JEREMY Corbyn’s remarks that issues were “dramatically overstated” were, according to former MP Luciana Berger, “beyond the pale” ("Corbyn ‘enabled’ racism against Jews, says ex-MP who quit Labour", The Herald, October 30). I find Ms Berger’s comment ironic.
The term “beyond the pale” has its roots in anti-Irish racism. When the English colonised Ireland in the 12th century, they built a palisade around the area of their administration – the area now known as Dublin. They considered everyone outside of that area to be uncivilised. Later, in Elizabethan times, the term “beyond the pale” was used to describe anything which is intolerable or unacceptable – which is what they thought of the natives of Ireland in the 12th century.
Stones and glass houses spring to mind.
Ernie Horan, Alexandria G83.
LEAVE THE CAR
FROM my own experience, I doubt that J Patrick MacLean (Letters, October 30) will get his wish to be allowed to remain in his car on ferry crossings. On a sunny morning on August 17, 1970, I was enjoying a coffee in the cafeteria in the Caledonia (nee Stena Baltica) ferry as it sailed from Brodick to Ardrossan, when the ferry rolled suddenly and to an alarming extent which took it a while to recover from.
The official explanation subsequently was a sudden swell, but this was questioned by myself and other passengers as before and after the roll the sailing was calm. The roll was so severe that two sheep floats carried on a lorry on the car deck toppled over and smashed into my car which was parked alongside. My car’s roof was flattened to the extent that the car was a write-off, and more than 70 sheep carried in the floats were lost. If I had been sitting in the car, I likewise would have been flattened.
Alan Fitzpatrick, Dunlop.
TURBINE TARGETS
THE Scottish Government has set targets to install additional wind turbine capacity for another eight million homes. Do you think in the interests of joined-up thinking it could also set targets for, say, at least 50 per cent of the turbines and jackets to be manufactured in Scotland?
This would provide a huge boost to manufacturing and future jobs. We should bear in mind not only will there be new projects but many of our existing windfarms will need upgraded and renewed. These projects are not finite. I'm sure our friends in WWF would support local sourcing instead of shipping halfway round the world. There are other considerations than just cost. If we are going to support climate change initiatives, let's go the whole way.
We are late into the wind turbine manufacturing sector, with a few false starts, but better late than never.
Ian McNair, Cellardyke.
BURIED SECRETS
R RUSSELL Smith's tortoise reminiscences (Letters, October 29 follow a video- chat with our daughter in Shetland. Her tortoise is about to hibernate in a spare refrigerator. On asking how tortoise Raphael would have hibernated had he not been domesticated, I was informed that he would have buried himself, just as Dr Smith did with his companion Billy.
David Miller, Milngavie.
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