RECENT letters illustrate the illusions about nuclear power that appear to have taken over the Scottish Government. David Patrick (Letters, February 19) says he opposes nuclear because of Chernobyl, the accident 36 years ago at a plant in Ukraine, at that time part of the USSR. The Chernobyl power station was poorly built and badly operated, and that’s a scenario that makes accidents much more likely.

If Mr Patrick thinks we should shut down all nuclear power stations, presumably he also thinks we should ban flying. The USSR was desperate to be the first country in the world to produce a commercial supersonic airliner and built the Concordski, a straight rip-off of the British-French Concorde. Concordski first flew on December 31, 1968, two months before its rival. One crashed at the Paris Air Show in 1973, another in 1978, and that was pretty much the end of Concordski.

Having spent my working life as a pilot, it’s sad to see that the wonder of air travel has been almost entirely lost. There you are, sitting in moderate comfort while you travel at 600 mph, six miles above the earth; outside, separated from you by a thin skin, the air temperature is -50C and there’s very little oxygen. An incredibly dangerous thing to do, but made safe to the point of being mundane by technology, design and human skill. It’s the same in the nuclear industry: there are several hundred nuclear power plants operating safely around the world, and extrapolating from one episode at Chernobyl is ridiculous.

Frances McKie (Letters, February 21) claims that nuclear is “a technology that does not work”. Ms McKie had better let the citizens of France know, as they get 70 per cent of their electricity from nuclear; indeed they sell some of it to us when the wind doesn’t blow. There’s no one solution to the energy and climate crises we face, but it would be the height of foolishness to put all our eggs in the rather unreliable basket of wind, solar and tidal.

Dough Maughan, Dunblane.

SO DID WE REALLY WIN THE WAR?

SOME historians believe that Russia and China pose a lower threat than did Germany after its 1938 invasion of Czechoslovakia.

But, inter alia, the United States was the emerging dominant power, the UK with the Empire was still militarily important, China was relatively insignificant, and our enemies had no nuclear weapons. There was no Russia/China/Iran axis or equivalent controlling Europe’s energy supply, much of its economic needs, and with growing influence throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa and South America.

Will the democracies’ leaders now accept that not only did the West not “win the Cold War”, but that, if our enemy was not only Hitler’s Germany but all "nazi" states, it is also premature to claim we won the Second World War? Both wars merely paused, while the totalitarians whether red, brown or black-shirted, secular or religious, engaged in “reculer pour mieux sauter”.

With its rise and its cyber warfare abilities, and our lack of leadership and self-confidence, that axis can peel away salami-fashion at the democracies’ weaknesses to impose its Orwellian future on the world while avoiding major military operations against us.

John Birkett, St Andrews.

BANK COMPLAINTS SYSTEM IS WOEFUL

I RECENTLY had occasion to lodge a complaint against the Bank of Scotland. The frustration that led me to complain in the first place was greatly intensified by the complaints process itself, which seems to operate on the principle that the customer is always wrong, despite manifest failings on the bank’s part. In my case, these included a nonsensical response to my initial written request – requesting a signature that was already on my letter: a denial that the bank had my mobile number, despite the fact that I received two identical text messages from the bank to that number; a failure to send a promised form that the bank said I must complete; and sloppy addressing of correspondence to me.

The matter is still not resolved. I have been told it will take up to eight weeks to reach a decision on what should be a simple matter – closing a small account for a group of residents in a block of flats (with their agreement). I am one of the approved signatories to the account, with all transactions requiring two approved signatures. An unnamed complaints manager will phone me within an unspecified time scale. And, of course, if I am not satisfied, I can take my case to the Financial Conduct Authority. That’s no comfort at all, as people have lost faith in regulatory bodies. They are seen as heavily stacked in favour of big institutions and against individual complainants.

No doubt many other people will have had similar experiences.

Walter Humes, Newton Mearns.

ENGLISH LESSON FOR THE BBC

LEAH Gunn Barrett (Letters, February 22) says the BBC always puts England first. But how shall we know if or when this changes? I offer the following litmus test – it will be the day we hear a BBC presenter say not “And now over to our Northern/Scottish/Irish/Welsh/Ukrainian/Lebanese correspondent” but “Over to our English correspondent.” Bring on the day…

Mike Bath, Balfron.

* FOLLOWING Storms Dudley and Eunice, I looked at the BBC News website and noted pictures of the storm and its aftermath and damage. The pictures were from all round the UK – Brighton, E Sussex; Lyme Regis, Dorset; Ceredigion, Wales; Paisley, Scotland, and Edinburgh, Scotland. I wrote to the BBC complaints (not the easiest) and reminded them that Wales and Scotland are not counties or regions of England. They replied stating that they could not find the photographs to which I was referring. Plus ça change.

Steve Barnet, Gargunnock.

TUNNEL VISION

IN his piece on Scotland's problems, Andy Maciver writes of seeing light at the end of the tunnel ("We can’t begin to sort Scotland’s problems until we hold another independence vote", The Herald, February 22).

I believe that it was the late Flight Lieutenant John Quinton who wrote that politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.

David Miller, Milngavie.