Readers' Letters: Storm Eowyn was hardly unprecedented

But there was nothing "unprecedented” about that storm. In living memory the Great Storm of 1987, the Boxing Day storm of 1998 and the Burns Night storm of 1990 were greater in severity than anything we have seen in the 21st century.

None, however, can compare with the hurricane of 26 November 1703 which swept across southern and central England. The New Forest saw 4,000 mature oak tees felled. Hundreds of people drowned in the Somerset Levels. Five thousand homes in London were totally destroyed. Numerous ships of the Royal Navy were sunk with 1,500 seamen drowned. The Eddystone lighthouse was destroyed. The country took years to recover.

But there were no steam engines, no motor cars, no diesel locomotives, no gas boilers, and no coal fired-power stations, all of which which Mr Anderson believes are responsible for climate change and “severe weather events”.

And how often have you heard the phrase “a flood of biblical proportions”?

William Loneskie, Oxton, Lauder, Berwickshire

Blown into debt

Neil Anderson's solution to the withdrawal of the USA from the Paris Climate agreement is to expand the drive for renewable energy. However, he made no reference to the fact that gas supplies 80 per cent of domestic demand at around 6p/unit while the unit price of renewable electricity is 25p/unit!

The Holyrood drive to net zero will simply make annual energy bills soar far above the levels seen after the start of the conflict in the Ukraine.

It should also be noted that there is a deafening silence from our politicians in Edinburgh over any plan to underwrite the fourfold increase in debt to £130 billion for the decarbonisation of Scottish homes. Just when is Holyrood going to accept that the economy cannot repay the debts accrued from Net Zero?

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway

Cherish Europe

Rachel Reeves said that she would be happy to reset our relationship with Europe by participating in the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (your report, 27 January). This is surely welcome news.

Brexit is proving to be one of the most costly mistakes ever, splitting the country down the middle and demonstrating once and for all that referenda are a totally unsuitable means for deciding vital issues. They should be nothing more than advisory.

I am writing on Holocaust Day and it is salutary to remember just how fragile and cherished peace in Europe is, not least with the alarming emergence of hateful far right politics in many countries, including our own. Although an island, we are very much part of continental Europe, where our future lies, hopefully, a peaceful one.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Insulting speech

The President of Ireland, Michael Higgins, gave a speech at a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony in Dublin at the weekend.

I have seen a clip of some of what he said and found the tone insulting and demeaning to the memory of the six million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis.

Bringing into his speech the recent conflict in the region is unfathomable as well as unforgivable.

There are no parallels to be drawn, as he attempted to do. Michael Higgins has been demonstrably anti-Israel over the past year, and I am afraid his political inclinations overcame any sense of the occasion and what they were there to remember.

Four Jewish people attending were escorted out. The speech, apparently, was greeted in total silence. Perhaps Mr Higgins would have been better to stay at home.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Gravy train

The figure of £28 million has been quoted extensively as the cost of not setting up a National Care Service for Scotland. We have yet to be told just where and how this large sum was spent by the cash-strapped SNP administration. I don’t suppose we shall ever be privy to this information but you can be assured a significant portion of the money is now lining the pockets of a small army of advisors commuting on their daily gravy train.

SR Wild, Edinburgh

Ode to a Tax

Just in time for Burns Night the new “visitor tax” for Edinburgh was announced. A subsequent Burns Night web search revealed that in 1786 the Poet visited Edinburgh after a two-day horseback ride from Ayrshire; he stayed many nights and penned the famous Address to the Haggis.

Were the journey to be conducted next summer he would have to pay the 5 per cent visitor tax on top of the cost of the stay. The charge is for anyone staying over, not just those from outside Scotland. So councillors have decided in their wisdom to find extra funds from those outwith their boundaries. Glasgow and other cities will be rubbing their hands together and ScotRail late-night services could well get a lift in numbers.

If an actual drop in visitors occurred Lothian buses, for one, could also be impacted as everyone from outside Scotland pays handsomely for their use.

The City move ties in nicely with ongoing complaints made as early as the 1960s about excessive cost incurred with the then quite small annual Edinburgh Festival. To be fair, this is not a trait of Edinburgh alone, the same wail used to come from Stratford-upon-Avon about the problems Shakespeare brought on the town. A logic akin to “A lot more people would come if it wasn't so crowded!”

Back to Burns, one wonders what sort of poem might have been penned for Edinburgh were he to arrive post 5 per cent charge? Would he have got back on his horse and found somewhere more welcoming?

Leslie Freitag, Harpenden, Herts

Big promises

The SNP wants a debate on the WASPI women for its own political gratification. John Swinney hopes to embarrass Labour. Well, he might, but the core question here, as so often, is: where is the money to come from?

The SNP could, of course, promise to deliver this money themselves, without Westminster help, but then again where would this money come from, along with funding for the current SNP promises to remove the two-child benefits cap and to end Scottish child poverty.

Few of us should be taken in by this crude SNP tactic but almost all of us should be wary of a political party that promises so much, especially as it rarely, if ever, delivers.

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Haud yer wheesht

A priceless example of narrow-minded Scottish parochialism is provided by Elizabeth Scott, who objects to hearing Estuary English or Received Pronunciation accents in TV broadcasts (Letters, 25 January). On the airwaves and in our towns and cities you’ll hear regional accents, dialects and languages from different parts of Scotland, from all over the rest of the UK, as well as from abroad. If you’re very lucky, you might hear Gàidhlig or even Irish; we live in an increasingly globalised community. Ms Scott ends with a now familiar-sounding harangue: “I know I am home when I hear the lovely sound of Scottish voices again. It really is time that Scotland takes her place as an independent country within Europe and the world.”

Imagine Ms Scott’s outrage if somebody from down south expressed identical sentiments about hearing “the lovely sound” of English voices when returning to England! They would be labelled as anti-Scottish, anti-migrant British nationalists.

It’s interesting that when other political parties are concerned with energy and food security, economic growth, infrastructure and defence, the separatist movement seems more interested in social welfare, higher taxes, gender identity politics… and how people in Scotland ought to talk.

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

Earplugs out!

Elizabeth Scott calling travel to London and elsewhere south of the Border “going abroad” was a welcome dose of levity on a gale-swept day.

As for being glad to hear a Scots accent on her return to home soil, there are probably more Jocks in London than many a Scottish town, and if hearing an English accent up here is so distressing a pair of ear plugs would come in handy!

Andrew Kemp, Rosyth, Fife

Not so social

I've finished with social media: one website suspended my account because of an alleged hate crime – I mentioned that I “hated” baked beans. Another site said I did not meet their “karma threshold”, whatever that is. The third site did not like me questioning the term “sex work” for prostitution – so much for free speech.

A wee poem for you: "Speech is only “free” / If you agree / With me.”

Crivvens!

Steve Hayes, Leven, Fife

Results business

You publish National League 1 to 3 rugby results. There is a League 4, you know? And there are regional leagues; you used to publish these too. Happy days!

There are plenty of minor football results.

Hywel Williams, Edinburgh

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