RECENTLY you have run stories reporting on the budgetary difficulties being faced by Scottish local authorities. There are surely two remedies to hand that have already been agreed by the Scottish Parliament that could offer some redress, viz the removal of charitable status from private schools and the immediate introduction of a tourist tax.

As a headteacher of a local authority high school I was used to receiving the annual devolved budget with a large deduction of thousands of pounds taken off for the equivalent of a council tax charge placed on the school. I really grudged this deduction in the knowledge that the headteacher of the large private school down the road was exempt from such a charge as the school was deemed to be a charity.

As regards the tourist tax, can I repeat the arguments that you have kindly published previously? My wife and I have been fortunate enough to visit several overseas countries. Wherever we have travelled it has been standard practice for the hotel bill to have a city tax or tourist tax added for each night of our stay. The sum added is no more than the price of a cup of coffee. With more than 12 million visitor nights per year in Edinburgh in pre-pandemic times, such a modest charge would raise a considerable sum for the city. It has been claimed that such a tax would discourage visitors from coming to Edinburgh. I just simply cannot accept this as an argument. The addition of such a bed tax on our overseas hotel bills has never been seen by us as a deterrent. Visitors will continue to flock to Scotland in very large numbers.

At a time when public services have been under such strain and faced with the grim prospect of yet more pressures on domestic budgets to come, then surely now is the time to add to the funds available to our local authorities by implementing these two measures as a matter of urgency.

Eric Melvin, Edinburgh.

LEGALISE THE DRUGS TRADE

I READ at the weekend that the US Coastguard in Florida was patting itself on the back as it offloaded tons of illegal drugs with a street value in excess of £1 billion it had seized in a few months off the southern coast of the United States. Despite this seizure I don’t recall any mention in the press of a shortage of illegal drugs in the US, where the trade has an annual turnover in the region of $200 billion. As a comparison the total profits generated by all the McDonalds restaurants in the US last year was $7.5 billion. Those in the know suggest that the global trade in illegal drugs accounts for roughly three per cent of global GDP.

What these figures tells me is that there is a huge market for drugs in the US and elsewhere and that efforts to stop the general public using them are futile. Scotland is no different in that respect to the US, as we have a sizeable portion of society who want to and do regularly use various substances a third party has deemed to be illegal. I believe these people are individuals exercising personal choice and others have no right to interfere and deem them criminals.

We need to decriminalise what is currently illegal and bring the drug trade out into the light. Legalising the trade can only improve matters as those who want to use drugs currently appear to have no problem getting access to them but risk their lives every time they indulge. Legalisation as well as regulating the quality of the products would allow the general public via the government to recoup money via taxation rather than illicit money-launderers taking a cut from the proceeds. The money currently wasted on enforcing and policing archaic legislation could be put to better use and perhaps the level of lives currently being lost to substance abuse could be reduced.

David J Crawford, Glasgow.

THE SEARCH FOR A SCOTTISH BANK

AFTER years of happy living with my first bank, the Clydesdale (North Bridge, Edinburgh – great manager, Mr Dempster), I switched when it turned Aussie in 1987.

I've been with the Royal Bank of Scotland since. But it's not the RBS – founded in 1724 – is it? Its parent group is, and obviously has been for some time, something else. After reading your report headed "NatWest chief defends £300m bonus pool" (The Herald, February 19) I realise I'm going to have to start again.

Alison Rose, the CEO who has said she will move the RBS headquarters out of Scotland if we get independence, gets a £1m pay rise (to £3.6m), another million in shares, and a long-term bonus. But what about the workers, laid off as branches around the country close? And what about the bank's customers, struggling to cope with higher costs and bills?

I would love to put what little money I have in the hands of an exclusively Scottish bank, but do not have a name. I'm now leaning towards Barclay's – I know it's not Scottish – but it has made a huge commitment to Glasgow with an impressive-looking HQ for 7,000 workers on the banks of the Clyde. A new coffee shop is due to open to the public there today (February 21). The aroma might be more enticing than any rose.

Andy Stenton, Glasgow.

IT'S ONLY TWITS WHO TWEET

ANENT Sarah Smith's receipt of bilious tweets I would question the need for Twitter (except for someone to profit from its use). Even before Donald Trump tweeted his vast knowledge of nothing, I had decided it was used by twits and enjoyed only by other twits.

My advice to Sarah and everybody else is to ignore all tweets and their writers. If you have anything worthwhile or amusing then write to these Letters Pages where it may be edited and published if not too bilious.

JB Drummond, Kilmarnock.

A DOSSER ON THE CHESS BOARD

CONGRATULATIONS to the two young design graduates on the success of their Clydeside Chess Set ("Glasgow chess set creators make their winning move nationwide", The Herald, February 19).

The Duke of Wellington on his horse with his trademark cone is already well known outwith these climes and a worthy choice as knight, but deserving of wider recognition in future editions would be the Sheriff of Calton Creek, galloping Lobey Dosser on his trusty two-legged steed El Fideldo, created by genius cartoonist Bud Neill (1911-1970), also recognised in statue form in Glasgow.

I would have no issue with Bud’s wee Rank Badjins as pawns, but promoting Glasgow’s own Sir Billy Connolly, CBE, to regal status would be a move too far.

R Russell Smith, Largs.