IT occurred to me when reading Roz Foyer's recent article ("It’s time to stop asking nicely – and take back control of our buses", The Herald, August 4) that for all the voices thus far raised about the night bus situation in Glasgow, I have not yet heard an opinion from the Scottish Conservatives.

By my count, in the month since First Bus announced that it would discontinue its night bus service there have been at least 30 articles and letters in this newspaper. I have heard the opinion of Paul Sweeney from Labour, the aforementioned Ms Foyer from the STUC, and I have heard from the current and ex-first ministers. But not a single one of these articles or letters features a Conservative Party official's voice. Why should that be? Should we understand the silence to mean that their loyalties lie only with motorists? The impression it certainly gives is that all Conservative voices sing from the same hymn sheet; a hymn that is either heartlessly laissez-faire about the night bus situation, or frit of sounding anti-business. If they have said something somewhere, they need to speak out.

I suppose a statement of the obvious would be a beginning. First Bus is not a charity. It is a private company and its primary goal is to make a profit in the interests of its shareholders and its employees. One might go so far as to say that making a profit is its primary moral obligation. So if there is an insufficient number of customers on a service that permits the company to make a profit, then either the price for the service must rise, the loss must be absorbed or deferred, or the service must be cut. It is that simple. First Bus is under no moral obligation to run a loss-making service.

However, as Ms Foyer accurately points out, what we currently have is a failure of capitalism, with private bus companies profiteering directly from the public purse. Instead of free market capitalism, with companies freely competing for their "fare" share, we have a situation that allows companies to successfully externalise their losses without any of the concomitant accountability that should accompany public spending. That would be bad enough if it weren’t that they have achieved this by distorting the public debate by (metaphorically) blackmailing communities and those in charge of the public purse.

The current arrangement, to borrow Roger Scruton’s highly evocative description, is a form of brigandage. No free market capitalist should support such a sorry state of affairs. Under these circumstances, in the absence of a principled Conservative voice, it is hardly surprising that people mistakenly look to socialism as an antidote to such malignancy. So let us hear Conservatives give two cheers for capitalism, whilst simultaneously ensuring that the city has a flourishing night-time economy from which people can return safely and easily to their home.

Graeme Arnott, Stewarton.

Stop the rise of excess wealth

I READ with interest Neil Howie's letter headed "the slavery of the young" (August 4) and am well aware of the problems caused by the shocking rise in house prices.

As a child, I had a basic existence as my father, a minister of religion, was saving up for his old age. We lived in a tied house which we vacated on his retiral at the age of 70.

Not only did my recently-late brother have to give up a good job in England as he could not pay for accommodation and send money home, but I was limited to finding work in my immediate area.

I was my brother and I who paid off the mortgage on the house which was was purchased when my father retired so that we could remain housed on the death of the last surviving parent.

I have lived with the fear of becoming homeless and am only now beginning to feel secure at the age of 79.

The problem is, if I have to go into care, my home will be sold in order to pay for that care, and my beneficiaries (agreed to by my brother) will get little or nothing, thus depriving a charity of much-needed funds.

Is it not time that the tax system was amended to stop the accruing of excess wealth and ensure that everyone in the country could be housed, and cared for, from the cradle to the grave?

Margaret MH Lyth, Uddingston.

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Thank goodness for earplugs

HUGH Steele and John Macnab (Letters, August 9) have my sympathy at the trials they suffer with hearing loss. Can I have theirs over my lifelong trial with hyperacusis ... an acute sensitivity to sound? Life was made easier about 30 years ago when I discovered the make of earplugs used by Canadian lumberjacks. The plugs have made travelling on buses and trains bearable and for concerts they are edged-in to give an acceptable volume of sound.

Being cut off from public contact is most enjoyable unless I choose otherwise. The low hum and occasional "ping" comes through the barrier of the wax corkscrews. Bliss! Spending a lifetime jumping out of my skin has been less than pleasurable.

My dear, departed mother bought herself a set of headphones which plugged into her TV set but the dear old thing usually forgot to change the setting so that she heard things via her phones which meant that she turned up the volume of sound which was enough to deafen the inhabitants of Skye if I hadn't sorted things out. She never really caught on with the technology. I suppose you cannot please everybody.

Thelma Edwards, Kelso.

Policy turned fool cycle
LESS than two years ago Glasgow hosted COP26, during which local politicians enthusiastically – and correctly – promoted the need for a vast reduction in carbon emissions. Now Glasgow is hosting 8,000 cyclists, most of who have flown long-haul to get there, for a few days of races.
It seems as if the message about curtailing our impact on the climate has not quite got through. Ignorance or hypocrisy?
Dr Ian Johnston, Castle Douglas.

Herculean tsk

I AM surprised that in recent correspondence on famous Belgians (Letters, August 7, 8 & 9), there has been no mention of the obsessive-compulsive and fastidious Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, born of author Dame Agatha Christie, who solved countless mysteries in 33 novels published 1920-1975.

Known to millions, he is the only fictional character to have received a front page obituary in the New York Times.

Give credit where credit’s due, to “these little grey cells” within his egg-shaped head.

R Russell Smith, Largs.