Neil Mackay writes about "far-right thugs enabled, emboldened and empowered by deliberately dangerous rhetoric from politicians" (“Neo-nazis are brazenly stalking Scotland’s streets. Blame lies with malevolent politicians”, The Herald, August 21).
He can surely add to that simplistic list corrupt, repressive regimes and poverty from which refugees and legal immigrants are fleeing; a Brexit agreement that opened the floodgates of legal immigration to fill the jobs that the indigenous population is either unfit, unskilled or can't afford to take, because they might lose benefits.
There are undoubtedly extremists. But in the past year I have been astounded by the number of ordinary people I have spoken to, across the UK, who feel the same way.
And many mainstream politicians are getting the message.
The same thing is happening across Europe, and several countries are now looking at Rwanda-type solutions to the problem.
Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven.
More letters...
Keir Starmer is getting more like Margaret Thatcher every day
Blair's brazenness after all his failures almost defies belief
Stopping the boats
Few can deny that the government faces considerable challenges on two fronts, immigration and housing.
Two approaches might be worth considering.
Bring in a law that no illegal immigrants will be considered for asylum, and will immediately be returned to their country of origin.
Also, any asylum seeker committing a serious crime will be immediately returned b to their own country.
This would make boat crossings unattractive while benefitting genuine asylum seekers prepared to abide by the laws of this country while awaiting adjudication on their application.
In terms of housing, it would seem to me that as well as climate change, water pollution must be affected by the huge increase in the population, without a corresponding increase in the capacity to cope with an increase in sewage disposal.
Surely future planning applications should cater for such an increase.
James Watson, Dunbar.
Happy birthday
I appreciate Douglas Cameron (Letters 21st August) no longer lives in Rutherglen, but I am glad to inform him (and others) that Rutherglen 900 was formed two years ago and has been busy organizing a substantial programme of events to celebrate the 900th anniversary of the Royal Burgh of Rutherglen in 2026.
Rutherglen 900 is cross party and cross community, involving local elected Members, our two Community Councils and a wide range of local community organisations, schools, churches, youth organisations and members of the public.
Our Facebook Page has had 12,000 views in the last 28 days alone.
Our new website was launched earlier this month and full details of our developing programme can be accessed at https://rutherglen900.com as well as on the Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/Rutherglen900/.
A full programme of events is planned in collaboration with local groups and organisations.
It will launch formally in January 2026 and will cover music, art, heritage, sport, townscape and community events, including the historic Landemer Festival.
There will be a new History of Rutherglen, the first since Rutherglen Lore in 1922, and a substantial schools programme.
Building the capacity of local organisations to reinvigorate civic and community life and leaving a legacy as a fit memorial to this historic event are also key to our activities.
Nine hundred years of civic life in the Royal Burgh of Rutherglen are indeed worth celebrating, and we intend to do it in style.
Cllr Robert Brown, Chair of Rutherglen 900.
The waste land
I note that in his polemic against wind-farms Dennis Forbes Grattan leaves the alternative he specifies, nuclear, to the very end (Letters, August 22).
On the 'polluter pays' principle, will he (and all whose electricity supplier includes nuclear) commit to paying for guarding the lethal waste for centuries ?
Or is that future generations' problem ?
George Morton, Rosyth.
Windy woes
A factor not included in the correspondence from Ian McNair ( Letters, August 22) is that the projected cost of the Buchan floating windfarm is around £900 million, for an output of 100MW. (Though only available if the wind blows.)
This indicates a price of £9 billion per GW (gigawatt), three times that of the Seagreen wind energy project.
Energy bills for Scottish consumers will be raised far above our English counterparts, especially as the strike price (i.e. the generation price) will escalate from £73 per Megawatt-hour to £113 per Megawatt-hour in the AR7 auction round.
Ian Moir, Castle Douglas.
Housing benefits
The drive to increase the energy efficiency of housing through insulation and airtightness rules has been successful.
But too little attention is paid to solar gain by architects, builders and planners.
Combined with rising average temperatures, there is a large risk of this housing being uninhabitable in summer.
Anecdotally, it is already happening during peak temperatures.
The answer is often to fit air conditioning. But this is not the only solution.
Lighter colour roofing and cladding materials, windows treated to reflect solar energy, and more traditional methods, such as awnings and shutters, have the benefit of being passive, so don’t increase electricity bills.
David Bradshaw, Kilcreggan.
The prisoner’s dilemma
In the last five years, 1,200 prisoners have been returned to jail in Scotland for breach of release conditions and re-offending.
Clear indication that the exiting parole system isn’t fit for purpose.
This alarming situation adds to the overcrowding of Scottish prisons.
Meanwhile, the failure to build new prisons reflects the SNP's lack of effectiveness, and makes the Scottish penal system the worst in Europe.
Dennis Forbes Grattan, Aberdeen.
A philosophical investigation
Letters correspondent Jim McAdam claims that only second-raters enter politics, yet they still know how to suppress the population.
Ancient Greek philosopher Plato said that those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.
Not much has changed in 2500 years.
David Miller, Milngavie.
Coining it in
The Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) has told me that, as I’m nearing eighty, my pension will soon increase by 25 pence a week.
Do your readers share my concern that, if this increase is spread too widely among aging pensioners like myself, the government will not have enough left over to replace Trident AND buy more nuclear bombers from the United States?
Alasdair MacDermott, Appin, Argyll.
I, Robot
Watching Rachel Reeves and Wes Streeting on the television news, I marvelled that Sir Keir Starmer has managed to include two AI Robots in his cabinet.
Unfortunately their creators have been unable to include any human empathy in their design.
Andy McAdam, Ayr.
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