Heat pumps are not the answer in the cost of living crisis

He is not telling people that even with the grant or loan you will have to find thousands of pounds more to pay for a heat pump. The running cost savings are minimal, payback will be more than 25 years and maintenance costs will be much more than installing an electric boiler. There is no doubt that everyone should look to reduce their carbon footprint; unfortunately installing heat pumps hardly moves the dial.

How do I know this? I have been selling and installing heat pumps for 30 years. It would be in my interests if everyone decided to install a heat pump, but it would be disingenuous of me to take people's money under the false pretence that “they were doing their best for the planet”.
Willie Haughey, Executive Chairman, City Facilities Management Holdings Ltd, Glasgow

Cronin was not in favour of NHS

I WAS most interested in Rosemary Goring’s recent article which referred in some detail to The Citadel (1937) written by the famous Scottish doctor and author AJ Cronin ("Soon the NHS could cease to exist. Is that what we really want?", The Herald, November 30). The novel was re-released in 1946 and it may indeed have been a zeitgeist for radical changes in health care delivery in the UK. The public in that post-war period clearly recognised the inequalities in health care delivery and the variable standards of care.

The Citadel also exposed the lack of any structured postgraduate training. The medical establishment was at that time firmly opposed to the introduction of an NHS and did not approve of Cronin’s novel. Cronin himself was not in favour of a nationalised health service. He was living in the United States at the time The Citadel was written and in an interview, he stated that he preferred an insurance-based system, as he felt any state-controlled system was both inefficient and bureaucratic.

The role of Aneurin Bevan was fundamental and it is interesting that he resigned in 1951 in protest against charges for dentures and spectacles. He saw this as an early threat to an NHS free at the point of delivery. He would have without doubt shared the concerns of many regarding the current state of the NHS and what the future holds for this cherished institution.
Frank Dunn, Lenzie

Horror revisited

CASUALLY leafing through the paper at my breakfast on Saturday morning, and reading your article about a Holocaust denier, I was stopped with a jolt when I came to the words Oradour-sur-Glane ("Holocaust denier breaks silence and admits he faces years in jail", The Herald, December 3).

“Wait a minute," I said to myself, “I know that, I’ve been there”.

As part of my degree course in French and German at Glasgow University I had to spend a year attached to a French school. One weekend morning the mother of the family with whom I lived that year said we would wander a little further that day and she drove me to that little village, telling me on the way that it was close to very dense afforestation which was much used by the French Resistance in their hit and run attacks on things German, much to the annoyance and inability of the German troops to respond easily.

Your article says that “Nazi troops killed and destroyed an entire village”. But that does not convey the true ferocity and inhumanity of the massacre. The reality is that these Nazi troops rounded up every single man, woman and child, pushed them all into the church, locked the door, barred every possible exit and set the place on fire. To look around the ruin that is that village today, especially what remains of the church, is to be confronted with the inhumanity of man at a level which seems just not possible, although it was.

And now the Holocaust denier, who was the main subject of the article, sits back no doubt nonchalantly bathing in the

publicity he creates for himself as he writes his revisionist books while waiting to be extradited to France for spreading revisionist propaganda.
John Boyes, Stirling

Let falconers get new hobby

INTERESTING to hear that the falconers are complaining about a ban on culling mountain hares ("Scottish hare cull ban forces falconers to lock up their hawks", The Herald, December 8). This is typical thinking by the latter-day Henry VIIIs, who control their “imprinted” birds and force them to perform largely through starvation. What they are doing of course is taking prey that would otherwise support and feed wild raptorial birds.

Perhaps they should go in for flying model aircraft, which would negate the need for taking wild prey altogether?
Bernard Zonfrillo, Glasgow

Pronounced difficulties

WHY all the angst recently on the Letters page about pronunciation? The BBC sometimes shows clips of broadcasts from the 1940s and 50s, with chaps (and they are always men) speaking in superb received pronunciation. Thank goodness that’s not how newsreaders speak now.

Even the poshest among us, like senior royals, speak with odd-sounding, strangulated vowels. "Off" becomes something like "orff"; fortunately the short Anglo-Saxon word that sometimes precedes it leaves little room for mispronunciation, so it’s very clear when you’re being told to go away.

Now, on to more vital matters, like: should I have put an apostrophe after "Letters"?
Doug Maughan, Dunblane

• FIONA Fleming's letter (December 7) reminded me of an English teacher, many years ago, intoning: similar TO, different FROM. This made complete sense to me. Different to just sounds wrong. I know, joining the old moaners' party.
Irene Burn, Glasgow

Letters should not exceed 500 words. We reserve the right to edit submissions.