MAY I respond to the comments of Brian Smith and Lesley Mackiggan on the current dispute between ambulance crews and the Scottish Ambulance Service (Letters, January 9).

Your leader ("Ambulance crews in risky battle over conditions", The Herald, January 7) makes it clear that the ambulance service is "not classed as an emergency service for ... pay and pensions, merely as an 'essential' one, like gas or electricity." . It is funded by the NHS whose resource is constantly under review, which results in underfunding and undermanning of ambulance crews. Considering the variety of calls that ambulances respond to, workers could claim to be more flexible and trained in broader areas of speciality than the other frontline services.

Most reasonable citizens would regard the routine 12-hour shifts that crews work as excessive and, without adequate meal times, impossible. That staff are obliged to waste precious time in dealing with voluntary disability, such as the alcohol-soaked late-night punters who only want the convenience of a free taxi home, is well documented.

Ambulance crews work to save lives in the same way as an A&E ward in hospital but with many times fewer staff, and whilst being driven (depending on the seriousness of a patient's condition) "briskly".

John Bedford

24 The Mount,

Balmullo, Fife.

For once, I have to disagree with Tom Shields, on being positively Scottish (The Herald, January 9).

His selection of tunes for Scottish country dancing is incorrect.

From experience The Black Eyed Peas' I Gotta Feeling is good for the Gay Gordons, while California Girls by Katy Perry is ideal for the Circassion Circle and Cee Lo Green's Forget You for Strip the Willow.

I would of course caution dancers to always select the radio edit versions.

Donald Macdonald,

1 Clair Road,

Bishopbriggs.