I FULLY share Catriona Stewart’s contempt for Jacob Rees-Mogg ("The real horror of Rees-Mogg's Grenfell comments", The Herald, November 8) but her logic in some comments is very questionable.
What evidence is there, she asks, that Mr Rees-Mogg is clever? Well, he did apparently gain a 2:1 degree from Oxford, she notes; does she think these are given out to dummies with the breakfast cornflakes?
She speaks of Oxbridge alumni as "elitist and privileged"; I happen to know some Oxbridge graduates (OK, Catriona, I’m one too). There’s Wally, also with a 2:1 in history, the son of a secondary modern school woodwork teacher. Peter, son of a grammar school headmaster. Another Peter, with a First, whose father was an RAF warrant officer. Brian, son of a minor local government official. Roger, whose father was a joiner. And me, whose parents kept a shop in Riddrie. Which of us, Catriona, was elitist and privileged?
We got to Oxbridge, like many others, because we had some talent, and worked our socks off to win the scholarships and exhibitions which made these universities just about affordable. No expensive and privileged education for us, or many other day-school graduates, just subsidised and hard-earned.
It is true that there are supercilious Oxbridge people, but Catriona Stewart and others should not overlook the fact that these institutions are the finest seats of learning and research in England, and not simply social clubs for the likes of Mr Rees-Mogg.
Donald R Buchanan, Bearsden.
Feeding the Lords
WHILE agreeing with Mike Wilson's comments about subsidised bars at Westminster and Holyrood (Letters, November 11), I would suggest that there is an even greater problem to be found at Westminster; the subsidised House of Lords. Elected by nobody, hundreds of Lords can claim hundreds of pounds per day for just turning up and quaffing a glass of (subsidised) champagne. Indeed, out of a total cost to the taxpayer of more than £60 million, around £1.2 million of taxpayers' money is spent each year subsidising the Lords' catering, including £700,000 for their dining room. Whatever the result of the General Election, you can bet your house that no food bank will ever be found in the House of Lords; reassuringly, no House of Lords will ever be found in the Scottish Parliament.
Ruth Marr, Stirling.
Scotland, the Blues
OVER the years we have had to endure Scotland’s national football and rugby team proudly marching into battle in navy blue. Presumably the logic and context of this obvious error is that the blue represented in the Union flag is "adequate" and to play in the colours of our ancient flag (azure or sky blue and white) is lurching into crazed patriotism.
Not content with this embarrassment the SFA have reached a new low with its latest piece of inspirational marketing genius – a navy blue shirt with prominent red and white cuffs.
We all deserve better. It’s time to wear the colours of our flag and ditch the endless cringeworthy navy blue/tartan revamps. You never know, it might also drag us out of the sporting doldrums and reboot the national sporting psyche towards some much-needed success.
Nick Roche, Coupar Angus.
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