Mone was naive in thinking that telling lies would protect her family

Sandy Gemmill, Edinburgh.

• IN her interview on BBC1 Baroness Mone indicates that she lied but is a "scapegoat" for the Government's PPE issues ("Baroness Mone ‘ashamed’ to be a Tory peer as she admits error", The Herald, December 18).

It is my understanding that a scapegoat is an innocent person who takes the blame for others' wrongdoing. Lady Mone is culpable along with others of picking the pocket of the nation to the benefit of her family. The fact that the millions are in trust for later use is completely irrelevant. She should give the money back immediately.

Ken Mackay, Glasgow.

Read more: SNP should stop the pipe dreams and focus on helping the poor

Why punish those who pay?

WHY is it if someone defaults on a loan the bank is not allowed to help itself to cash from my account to make up for the financial loss it sustained?

I ask that since Ofgem has just announced that the 2024 price cap will be set at a level to allow the power distributors to recoup historic losses caused by customers being unable to pay their energy bills following the recent dramatic increase in charges ("Energy bills go up again so firms can claw back record £3bn in bad debts", The Herald, December 16). That means those of us who have paid our bills will now pay more than we should have to simply to maintain profit margins. That is collective punishment.

It's hard not to conclude that an Establishment that has witnessed the general public docilely acquiesce to decades of austerity, falling living standards, collapsing public services and the highest rate of taxation in a generation, feels it can get away with anything if it is brazen enough to just do it. Enough is enough.

David J Crawford, Glasgow.

Kicking the customers

YOUR report indicating that Ofgem would approve, following a consultation, a further rise in domestic energy prices, suggested to me that the powers that be are taking the easy way out for themselves, without giving any consideration to the consumer, and in all probability increasing the level of bad debts.

I recall many years ago having a coffee with a PPS (a government minister's advisor) and a member of the production team of Yes, Minister. The latter two were travelling to various parts of the UK, and among the subjects discussed was the possible rise in charges from a much-used public entity. After much toing and froing, it was resolved that a simpler solution was available: the senior management should forego their projected massive pay rise and shareholders would not be paid their projected share bonuses.

This solution was cheered by the TV executive and considered a definite non-starter by the civil servant, who believed his minister could loose his position in the Cabinet.

Nothing has changed in the intervening years, and Joe Public has to carry the can.

Mike Dooley, Ayr.

Exams are once more under review (Image: PA)

Roll-back, not reform

THE news that the Scottish Commission on School Reform (CSR) group advises that study for Higher exams should start a year earlier than present illustrates that they seemingly endorse the brutalist architecture of a Scottish assessment policy which appears biased towards university entrance (“Calls for earlier S4 exams”; The Herald, December 18).

The CSR group apparently advocates that we should return to only two early years of broad-based secondary education across a wide range to give a taste of what could be studied in depth. I consider this is more like a cry from a revivalist movement than real reform. I feel it is little more than a roll-back and tinkering with a broken engine.

The reform group is evidently composed of people who have done well out of the status quo and are hardly likely to think in positive terms of a tabula rasa approach to overhauling school provision. They should perhaps reflect on the findings of the UK Covid Inquiry where the opinion emerged that the then PM Boris Johnson stopped studying science at school too early to be fully understanding of expert scientific advice.

It seems that the real reform in our schools will not be seen until our post-millennium generation reach positions of influence and power in society. Hopefully they will apply their own view of a world of learning based on a fairer concept and which is unafraid of fully embracing technological determinism.

Bill Brown, Milngavie.

A mountain too far

IT was with some sadness that I read about the latest issues to befall the Cairn Gorm funicular ("Cairngorm funicular railway to remain closed with no timescale to reopen", The Herald December 15).

I do however wish to point out that the mountain is called "Cairn Gorm", and not, as reported, "Cairn Gorm mountain". Cairn already means mountain, of the stony variety, no need to add "mountain" after the term.

What next? Ben Lomond mountain, Ben Nevis mountain?

We get the same nonsense here in the east, when islands in the Firth of Forth are referred to as "Inchcolm Island" or "Inchkeith Island", when "Inch" already means island.

I expect better of The Herald.

Andy Deans, Kilconquhar, Fife.

Read more: Glasgow's Subway is merely a grown-up toy and must be expanded

Stamps: is this class warfare?

GOING into my local post office at lunchtime on the Monday a week before Christmas, they had no second-class stamps for sale.

Is this an attempt to persuade customers to pay for first-class stamps (just as commemorative issues no longer come in second class denominations)? Or is it simply incompetence?

Either way, as a nation we deserve and need the postal service to get back to its previously high service standards.

Christopher Ruane, Lanark.

The only way is up

DELIGHTED to note that SaxaVord Spaceport, which appears to be a UK-registered company, has been awarded the first rocket launch contract ("Shetland's spaceport cleared for rocket launches", The Herald, December 18). Nice to see too that the two company representatives interviewed were Scottish.

However, is it just me who wonders at the description "vertical rocket launch facility"?

Is there any other form of rocket launch? Horizontal? I don't think the neighbours would be very pleased. Downwards? No future there.

So, vertical it is then.

Brendan Keenan, Glasgow.