I have a small electric scooter which gives me mobility – it is a lifesaver. With it I can explore new places, accompany my wife and family on walks and (with a few obvious exceptions) live a full life.

I now live in London. Here, all the buses have ramps and are equipped for the disabled. I take it for granted that public transport is accessible to me. On my travels I have always found this to be the case throughout England, in France etc.

However, when I tried to board a bus in Edinburgh the driver told me scooters were not permitted. I wrote to Lothian Transport and they explained that scooters were not manoeuvrable enough, and (perhaps more importantly) there was no statutory obligation to carry scooters. Yet the one time I was able to use an Edinburgh bus (the driver clearly did not see the memo) I had no problem manoeuvring on and off.

I love Edinburgh – it is where I grew up and where I would like to spend more time, but I can’t rely on my friends with cars, or afford to take taxis everywhere.

Please, Lothian Transport, reconsider your stance on scooters. It would bring the city into line with other more disabled-friendly places, and make it an easier place for me and others in my position to visit. Make it mandatory for buses to carry mobility scooters.

David Jeffrey, London

I’m with Trump

I am glad President Donald Trump has rattled a few cages about the insanity of not exploiting our abundant oil and gas resources. Ed Miliband (and the SNP) don't want to exploit our resources in the North Sea. They would rather that other countries employ people to source oil in their countries and then transport it across the world to ours, creating CO2 and taxable profits, of course.

President Trump’s comments about the wind turbines destroying the landscape were good. Perhaps it would have helped if he had pointed out that the windmills are unlikely ever to make up for the CO2 created in their manufacture, transport across the world, placement in virgin ground (using 600-1,000 tons of concrete each, producing between 0.8 and 0.9 tons of CO2 per ton), plus 2,000 gallons of oil each, plus 80 gallons each per annum, not forgetting decommissioning. Who pays for decommissing, incidentally? Lots more lovely CO2 there too, of course!

Let us also not forget the cost of having them not working when it's too windy and not working when the wind doesn't blow. Also, the small matter of paying billions when they don't turn. Let's not forget killing birds. Who thought up the idea of these eyesores anyway?

The idea is so batty I expect the person responsible will do something utterly idiotic like suggesting putting solar panels on rich, agricultural farmland, or floating them on lakes. Hang on a second...

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

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