THE headline on Rosemary Goring’s column, “There is a way to stop the menace of the fly-tippers” (The Herald, June 2) caught my eye. I read in eager anticipation of a solution, but sadly none was forthcoming.

My wife and I live in a rural location. There is little traffic but despite that the roadside verges are often strewn with litter thrown from passing vehicles. My wife makes a noble effort to clear the area around our house and beyond but there is only so much she can do. There are a couple of passing places nearby that are plagued by fly-tipping.

There appears to be a growing trend among fly-tippers to set fire to their rubbish – presumably, to destroy potentially incriminating evidence. This leaves a terrible mess which must be even more difficult to clean up.

I report every incident that I become aware of. The council usually clears it when it can but its resources are stretched to the limit.

I was more than a little disheartened to read that Ms Goring’s solution was to repeat that tired old mantra “education”. She says it should start at primary school.

Primary school teachers do educate children about litter. My wife is a former primary teacher with more than 30 years' experience. She and her colleagues dedicated much time and effort to educating children about the impact on the environment caused by litter. I have seen work projects that she devised for children based on the negative effects of litter.

The huge amount of effort put in by teachers is completely futile when weighed against the negative influences of other adults in the children’s lives. It isn’t children who are throwing empty beer cans from car windows.

David Clark, Tarbolton.

COVID IS NOT UNPRECEDENTED

I WRITE in frustration at the constant use of the word "unprecedented" in relation to the Covid pandemic. The dictionary definition of this word is "never having happened before".

The world has experienced pandemics for thousands of years. We have had black death, TB, smallpox, Spanish flu, Sars, Asian flu, Hong Kong flu. So pandemics and epidemics are not unprecedented.

World governments have been warned over the last 30 years that a pandemic was on the way, they chose not to heed the warnings; they didn't want the expense of buying PPE, and taking other precautions. The UK was warned three times over the last 10 years that a pandemic was on the way.

So please stop using the word unprecedented, when it does not apply to the Covid-19 pandemic. The reason we are in a chaotic situation is this: the UK Prime Minister was unfit for the job.

Margaret Forbes, Kilmacolm.

CASH WILL ALWAYS BE NEEDED

I WAS pleased to see that someone is keeping a watch on the demise of cash ("Warning for the future as the use of cash in stores continues to plummet", The Herald, June 1).

There are many in society who, often through no fault of their own, have no access to a credit or bank card, and although the number of older citizens who do not do internet transactions will decline, there will always be people who, as they get older, will feel more secure using hard currency.

The article highlighted a number of groups that will continue to need access to cash, but overlooked those, who again through no fault of their own, are so far down on their luck, that donations from foot traffic on our streets is the only access they have – or even might ever have – to any form of money.

Francis Deigman, Erskine.

LAMENTING LOSS OF LIFE-LONG MARRIAGE

ANDREW McKie believes it is "none of our business" to have an opinion about the recent marriage of Boris Johnson and his girlfriend ("Johnson and Symonds got married because they love one another – so leave them alone", The Herald, June 1). I disagree.

The emotional distress caused to children following relationship breakdown is enormous and an underestimated root cause of mental health problems in modern society. Political correctness dictates that "thou shalt not judge the adulterous behaviour of others". We need look no further than the example of what happened following Prince Charles's infidelity towards his then wife and the distress this caused to her and their children.

For those of us who quietly mourn the loss of stable, life-long marriage as a basis for bringing up children, I fear the game is up.

Elizabeth Mueller, Glasgow.

GIVE US THE GREATS FOR CINEMA'S RETURN

LIKE many people, I'm sure, I was looking forward to going back to the cinema as we came out of lockdown, and although it’s great to see cinemas re-opening, I am however less than inspired by the programming, with the same films dominating every cinema schedule.

I know that film production has been badly hit and it’ll be a long time before we start to see the variety of films we’ve been used to, but in the meantime surely a better way of getting people back into the way of going to the cinema would be give us some (socially distanced) crowd-pleasers.

I know they’re on TV regularly but give us Hitchcock, Scorsese, Kubrick, David Lean and Orson Welles, give us film noir, French new wave and MGM musicals, give us horror and science fiction classics, films best appreciated on a big screen. Give us a celebratory re-opening with the sort of films that remind many people why they fell in love with going to the cinema in the first place.

Wall-to-wall screenings of Nomadland, Peter Rabbit 2 and Cruella certainly don’t qualify, or to quote Daniel Craig in Skyfall: "Not exactly Christmas, is it?"

Stuart Neville, Clydebank.