ROSEMARY Goring concludes her article on Prince Andrew, now eighth in line to the throne after young Archie, by stating : “If Andrew were willing to face, refute and defuse the rumours, it would be an act of bravery, to restore the family pride (“Prince Andrew has to break the silence on Jeffrey Epstein”, The Herald, August 21). I would suggest that it is more a question of reputation than pride.
Moreover, her statement by implication rules out the possibility that he cannot deny the substance of the rumours. The photographs which have appeared in the media, of him with his arm round the young woman, Virginia Roberts, and ushering another young woman out of the Manhattan mansion, once the home of Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted paedophile, raise questions. The pictures in themselves are not conclusive, but they do raise questions which have yet to be adequately answered.
I do wonder what Andrew’s mother, his erstwhile wife, and the two young women who are his daughters, are making of something which is proving to be a public relations nightmare showing no signs of going away.
Ian W Thomson, Lenzie.
Electric faults
JOHN Bynorth of Environmental Scotland forecasts that we “won’t need as many charging points as you need petrol stations” (“Electric charging points hit 1000”, The Herald, August 16). One wonders how this is calculated.
Petrol stations, of course, have multiple pumps, so a direct comparison would suggest that is unlikely. However, it takes about 20 minutes to fast-charge a battery and only five minutes to fill a tank, so it seems four times as many chargers are needed. Additionally, an electric car may have a range of about 150 miles, and a liquid fuel car 450, so that means refuelling three times more often.
A further complication is that there are about five different types of electric plug types, so not every charger is able to be used by an electric-powered car.
Just 20 per cent of the 1,000 chargers installed in Scotland are fast chargers. Not all chargers are “tethered”, and require car owners to provide their own cables, which cannot be used for fast charging. So we do indeed have a hard road ahead to make this revolution work.
William Douglas, Balfron.
Police call
LITTERING is illegal. Cycling on pavements is illegal. Parking motor cars on pavements is illegal. When did ever the police take even minimal action against those who practice these anti-social activities?
Years ago, I read an article in which it appears young men who join the police are mainly interested in the macho aspects of policing such as raids on drug dealers and the like and prefer Dirty Harry to Dixon of Dock Green. It does seem police only target areas in which they have an interest.
T Watson, Glasgow G41.
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