IF we wish to address the serious issues in our schools Carole Ford suggests have been exposed by recent Pisa results (Letters, January 6) we may have to go somewhat beyond tinkering with the curriculum and improving discipline and teaching methodology. Even a cursory look at the countries which have been consistently above or have joined in the programme and been placed above Scotland and the UK shows societies with radically different attitudes to education and levels of spending on education.
While it is not entirely unfair to bash the Scottish Government on its custody of the system I doubt whether there is a political party out there that is willing to bite the bullet and facilitate the increase in spending or engineer the changes in social attitudes that may be required to achieve the league position to which we apparently aspire. I am in no doubt that we can make changes that will stabilise then improve our current position, but to aspire to levels achieved in Estonia we might have to become a bit more like Estonia, and I’m not sure we’ll be ready for that any time soon.
Robin Irvine, Helensburgh.
Tram doubts
IT is that time of year where the Glasgow Airport link gets dusted down and aired in the media ("Airport link back on table as part of a Glasgow tram network", The Herald, January 6). While I can understand logic in a Paisley to airport link I have been told capacity on railway into Glasgow cannot be increased. As to the Metro/tram winding its way into Glasgow (and beyond), are all these locations mentioned on route not already served by dedicated services by at least two or more bus companies?
Can Glasgow and Renfrew councils not learn from what happened in the Edinburgh tram fiasco or is this another £1nillion-plus Flagship Ego Plan to be funded by local council tax payers?
Dougie Jardine, Bishopbriggs.
Fox changed sides
I READ with considerable interest the article proposals to restore Boleskine House, once home to self-styled “wickedest man in the world”, Aleister Crowley who scandalised British society in the early 20th Century ("Saving notorious house of Crowley", The Herald, January 4). It was famously later bought by and Led Zeppelin guitarist and producer Jimmy Page.
I however felt obliged to correct a major historical error in the article. In the piece the author describes Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat as supporting the “English” during the 1745 Jacobite Rising. There was of course no “English” side as this was a battle between Hanoverians and Jacobites seeking to restore the Stewart monarchy. Many major Scottish clans and families backed the Hanoverian side and the victory of the Hanoverians was widely celebrated by Lowland Presbyterians.
In addition to this, Lord Lovat, nicknamed "the Fox" and Chief of Clan Fraser of Lovat, while a supporter of the Hanoverians during the 1715 Jacobite Rising, had by 1745 changed sides and supported the Jacobite cause, tempted by the offer of a dukedom.
Indeed, Lovat was among the Highlanders defeated at the Battle of Culloden and convicted of treason against the Crown in London in 1747, following which he was sentenced to death and subsequently beheaded on Tower Hill.
His last words were a quote from a line of Horace: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori – It is sweet and seemly to die for one's country.
Alex Orr, Edinburgh EH9.
Noise warning
AFTER reading Russell Smith's definition of a gentleman being one who only plays the bagpipes outdoors (Letters, January 3), I remembered the story of someone asking "What does playing the ukulele and an Exocet missile have in common?"
The answer: "By the time you hear them, it's too bloody late."
Bill Brown, Dumfries.
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