HOW is it that multinational energy companies and their shareholders have come to rule our lives, dictating the future of our environment, health, and economy, and why does the Scottish Government allow them unfettered access? The proposed SSEN Fanellan substation near Beauly is one such mega site, with ever-multiplying arms and a radius of impact extending way beyond the Highlands to every corner of the UK.
The practice of paying energy companies when their wind turbines are idle, while they routinely stockpile energy generated beyond grid capacity, effectively being paid twice for it, must stop. This issue affects every person and business in the entire country who are paying for the greed of multinationals and their shareholders. SSE reported a loss in 2023. It is therefore not surprising that it would flood the north with substations, battery storage facilities and pylons, so that wind farms can “invest” - joining in the wholesale desecration of the natural environment and communities for corporate profit. The practice of splitting this infrastructure into multiple planning applications and “consultations”, masking the true scale of development throughout the country, is misleading and to my mind unethical. How can planning applications be considered fully when they have not provided evidence of need, are subject to future design and have not engaged with local communities in a meaningful way? Why is technology currently being abandoned in Europe being hailed as the saviour of net zero targets here and why should we accept this corporate-greed spin with zero accountability?
Multinational control of energy production, storage and export means less energy security locally and higher bills for all. Why can energy not be generated by communities for communities, so that power does not need to travel vast distances and cannot be turned off by future conflicts or foreign powers? Despite elections coming, the silence from politicians at all levels of government on the industrialisation of our countryside is deafening. It is time for a moratorium on all such developments and an investigation into SSE's relationship with the Scottish Government.
Georgina Coburn, Beauly.
READ MORE: The State of Scotland's Colleges: all articles in the series
READ MORE: We can't allow further education to fall prey to austerity
Teachers must not be subjective
AJ Clarence's call (Letters, April 30) for schoolteachers to be encouraged to teach political and other subjectively-held opinions to their pupils is a dangerous suggestion because, inevitably, natural personal bias would colour such lessons.
As with, say, race-related bias, teachers would inevitably impose influences based on personal feeling rather than objectively verifiable facts.
While attending Kelvinside Academy, Glasgow, for 10 years from 1947, I would not have tried to guess any of our teachers' political affiliations: these were none of our pupils' business.
Like, say, human sexual orientation, the causation of adverse climatic changes or one's choice of football team to support, people's views on controversial issues are moved by multitudes of subjective influences more than on hard facts.
Despite the best will in the world, no-one can impart objectively-based truisms to always-impressionable youth. Totalitarian political systems employ propagandising "teaching" to foster their undemocratic policies to almost-always uncritical young, impressionable minds.
Your correspondent's superficially idealistic objective, in reality leading to biased propaganda, is to be deplored.
Please, teachers, allow us to reach our personal, subjective opinions for ourselves and in our own time.
Charles Wardrop, Perth.
The educational caste system
I AGREE with Mike Cowley (Letters, April 30) on his defence of our further education establishments which it appears are being financially filleted. However, I feel the main causal issues are much deeper than he elaborates. What I consider to be a long-standing educational prejudice between further education and higher education has not been tackled by Holyrood and the continuing need for re-investment has not been addressed.
In an age when inherited values and legacy opinions are being seriously challenged, Scotland seemingly remains a firm adherent of an educational caste system between higher and further education graduates regardless of their attainment.
I feel that the last bastion of condoned social divisiveness is the education system in Scotland and I personally take the view that Holyrood seems happy to maintain links with influential people who give the impression they are contemptuous of those who have vocational qualifications rather than academic ones.
During its lifetime the Scottish Government has had the opportunity to be the first country in the world to amalgamate academic and vocational provision and clearly that goal has been far from its thoughts.
I fear however that if the SNP elects Kate Forbes as its new leader we will see education being governed even more firmly with the credo of Old Testament politics and I foresee that further education could be left to drift in the shallows.
Bill Brown, Milngavie.
The folly over migrants
I LISTENED with dismay on the radio to a degree of gloating over migrants leaving the UK for Ireland, and the refusal to contemplate repatriating them back to the UK. But Ireland could now do what the UK has failed to and process these people, expel those who fail the criteria and grant citizenship to those who are genuine. With Irish citizenship they would then be able to move freely to wherever they wanted to, and it seems that it is the south of England that is their destination of choice.
So who wins? This absurd nonsense is the result of decades of Whitehall incompetence and drift over processing migrants, and Brexit not leading to the infantile “getting our borders back” narrative.
GR Weir, Ochiltree.
Pilate's exorcised
IN a letter today (April 30) a correspondent representing the EIS-FELA refers to "Pontius Pilot" [sic] and the caption to the photograph beside it does the same. Perhaps our colleges should be offering more courses in proof-reading?
Kenneth Fraser, St Andrews.
Politics? It's a funny old game
ALISON Rowat ("'Yousaf left as he governed, bewildered to the end'", The Herald, April 30) asks whether modern politicians are not up to the job.
Modern? American entertainer Will Rogers (1879-1935) said: "I don't make jokes. I just watch the Government and report the facts."
Plus ça change...
David Miller, Milngavie.
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