COMMENCING last Sunday the UK has experienced a period of high pressure which resulted until Wednesday evening in us experiencing near total wind generation collapse.

We probably reached a peak minimum wind output around 08.00 am yesterday (May 1) when our approximately 21,000 MW of onshore and offshore wind turbines were producing 180 MW, equivalent to 0.5 per cent of the UK’s needs.This from an investment to date of tens of billions.

Scotland was importing up to 1000 MW from England and the UK concurrently some 3500 MW from Europe whilst e depended on gas providing us with up to 59 per cent of our electricity.

The new Nemo interconnector to Belgium which started up in December last year, increasing the UK’s import capability to 4000MW, was running flat out at 1000MW. French and Belgian nuclear power has been keeping our lights on for almost all of this week.

Given that the UK statistically can experience around 60 days/year of very high pressure we are effectively energy-dependent upon Europe to function.

For a sovereign nation to arrive at this position is incredible.

DB Watson,

Saviskaill, Langdales Avenue, Cumbernauld.

Hallmark of recovery

I NOTE your “Those were the days” feature about the King’s visit to Glasgow in 1927 ("1927: George V gives his name to George V bridge in Glasgow", The Herald, May 1) and it brought back stories my father used to tell. As a wee boy he remembered his uncle coming in to say that the Kelvin Hall was burning down. He also told of the day the king came to open the rebuilt hall; on that day he sat on top of a bread van to watch the procession go by.

On December 7, 1927 my father was seven years old and he remembers the destruction of the hall and the opening of its replacement in the few years of his consciousness at that time. Consider and contrast the rebuilding of the Glasgow School of Art or any other major undertaking. When will we see the reopening of GSA? I suspect it will be many years ahead. Clearly there were decision makers and men of action in those days while we now do, or more accurately fail to do, things by committee.

DS Blackwood,

1 Douglas Drive East, Helensburgh.

A loss in the abstract

I READ Stuart Mitchell's letter on Latin (April 29) with great interest and much agreement. I studied Latin for six years at school and as a history teacher for 36 years frequently drew upon and referred to the knowledge gained. I have even tried, with admittedly limited success, to run a short, fun Latin class in my BB company. The main obstacle, as in schools, is the demands on time and resources caused by a large number of competing subjects and activities.

However I am sure Mr Mitchell would agree that perhaps the greatest loss is the training in abstract thinking which was provided by use of grammatical ideas such as Ablative absolutes, gerunds, accusative and infinitive and so on which is not replaced by any aspects of modern syllabuses and certainly not in English language teaching, where even pupils from articulate and educated backgrounds frequently speak in incorrect syntax because they are not taught anything or very little about the structural foundations of language.

Kenneth Roberts,

86 Larkfield Road, Lenzie.