GLASGOW’S apparently perfectly effective Lord Provost, Eva Bolander, is to step down because of a “public backlash” to her spending part of a legitimate budget on personal items ("Glasgow’s Lord Provost Bolander to step down over £8,000 expenses backlash", The Herald, October 31). What public backlash would that be? I haven’t seen placards, protesters or burning barricades in George Square. I have however read and heard a lot of petty backbiting jibes from politicians and real and would-be hacks. Today you quotes a Tory MSP as saying that Ms Bolander made Nicola Sturgeon and Susan Baird look foolish”. That it is what it is all about, it’s nothing to do with how many pairs of knickers Ms Bolander did or didn’t buy, it’s not about fiscal responsibility nor the quality of service the council provides the taxpayer, it's all part of the petty point-scoring game that these self-important buffoons play.
Meanwhile back in the real world the experienced pilot of a helicopter is blamed for a crash, firemen are accused of exacerbating the fatalities of a catastrophic tower-block inferno, not those who clad it in plastic and maintenance engineers are blamed for aeroplane crashes of a modified plane that the manufacturers know is inherently unstable. When will the penny drop that the faux outrage about the Lord Provost and the like are just distractions? When even the movie industry produces docudramas such as The Laundromat and The Big Short graphically portraying how the world actually works and how corrupt its actually is, its time for fundamental change.
A brouhaha about the Lord Provost’s frocks? For God’s sake get a grip.
David J Crawford, Glasgow G12.
Why have no heads rolled over Sick Kids?
IT seems that there is one highly relevant question that it not being asked about the fiasco over the Sick Kids’ Hospital in Edinburgh ("Life support risk at Sick Kids as electrical faults are found", The Herald, October 31) If the construction company has not met the safety standards required by building regulations, why is it still apparently receiving payment?
If this pertains to something in the contract, the concomitant question must be to ask why no heads have rolled amongst the commissioning experts who drew up the contract on behalf of the NHS.
P Davidson, Falkirk.
Haka sanction is a nonsense
UZMA Mir ("Disrespect for the haka sends out the wrong signals", The Herald, October 31) says the English response showed a lack of respect for an ancient tradition and goes on: “But, hey. What do I know?”
Good question. “Not a lot” would appear to be the answer. The All Blacks themselves acknowledged that as a challenge the haka demands a response. The only thing England did wrong was to ignore the rule on encroaching into the opposition half, and for that they were sanctioned.
To suggest that this was equivalent to sectarian abuse is just absurd.
Bill Dunlop, Glasgow G13.
KENNETH P Colville (Letters, October 31) needs to get real. The All Blacks could stand stock still, at attention and sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star pianissimo and they'd still be ruddy terrifying
Rachel Martin, Musselburgh.
Chill out
THE UN climate conference in Chile has been cancelled. Here’s my suggestion for an alternative venue. Why not hold it in Banff, Canada, where according to the official website of the Government of Canada the all-time lowest temperature record for October 29 has been broken this week reaching -23.3 degrees?
After all, the UN says that it doesn’t like a warming world. And if there are not enough four-star hotels they could always stay in tents to be in solidarity with refugees.
Geoff Moore, Alness.
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