I ENJOYED Mark Smith's article about the tribulations of the Arran ferry service ("For God’s sake come and talk to us and act on what we are saying", Herald Magazine, December 3). When I was younger I used to live in Stevenston and had summer work in Brodick – even back then the ferry service was never 100 per cent.

It always struck me that the backup plan was obvious: an airport.

Arran is certainly mountainous and most people would think an airport is not possible. That’s true if you think of a Glasgow or Edinburgh-sized airport. What Arran needs is a small airport that can handle some of the Loganair fleet – like the Twin Otter or Islander. There is sufficient flat land or land that would need minimal grading on Arran to support a short airfield with one or two runways to deal with varying winds. The south of the island or areas around Blackwaterfoot seem viable. The costs need not be prohibitive. A gravel strip is perfectly acceptable instead of concrete; terminal capacity would only need be similar to a village hall. There are equivalent airfields elsewhere in the Highlands and Islands that show the relatively small size (Colonsay, Oban, Coll and more).

An air link to Glasgow might be too "thin" to sustain itself but a triangular route or round robin involving Campbeltown or Islay might work. The route could serve business and leisure travel, while also providing a faster path to regular medical care in Glasgow/Paisley for those who need it. Better yet, a link from Glasgow to Arran to Belfast would stimulate new tourism and trade links.

This link can also be environmentally friendly. Several aircraft companies are working on electric or hydrogen-powered aircraft and Loganair is already participating – having demonstrated an electric flight in the Orkneys.

This is not a "now" solution. Airport planning and construction is a multi-year effort, but if you don’t start you never finish. The ferry debacle should be enough impetus to investigate this possibility.
Steve Patrick, Wichita, Kansas, USA

Don't overplay nuclear danger

I WAS taken back in time by Doug Marr's column anent the Cuba crisis ("60 years on from Cuba, the nuclear threat is real", The Herald, December 5). Being slightly older than him (I actually marched from Aldermaston to London in 1960) perhaps my views are simply tainted with age rather than experience. However, I think that the column was unduly pessimistic.

The stand-off between East and West has changed dramatically, despite Putin's egregious and desperate actions in Ukraine. Importantly, regardless of the non-proliferation agreement on nuclear weapons today there are more countries which possess nuclear weapons – declared or undeclared – than at the time of the Cuba stand-off. Any move to use the weapons, large or small, could precipitate unforeseen reactions. The repeated references to stopping Iran and North Korea from acquiring or testing them is evidence that current holders do not want to see their "leverage" diminished. Nor do they want to be dragged into a conflict that has no interest for them.

Although the general excuse for retaining these weapons is covered by the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) it refers to states, not individuals like Putin. It was no coincidence that the first reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine was President Biden's assurance that Nato would not react militarily. More importantly it is inconceivable that Putin has not been "advised" to ca' canny by Beijing and Delhi. As long as these obscenities are part and parcel of our so-called defence the risk exists but we should not exaggerate its likelihood. After all, Armageddon leaves no survivors.
LDM Mackenzie, Appin, Argyll

Bettah late than nevah?

ISOBEL Hunter (Letters, December 5) does well to sound the alarm to the damage being inflicted on our language. Sadly, I have to report further examples of mangling to add to those listed, these being to words ending in "er" and "ers". Air line staff warn passengers to beware of items falling from overhead "lockahs", and television announcers direct viewers to the "i playah".

We will know that the end of civilisation as we know it is upon us when we are instructed to contact the Editor of this esteemed organ by means of a "lettah".
Ian Hutcheson, Glasgow

• I AGREE wholeheartedly with Isobel Hunter's comments about pronunciation and I'm pleased to find I am not the only one to have noticed this epidemic of glottal-stopping. It sounds slovenly, uneducated and – dare I say – "naff".

I have noticed it in programmes in which you would expect the presenter to know better, so are they trying to make some point? Is it "uncool" to do things correctly?

Other equally irritating habits are the use of the word "different" – I always understood it was correct to say "different from" but the tendency now seems to be "different to" which to my mind is totally contradictory. If something is different it diverges "from" whatever it is being compared to so what has "to" (or the alternative "than") got to do with it?
Fiona Fleming, Kirkintilloch

• WHILE I do not intend to defend mangled or slovenly speech, I endorse the acknowledgement that some corruptions even evoke humour, and thank Allan C Steele (Letters, December 6) for a trip down memory lane and a hearty chortle at Stanley Baxter’s Parliamo Glasgow, Teach Yourself to Speak Scottish: “Upatra burds”, “Izzyaffiz meat”, “Izzyaffis bliddychump”, and reflecting on the permissive society and a couple meeting for the first time, “Raperorum tumul-tinty bed”.
R Russell Smith, Largs

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