Anti-racism campaign will mean innocence of accused will not matter

Workers accused of racism will naturally turn for protection to their trade union. They will expect their workplace representative to defend them against what, for the liberally-minded, is the worst of all possible charges. A guilty judgment will be life-altering. But the charge of racism alone will haunt the accused. For many it will seem like an association from which they can never quite extricate themselves. They will expect natural justice.

But I fear that that is not how things will play themselves out. My own trade union, for example, has wholeheartedly submitted to the argument for unconscious bias, going so far as to offer training to help uncover its lurking, malignant presence. The argument will not then be that the accused is innocent, but that the accused must learn to face up to their guilt. Innocence will not be a legitimate line of defence. Guilt management will be the order of the day, and it will be the union representative's role to help the accused come to terms with their inherent sin.

Every white man discussing race does so in either the light or the shadow, depending on your point of view, of a certain speech. I do not see the River Clyde foaming with much blood. But I do see a lot of good people tarred with an offence that they did not commit. Who will they turn to when they find their trade union complicit in ruining their career?

Graeme Arnott, Stewarton.

Read more: Unison union campaign tackles racism in Scottish workplaces

Just stop everything?

JUST Stop Oil supporters campaign against extracting oil (and despite its title, presumably gas and coal also). I wonder whether they have ever stopped to consider just how much personally they rely on such extractions in their daily life?

Apart from considering generally what goes into making and maintaining their homes, furniture and furnishings and how they are transported about the country to make their protests, the chances are these days that some of their clothing will be acrylic. Also have they ever considered what is used in making their banners, the debit, credit and other cards most of them will carry to get about, and even the spectacles, hearing aids, dentures and so on some will need?

The list is almost endless and it would be interesting to learn if they have worked out what they have in mind as substitutes for whatever essentials we all rely on today but which will no longer be available should they succeed in their campaign. I think we should be told.

Alan Fitzpatrick, Dunlop.

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Why can't we follow the Finns?

I WAS watching the French news recently, on TF1, and they did a report on the benefits of renewable energy in Finland and how the customers in that country benefited now, in June 2023, from bills from their energy supplier of zero cost for the consumer during this part of the year. The journalist found this incredible compared to energy costs in France.

The news report in Finland said that more and more of their energy was being supplied from renewable energy and recently they had brought on stream a new generation of nuclear reactors. This all meant the energy company was able to give bills for this period with no cost to the users.

I thought when I saw this that in Scotland we have a lot of our energy supplied from renewables too but our energy bills are certainly not going down towards zero. Why?

Brian McDermott, Clydebank.

Golf has been tarnished

I ALWAYS enjoy Nick Rodger’s golf column and today’s ("The war may be over but questions remain as tours agree shock merger", Herald Sport, June 7) was no exception. His one-liners can be very astute as well as very funny.

One group who appear to have been missing from the power broker discussions is the players themselves. Somehow it has been forgotten that there would be no tours if there were no golfers to take part in them.

I feel that golf has been tarnished somewhat by this shoddy rush for Saudi money and yet another sport has succumbed to the vast sums of lucre on offer. I’ll be keen to see what happens to the Open over the coming years if the framework agreement publicised yesterday becomes a commercial reality.

Willie Towers, Alford.

Read more: Please, talk about and remember the ones you have loved and lost

Showing council in a dim light

WITH reference to Desmond Cheyne's comments on Glasgow City Council (Letters, June 6), I wholeheartedly agree.

I reported a faulty street lamp in my street in mid-March via a useless online reporting method which allowed for no narrative description of the fault. The drop-down menu offered no options for me to accurately describe the issue. When the light is out, this particular corner of the street is in complete darkness and presents a potential risk to safety.

Needless to say, the fault is still awaiting repair.

This is possibly viewed as a relatively minor issue in the eyes of some, but typical of the negligent and uncaring response of Glasgow City Council.

John O'Kane, Glasgow.

Forced into the LEZ trap

PUTTING aside the suspicion that Glasgow 's Low Emission Zone is nothing other than a green box-ticking exercise as very few people live or even work in the city centre, what happens if my non-compliant diesel car is forced off the motorway into Glasgow through a road diversion into a low emission zone through no fault of my own? This happened to me last week when the slip road by the Royal Infirmary on to the M8 motorway was closed and an incomplete set of diversions took me into Cowcaddens. Luckily there was an amnesty declared that first day.

Cully Pettigrew, Glasgow.