Letters: Before booking a cruise, the question should be: Is the planet able to bear the cost?

The economic benefits to local communities are unarguable, but to what cost to the climate and the delicate ecosystems, particularly of the Highlands of which we hear so much? Perhaps I only dreamt there was a UN climate change conference in Glasgow last year.

Douglas Stewart, Larbert.

BE SENSIBLE WITH BOOSTER JAGS

I SEE that another booster jag is to be offered to certain groups in Scotland ("Scots most at risk from Covid start spring booster scheme", The Herald, March 7).

Scotland's health boards have a challenging job in vaccinating large numbers of people, and I have no wish to detract from that. But I do hope that this time round, when sending out appointments, they will have some regard to where people actually live.

For the first booster shot last year, many Edinburgh folk were given appointments at out-of-town centres, far from their homes, and often difficult to reach by public transport. In my case, I needed three buses to reach the vaccination point. The actual jag took just a few minutes, but the travelling took the entire afternoon and early evening.

Ironically, there was a vaccination centre within walking distance of my home. But despite several phone calls and website visits, it proved impossible for me to change the appointment.

By contrast, I recently went online to search for the nearest branch of a certain high street retail chain. The company's website had no difficulty in matching my postcode with that of their local shops. Could the health boards not use similar technology to match appointments with vaccination centres?

Mike Lewis, Edinburgh.

CRATE EXPECTATIONS

LIKE some of your correspondents, I won't see my seventies again. However, I developed an appetite for reading as a young child during my primary school years in a small village school in Ayrshire.

Life in the 1940s was hard – at home my father had the Daily Express delivered. I devoured that, not always understanding what I was reading. I looked forward to reading Rupert Bear's daily adventures with Bill Badger et al.

There was no local library. However, I do remember, with affection, that we had access to a library of sorts. A wooden crate with rope handles was delivered to our small village school from Ayr County Buildings, library department. This contained a selection of books – for adults as well as for children.

The headmaster, Mr DG Smith, waited after school on a Thursday afternoon to enable interested pupils to borrow a suitable book, and to obtain books for parents in addition. However, as the crate of books was not changed very frequently, I reached the stage of reading whichever book was new territory for me.

I well remember, on one Thursday afternoon, the boy in the queue in front of me saying to Mr Smith in a loud voice: "Twae murders and a love" – and these were duly handed over. Presumably they were an order for his parents at home.

I have never forgotten the pleasure I experienced from being able to borrow a book – any book – in those wartime days. Because of those early years and the encouragement I received from my teachers, I became greedy for books. That desire has never left me.

I maintain that for any educational or literary success I have had during my long life, I owe so much to my early formative years to my late headmaster, and the crate of available books which arrived periodically from the local authority library. I am also thankful that I did not experience the distractions which are available to today's children – the internet has its vast benefits, but also its negative influences.

Amy Kinnaird, Ochiltree.

FACING TROUBLE WITH THE BUS PASS

I READ with interest Joanna Blythman’s article ("Beware – Government ‘health’ apps are bad for you", The Herald, March 5). Alas, the use of facial recognition technology now also extends to online applications for Saltire Cards giving entitlement to, among other things, free bus travel for the over-sixties.

I recently attempted to apply for this online. The instructions listed the documentation which would need to be uploaded, including a passport or driving licence with photo and an additional passport-style photo. What wasn’t included in the instructions at the start, but should have been, only became apparent well through the process, when I was informed that my face would now be biometrically scanned. This was clearly unnecessary since both a photograph and a passport with photo were available. Because my desktop computer does not include a camera, the application could not proceed and I had to revert to a booked appointment at my nearest local council offices where the documentation was presented and my photo was taken with a domestic digital camera.

My Saltire Card arrived two weeks later with a vertically squashed photograph. At least the photograph itself should now defeat biometric identification.

David A Collins, Ladybank, Fife.

THE FINAL RECKONING

FOLLOWING on from Matthew Lindsay ("Fury over derby Down Under is anachronistic and parochial", Herald Sport, March 5), being a rugby man and therefore having no allegiance to any football club, I heartily agree and indeed venture to suggest that the whole of Scottish football, and not just the Old Firm, is insular, parochial and frankly full of its own self-importance.

This was amply illustrated at Wim Janssen's press conference before his first Old Firm game as Celtic manager when he was asked by a journalist: "Is this the biggest game you have ever been involved in?" to which Janssen replied: "Well, I've played in two World Cup Finals, so I will let you decide."

I rest my case.

Bill Rutherford, Galashiels.