YOU were kind enough to publish my letter of August 18 last year regarding the two new ferries for Calmac. Your article indicating that they are to be not only "delayed indefinitely" but the total cost is still unknown over and above the £97m contracted price is more than alarming ("New blow for islanders as lifeline ferries to be delayed indefinitely", the Herald, April 30). All this due to a contractual dispute over costs makes grim reading for the people and the economy of the Western Isles, not to mention the tax payer who is presumably be left picking up the bill.
This rather bland statement does not reveal what the public are entitled to know: what are the values of the various loans given to Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd (FMEL) over and above the £45 million and were the terms on a commercial basis? The fact that the loans were immediately drawn down would lead one to think that finance was more than tight. That the delay is still ongoing after some eight months suggest that the builder has not yet overcome the design problems, this in turn suggests that the shipbuilder has not had and still does not have the required technical expertise, which one would have thought to be available, if necessary, from the manufacturer of the engines.
All in all, it seems to be another example of the lack of strong governmental oversight. Both the Transport and Islands Ministers, after all this time, with no resolution should be not be asked to "consider their position", rather given their P 45.
R Johnston,
3 Barcapel Avenue, Glasgow.
Tattie buys
ARISING from "Forpet", the Scots Word of the Week and ensuing correspondence (Letters, April 30 and May 1), I can speak from direct experience of being on the serving end. In Edinburgh, my mother worked in a fishmonger’s shop that also sold fruit and vegetables, so I was a regular (unpaid) assistant. A forpet, for which there was an approved weight, was 3½ pounds; the derivation of the word was understood to be a "fourth part" of a stone, 14 pounds. Accordingly, “a forpet o’ tatties an’ a pun’ o ingins” was a regular order.
John C Hutchison,
Taigh na Coille, Badabrie, Fort William.
LIKE Jane MacLennan, I too grew up in Edinburgh and can also remember being sent for "forpits of tatties". I can also remember, though, being told by my parents and grandparents that a "forpit" was actually a ‘fourth part’ and, in the case of tatties, it was a fourth part of a stone – hence the 3½ pounds (quarter of a stone) mentioned by other writers. Interestingly, none of my friends in the west has ever heard of the word "forpit".
Wallace Woodward,
Clamps Wood, East Kilbride.
Treatment boost
I NOTE your article regarding brachytherapy treatment for prostate cancer ("High radiation dose could treat prostate cancer patients in one visit", The Herald, April 30).
I was a low-risk patient, aged 68 at the time, who underwent this treatment in 2008 at the Beatson. I found the procedure relatively straightforward and the after-effects minor.
My PSA dropped dramatically and has been negligible for the past 10 years, and I quickly returned to a normal lifestyle. I would recommend this treatment to anyone who is offered it.
Allan Macintyre,
14 Lennox Avenue, Stirling.
EU neology
IF the worst-case scenario unfolds and we do leave the EU I hope that there will be an immediate campaign started to let us back in. Can I lay claim here to this being called Bre-entry?
Lawrence Alexander,
Craigvar, High Road, Galashiels.
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