Letters: School sex survey puts unfair pressure on the young

I expect that many susceptible pupils will feel inadequate if answering in the negative to the questionnaire and may become consumed by what I understand young people now refer to in their own generational language as FOMO (fear of missing out).

Such questions your report refers to are loaded with skewed presumptions which anticipate young people's sexual activity and likely to stimulate ideas in innocent young heads. What if pupils were given a questionnaire which asked “How many bars of chocolate have you stolen from a supermarket this year?”. This would clearly give a child the impression that it happens all the time.

I expect many parents will have to tighten up their child’s computer internet filter controls when their enlightened offspring return home seeking more information.

Bill Brown, Milngavie.

* HAVE I, like Rip van Winkle, woken to find that it is April 1? Seriously, however, I refer to your front page lead article, which is no joke.

Thank you for giving prominence to the contents and purpose of this questionnaire. It must surely bring awareness to readers of the crazy Government expectations that schools should ask pupils of any age to complete such a census.

Can this ever be included in a school day when teachers are trying frantically to help children recover academically, socially and behaviourally from the after-effects of Covid isolation, home schooling and other damaging disruption to routine, throughout the last two years?

Olive Bell, Dunbar.

WHEN LESS IS BETTER

I’M sure that many people who have experienced a delayed flight will have encountered that person who decides to go to the check-in desk and gives the unfortunate person there a hard time, demanding to know what is going on. It is as if they expect a mechanic to stop what they’re doing and give them a report and that this will speed things up a little.

I”m struck that the same spirit is alive and well in letters like the one from Dave Henderson (December 3), complaining that the powers that be aren’t telling us enough about the current Covid situation and worse, are failing to treat us like adults. As if this will end the pandemic at a stroke. Given that so much information these days is used selectively and out of context to support individual points of view I am not at all convinced that this would be helpful. I’m almost tempted to think that less information would be the way to go.

Robin Irvine, Helensburgh.

LACK OF ACTION IS WORRYING

IT'S interesting to compare two letters in today's paper (December 3) from Ruth Marr and David Watson, respectively. Their tenor is the same (a leader whom they believe to be acting quite inappropriately or inadequately in managing Covid concerns) but the slant they take is quite different. Ms Marr is quite right to criticise the Prime Minister's ineptitude in allowing parties take place and his lack of recognition of how this is perceived by those of us who weren't invited. I don't imagine that Mr Watson would demur. Mr Watson raises the point, possibly more serious at least in terms of numbers potentially affected, of the apparent lack of decisive action by our First Minister as a new Covid strain is detected. Will Ms Marr and others recognise that perhaps Mr Watson has a point?

Brain Chrystal, Edinburgh.

WHY WAS VALNEVA CONTRACT ENDED?

THIS week the Westminster Government ordered 100 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, because it is likely that an annual vaccination will be required. It is only a couple of weeks, however, since it cancelled an order of exactly that amount of the Valneva one developed in Livingston, expected to combat not only the current but also any future variant.

That is in spite of the fact that that company has already invested in the necessary facilities to fulfil that order. The excuse made by Boris Johnson is that the Valneva company has broken the contract, although the company is still waiting for the final authorisation for use, and Mr Johnson seems to have refused to say how the contract is supposed to have been broken.

So now other companies, whose product cannot yet be confirmed as effective against the current or future variants, and which have already made huge profits from the pandemic, will make even more money, while Valneva may go to the wall and the benefit of its more advanced research will be lost.

Does some person (or persons) in the decision-making process stand to gain financially from this loss of revenue to Scotland? Following on from the rejection of Scottish-invented carbon capture at St Fergus, could this be deliberate sabotage of the Scottish economy, at the expense of our future health?

L McGregor, Falkirk.

GREENE KING SHOULD BEWARE

AS a former resident of Linlithgow I’d like to take issue with Greene King, the owners of the Black Bitch pub, over the ridiculous suggestion that the name is changed ("Furore over pub chain’s move to axe ‘racist’ name of historic inn", The Herald, December 2, and Letters, December 3). I wonder if Greene King has considered rebranding itself in case any little aliens from a far-off republican stellar system should visit our rocky little planet and take offence at the company name.

