Having been brought up in a mining village in the West Central coalfields I observed the miner's strike, which ended 30 years ago, with mixture of grief and apprehension ("We need a McGahey to combat austerity", The Herald, March 5).

By then a parish minister in Broughty Ferry, the wealthy seaside-suburb of Dundee, I was a world away from the pitheads as the infamous Arthur Scargill led the miners into a trap.

I had met the Scottish union leader Mick McGahey through my ex-miner father and recalled his love of poetry and his pragmatism in the face of the rapidly changing world of coal.

As the strike progressed, Mr Scargill become increasingly separated from the men he was leading and the appalling internecine violence was against everything for which Mr McGahey stood.

He wanted to follow the German example of planned closures but, in the wasteland created by Mr Scargill, many pits had permanently lost their customers and were never reopened.

In fact history was running against the miners with Harold Wilson closing twice as many pits as Margaret Thatcher.

Rev Dr John Cameron,

10 Howard Place,

St Andrews.

I RECALL well the opening of Lally's Palais in October 1990 ("Lally saddened by plans to demolish steps to his palais", The Herald, March 2, and Letters, March 3). Together with the City of Culture celebrations, it had brought a climate of optimism and hope to a city that had suffered from decades of neglect.

There was a general belief in Scotland that it would be called St Andrew's Concert Hall to emphasise continuity with Glasgow's magnificent St Andrew's Halls, destroyed by fire three decades earlier.

It was not to be. Glasgow's Labour establishment even then was running scared of the SNP and calling it after Scotland's patron saint was seen as much too politically risky.

I liked the steps. Viewed from lower down Buchanan Street, they seemed to carry up to a higher world of art and culture. It was not all that long before politics intervened again of course, and, in my view, the rather ridiculous effigy of Donald Dewar obstructed the perspective.

Alan Clayton,

Westfield,

Strachur, Argyll.

Ross McEwan has a huge and unenviable task on his hands in restoring the reputation of RBS. I support his symbolic gesture ("Goodwin's castle drops the bridge to new entrepreneurs", The Herald, March 5). The move shows leadership. It's the sort of action that inspires employees to behave in the right way. The way that will restore the reputation of the bank and place RBS centre stage at the heart of Scottish business.

When leaders do the right thing the rest of the organisation follows. Doing the right thing means acting now with compensation for businesses that may have been unfairly put under, their property assets taken by the bank, with compensation for the mis-selling of a variety of products. The must also stop awarding senior staff huge bonuses when their company is making a loss.It is the only way to change culture and restore reputation.

Mr McEwan has made the first bold step. I urge him to keep going in that direction. It's the right thing to do for the future of the bank and for its customers.

Sandy Adam,

Chairman, Springfield Properties,

8 Southfield Drive, Elgin.