Digital telephone landline switch could be disastrous for some

Before rushing on with the digital switch, action is needed to ensure that vulnerable customers are not disadvantaged by the switch. At the very least, since it appears to be BT policy that mobile services are the emergency backup for digital services, the elimination of dead spots in mobile phone coverage must take priority over the digital switch.

Thankfully though we are both in our eighties with consequent health issues there was no need to contact family or emergency services during the blackout, though there easily could have been.

BT has to realise that warm words and sympathy are not enough. Immediate action is required to ensure that vulnerable customers in rural areas are not put at risk by the digital switch.

Dr John Lochrie, Maybole.

READ MORE: Time to end the single occupancy council tax reduction

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Don't tinker with council tax

RODDY MacLeod (Letters, July 11) states the following: "Reductions of 25% [council tax charges] for single occupancy essentially encourage the trend towards solo living. It is an illogical reduction, because three, four, five, or six people living in one household pay no more council tax than two, and therefore why should there be a reduction for one occupant?". Regarding second-home owners, he continues, they "now pay double council tax so there is no longer any pretence that there is a relationship between property occupancy levels, use of council services, and council tax".

Logically, would it not be more appropriate for all responsible adults within a household, using more council services, to pay more? To penalise a single person with a single income, living alone perhaps through no fault of their own, using less council services, seems highly illogical.

Secondly, surely, the fact that second home owners pay double council tax for the services provided in their second home proves a relationship between property occupancy and tax paid? The double council tax strategy is meant to discourage the acquisition or retention of second homes, thereby increasing the possibilities for those seeking their first home. Logically, however, that would mean a decrease in income for the council, due to the permanent occupants paying the standard rate.

It's a complicated situation. As to his question, "which politician will be brave enough to propose this logical solution?": in the present climate, would there be a politician daft enough?

Maureen McGarry-O'Hanlon, Jamestown.

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Turn empty shops into housing

YOU have been featuring reports and articles recently on the shortage of affordable housing for rental. Could that shortage be addressed at least in part by repurposing as dwellings some of the swathes of high street shops lying empty due to the growth of shopping online, in supermarkets and shopping malls? If, in the common interest, any planning and zoning difficulties could be resolved and compulsory purchase enforced if necessary at a fair valuation, this repurposing would have considerable cost and acceptability advantages over the alternative of completely new builds on greenfield sites as all the necessary infrastructure for energy, water, sewage, communications, roads and so on is in place already.

Moreover, would it not also have the added benefit of generating some level of rental and council tax receipts presumably lacking presently from the empty shops?

Alan Fitzpatrick, Dunlop.

• LAST year, the owner of a three-bedroom house in my village, which had previously been a council house, passed away. The house was then on the market and Stirling Council bought it. It has now lain empty for well over a year and I have written to the council, MP and MSP about this. Recently, over a year since taking it over, the house has been re-roofed. However, it still lies empty. I thought there was a housing shortage and people were crying out for a roof over their heads?

Steve Barnet, Gargunnock.

No substitute for human expertise

ARTIFICIAL Intelligence (AI), according to Sir Demis Hassabis and Sir Tony Blair, "could be one of humanity's biggest ever inventions" (The Herald, July 10), but I think we should find an alternative name for this entity.

During my 13 years in emergency medicine in New Zealand, the junior doctors went on strike twice, and the emergency department was run by consultants. As a group, they were highly intelligent. They didn't spend much time perusing data, and their use of investigative technology was spare, and extremely targeted. Instead, they spent a lot of time taking a very careful history from the patient. They never thought algorithmically; they used a combination of knowledge, skill, and wisdom, as captured in the motto of the Royal College of General Practice: cum scientia caritas. Their approach was not remotely robotic.

On their watch, the recourse to laboratory and imaging diagnostic facilities, and the hospital admission rate, all went down. Medicine, well practised, has got nothing to do with Big Data. Accurate diagnosis is all about filtering out white noise. AI will no doubt be a very lucrative gravy train for somebody, but it won't benefit the doctors and nurses, and it certainly won't benefit the patients.

Dr Hamish Maclaren, Stirling.

Some of the stranded pilot whales at Tresness Beach on Sanday, Orkney (Image: BDMLR/PA)

Selective euthanasia

WHO could fail to be deeply moved by the photo of the pod of 77 whales on Tresness Beach? Twelve of the unfortunate mammals were still alive, and, despite the best efforts of rescuers to save them, the decision was later taken for them to be euthanised ("77 whales stranded on Scottish beach as rescuers try to save pod", The Herald, July 12). What deep empathy or moral rule moves certain people to end the needless suffering of these poor creatures, but appears to be lacking in other people on the question of assisted dying for their fellow humans?

Doug Clark, Currie.