Ian Craig, Strathaven.

* GREENE King has given a hornet's nest a good old boot by renaming a pub for the daftest of reasons. I would like to pour some paraffin on the fire just to keep the nonsense going: Greene King will have to look very carefully at its own name as some in West Central Scotland may find it offensive.

As we know there is a section of the community who don't like anything green and there is another section of the community who don't like anything royal so if Greene King doesn't wish to offend certain sections of the community it should in all fairness drop its name all together (suggestions for a new name accepted).

Leonard Maguire, Coatbridge.

BE CAREFUL WITH NAME CHANGES

ON the subject of “dubious” names: some 10 years ago a Dutch friend (who lives in Scotland) was relating a controversy at that time in the Netherlands. “Zwarte Piet (Black Pete)” was a traditional helper to St Nicholas (Sinterklaas) in the folklore of the Low Countries, and his name was causing problems in the multi-cultural Netherlands. He has now been dubbed “Sooty Pete” in some of the St Nicholas celebrations (December 5), where he doles out sweets and presents to the (good) children. Much of this tradition has been softened in recent times (bad children are no longer taken away in burlap sacks), but the origins seems to have been much darker and may go back to pagan winter celebrations.

I can understand modern sensitivity to names that no longer chime with our evolving culture, but we should beware of inadvertently losing part of our social history in the renaming process.

GR Weir, Ochiltree.

TRADITIONS SHOULD BE RETAINED

HOW disappointing that it is an SNP council that is considering ending hundreds of years of community tradition by banning Biggar's town bonfire ("Campaign to save ancient Scots fire festival amid safety concerns",The Herald, November 29). Surely they are the ones who ought to be enthusiastic about history, community and identity? It is not, of course, the first time the local authority has tried to stop the bonfire. They tried to ban it in 1867 – unsuccessfully.

In 1997-9 South Lanarkshire approved and implemented a major road reconstruction and redesign scheme in the town. The site of the bonfire was designated in the plans as a "Public Events Area" very much with the bonfire in mind. The safety of holding the bonfire there was fully considered and circumstances have in no way changed since. I know this because my late husband, Tom McAlpine, was chair of the High Street Working Group which developed the plans and on which the council was fully represented.

From a professional perspective I suspect that officials running our local authorities would prefer a Hogmanay in which we all sat in our individual houses watching television with locked doors and a glass of ginger wine. Anything else might be trouble. But our bonfire has been a very trouble-free family occasion. People need a bit of magic, they need to join together. When I first came to this area, there were elderly people who shared memories of the bonfire from long before the First World War when it lasted more than two days.

One of the big problems is that there is nowhere else in Europe that has a less local system of "local government" than Scotland. South Lanarkshire Council represents an area from Rutherglen to Leadhills taking in East Kilbride and Hamilton on the way. For officials and many councillors, small communities are marginal and they don't know much about us.

Let us hope that this threat is reconsidered.

Isobel Lindsay, Biggar.

PUT ENERGY INTO RECRUITMENT

I PHONED SP Energy Networks on Thursday to inquire how to claim compensation for two days without electricity. A recorded message told me the office was closed until Friday.

When I phoned on Friday a recorded message said the office was again closed, with no time of re-opening given. Given that ScottishPower made an operating profit of £991.1 million last year, of which SP Energy Networks contributed £582.9m, perhaps it could spend some of it in staffing its offices.

William Loneskie, Lauder.

OUR UBIQUITOUS ARMED FORCES

IT seems that every crisis merits the same response: mobilise the troops. The armed forces have recently been called upon to tackle flooding, give jags, provide security and help the electricity network.

I have some questions: Who pays their wages and expenses when they are "helping out"? It is the taxpayer or the organisations who can't, or won't, employ enough workers to do the job in the first place?

Do we really need the armed services at all, if they are going to spend most of their time doing other jobs in the private and public sectors or hanging about Wimbledon?

Allan McDougall, Neilston.

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