My electric car has had a serious effect on my mental health

MG gives an official range of 163 miles. The most I have ever achieved (and this incurred significant range anxiety) was 142 miles. In reality the usable range averages 100 miles. This is hopeless. In cold weather (something not uncommon in Scotland) Mr Palfreyman suggests donning extra clothing so as not to use the heater and deplete the batteries, thus further reducing the range. If I wanted to suffer from hypothermia I would have bought a motorbike, not an EV.

I’m curious as to what Mr Palfreyman means by “if I drive the car carefully”? I too drive my car carefully. However, although pottering around locally at 30 mph gives me a good range, should I venture into the big wide world (aka the M6) and drive at the legal motorway speed the range plummets like a stone.

Mr Palfreyman is fortunate in basking in the cheap electricity he sources from his home charger. It is worth pointing out that to do this requires a (working) smart meter. For this very reason I had a smart meter installed at my house in May last year. Due to communication problems it didn’t work in smart mode. It was replaced in August last year and once again last week. Despite this, in common with four million other consumers, I still do not have a (working) smart meter, hence there is no possibility of charging my EV at home at anything other than the standard full rate tariff.

So Mr Palfreyman, I thought I “was doing the right thing” when I got my EV. I did my research, I charge at home when I can, but not at your advantageous 9p per unit - and please note that if you do make longer journeys you will have to sample the mixed delights of public chargers, possibly paying up to 85p per unit (as I had to recently) - and I read the small print. Despite all this I made the wrong decision, which I regret.

Mr T J Lynch, near Stranraer.

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Let us embrace e-learning

YOUR article on the financial plight of Glasgow’s education budget indicated to me that this was a time for thinking out of the box (“Education cuts will see ‘seismic’ hit on pupils”, The Herald, March 28).

What is clearly a funding crisis in Glasgow is perhaps an opportunity to enact change in the public perception of where the buck stops. Scottish Government legislation is clear in stating that a child’s education is the responsibility of the parent and it is their duty to either send their child to a school or educate them with the incredibly woolly statement, “by other means”. I feel that this legislation is out of date in the new technological age of online learning and requires urgent review.

I expect that many parents have grown used to considering schools as a way of abdicating responsibility for learning as teachers historically accept and assume responsibility in their place, “ in loco parentis”. I suggest that this is the opportunity to remind parents of their role within a revised system in which a more nuanced approach is adopted within existing provision.

This is a time when e-learning is expanding rapidly in countries like the USA, China and India. I am certain that many of our senior pupils in secondary schools could very often be deemed by their parents able to spend at least part of their timetable learning online with periodic tutoring.

Glasgow in fact has a history of embracing innovative educational technology through its own broadcasting service to schools in the early 1960s. This is surely once again the time to be bold.

Bill Brown, Milngavie.

Are internet games dangerous?

I ENJOYED Keith Swinney’s comical childhood reminiscences of watching funny cartoon characters trying unsuccessfully, usually in exaggerated ways, to harm each other (Letters, March 27). From my limited knowledge of today’s popular internet “games" which seem to appeal particularly to the young, my concern is that the gamer is no longer an observer but instead is an active participant competing in lifelike backgrounds to register the most kills. If the game is lost, the only downside suffered by the gamer is that he or she is encouraged to sharpen their killing skills by trying again and again.

Over time is there the risk that this involvement could teach some young developing brains to think of killing as acceptable behaviour, with little or no seriously adverse personal consequences?

Alan Fitzpatrick, Dunlop.

Should e-learning play a bigger role in the future? (Image: PA)

The Glasgow recycling blues

BIN men, are you colour blind? I don't think so.

Did your supervisors not explain recycling to you? Quite possibly.

Is Glasgow City Council cheating on its climate policy? Very likely.

I reported to environmental services about two months ago that blue recycling bins were being emptied alongside general rubbish into the same lorry. I was told this should not be happening and the supervisor would be informed. This seemed to work but today it happened again.

Is it all going to landfill?

(Dr) Jim Williamson, Glasgow.

On the wrong lines

CLEARING out my loft I found a copy of The Herald from June 26, 2010 with a report on the proposed Borders Railway headed "£300m rail link offers poor value for money".

How wrong can one be now that we want to extend the railway to Hawick?

Alistair Moss, Doune.