Letters: It is high time we held parents to account over the issue of bad behaviour in our schools

Guidance on the 2014 Act states: “Each child who can form a view on matters affecting him or her has the right to express those views if he or she so wishes." I am certain that in principle, everyone would concur with the concept of individual freedoms implicit in such statements. However, it seems to me that our Scottish Government thinking lacks a certain amount of realpolitik on the matter of the capacity for self-discipline among all children of school age.

Similarly, I feel that such legislation should advocate rather more stringency when the issue of parental responsibilities are explored and defined. In our liberalisation of society since the end of the Second World War we perhaps sometimes move too far in enacting theory in order to facilitate our individual freedoms. We have often zealously repositioned the emphasis in law from responsibilities to rights.

I view the responsibility of being a parent in exercising the necessary skills and cultivating your child to be personally successful through compliance with the best norms and expectations of society as being the most important application of a parent's time. However, how often do we hear of parents’ being held to account?

Bill Brown, Milngavie.

THE SPOILING OF OUR WILDERNESS

I COULDN’T agree more with Lyndsey Ward’s heartfelt letter (May 13) lamenting the systematic and catastrophic destruction of our pristine landscapes.

It has long been apparent to the enlightened, except the Scottish Government, that the ruthless wind industry is here to make shed loads of money, not "save the planet".

Some years ago, I met a German hiker high on the hills above Loch Ness. He was on holiday, walking from the west to east coast for the 10th time. We stared north across miles and miles of unspoilt wilderness, atmospheric blue ridges all the way to the horizon.

We were standing on the site of a proposed wind farm, now sadly built, destined to make millions for its absentee landowner, a tax exile in Bermuda.

“It is indescribably beautiful,” declared the visitor; he then turned to me and asked ruefully: “How can you Scots allow this to happen?”

Over to you for the answer, Scottish Government.

George Herraghty, Elgin.

CALL OUT THE SMART METERS BLUFF

I'M sorry not to be able to offer any comfort to Allan McDougall (Letters, May 16). His smart meter In-Home Display (IHD) has not been working properly for the last fortnight.

The IHD in my home operated correctly and usefully for several years and then readings on the gas consumption side suddenly stopped updating. This was in September 2021 and I have not had a working IHD since then. Both smart meters (electricity and gas) have been replaced, together with a new IHD, which doesn't display any data. Fortunately, I can read the meters manually, which allowed me to check out the large leap in cost on April 1.

The new smart meters are transmitting data to my energy supplier correctly, but there appears to be no link to the IHD from the UK National Hub run by the Data Communications Company. This company has 20.3 million smart meters on its network today and is apparently saving around 600,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. Quite how it does that is a mystery. Like Mr McDougall, I wonder when someone will invoke the Trades Description Act to call out the bluff that smart meters save anything.

Thomas G F Gray, Lenzie.

COME ON, GET OFF

I WAS interested in the picture of the Apollo 10 Command Module in the Transport Museum in Glasgow's Albert Drive ("Remember when ... The Apollo 10 command module landed in Glasgow", The Herald, May 13).

Also in the photo is the single-decker tram that ran up Kilbowie Road to Duntocher. It had to be single-decker to drive under the two railway bridges at the bottom of Kilbowie Road. The old Caley-line bridge at the former Kilbowie Station has for some time been demolished, but the Clydebank Station line is still there.

My father said that if overloaded with passengers when the Singer's working day ended, the circuit breaker would come out on the steep Kilbowie Hill. The driver would then order everybody off to walk, while he put the breaker back in again. At the top of the hill all the passengers would jump back on.

There is, of course, a more recent model of the singe-decker tram, still running, at the Summerlee Museum, which I took both my late parents to visit in 2004. Having worked in electrical engineering, Dad was delighted. Summerlee is well worth a visit.

James M Arnold, Whiting Bay, Isle of Arran.

PEDALLING VICE

LAST week I saw two policeman on their bikes leisurely cycling on the pavement in the Saltmarket in Glasgow.

Has the law now changed to allow this?

Robert Aitken, Clarkston.

NOW, THERE'S THE ANSWER

HELEN Ross (Letters, May 14) states that even the upper classes commonly say things such as "for Catherine and I". My experience is that it is only the upper classes, especially those with pukka voices, who say such things; a form of snobbery.

As for " Hello, it's I", the trick in avoiding correct but stilted English is to find another expression, such as "Hello, it's Wullie", or as in Glasgow, "Hello there!"

David Miller, Milngavie.

PARTNER IN CRIME

I ENJOYED R Russell Smith's amusing suggestions on how to refer to someone you are romantically attached to, but not married to (Letters, May 16).

I completed a "three and a half year stretch" in HMP Barlinnie many years ago (as a social worker). During that time I referred to my "significant other" as my co-accused.

Ann Ross McCall, Glasgow.