JOHN Swinney took to social media to congratulate the GB swimmer Duncan Scott on his success at the Olympics, claiming that “his remarkable achievements will inspire future generations of Scottish swimmers”.
What will not inspire future swimmers is the state of the Scottish swimming pool estate and the lack of investment by this Scottish Government. In 2023 the UK Government released £63 million to support leisure centres and swimming pools in England. The SNP politicians chose not to pass on the additional funding received via the Barnett formula following this investment to support Scottish swimming.
The fact that more people drown in Scotland per head of population than in any other UK nation should shame the Government. How many children do not have access to swimming lessons in Scotland? Why are school swimming lessons not a mandatory part of the curriculum? How many chose not to continue swimming due to the facilities available, or perhaps the lack of facilities?
Scottish Swimming commissioned a report into the future of swimming facilities in Scotland which was published last November. It predicts the net loss of 150 pools in Scotland by 2040 (closures minus new builds). With a current total of 578 swimming pools, both private and public, this number would be a huge loss to Scotland and would be to the detriment of future generations who may either not learn to swim and/or be at risk of drowning.
It's all very well Mr Swinney praising a successful and much-decorated swimmer but praise alone will inspire no one. It takes investment and that is something the SNP fail to do for future generations.
Jane Lax, Aberlour.
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Will the ScotRail torment ever end?
WILL there ever be a time when this wretched ScotRail roundabout of the “temporary timetable” might stop, and give us benighted long-distance travellers some relief?
A ScotRail director tells me: “I understand that the temporary timetable will affect long-term plans for many.” “Long-term”? Evidently we poor passengers face durance vile.
ScotRail makes travelling conditions worse by consistently replacing five-coach High Speed Trains (HSTs) with dreadful three-carriage 170s and the even-worse two-coach 158s. These trains are suburban stock, never designed for long-distance work on what by any yardstick are our premier routes of Aberdeen/Inverness to Edinburgh/Glasgow.
In five single journeys I undertook last month (July) between the Granite City and Glasgow, four of the trains were not HSTs. Today (Saturday, August 3) the 08:35 Aberdeen-Glasgow HST was cancelled, with the following 09:44 having to double up by taking passengers from the earlier service. And what type of train did ScotRail roster as a replacement? A derisory three-coach 170.
This kind of debacle occurs many times daily across Scotland. On Thursday August 1, my wife and I plus our bikes were booked on the 17:50 from Dunkeld to Perth, an Inverness-Glasgow train. Once more, the scheduled five-carriage HST had become a three-carriage 170. Six bikes had been booked on the HST, but 170s are built only to take two.
Somehow the conductor bravely stretched the ScotRail elastic, though it meant squashing bikes, passengers and luggage into a space that made me yearn for the room that a sardine enjoys in a tin. As for seat reservations, forget it. Re-rostering of trains completely annuls these.
During this period of a truncated timetable, it’s reasonable to assume that more HSTs are available. So why are they sitting unused in sidings?
As for trying to gain information from ScotRail, its policy is one of omerta. Not only is correspondence unanswered, but ScotRail wifi is so weak that it rarely appears on my phone.
Gordon Casely, Crathes.
What's behind the rise of women?
DURING the 1960s while I was studying law at the University of Glasgow, it was noticeable, but seldom remarked upon, how the large majority of the students in the classes were male. That situation has altered significantly in the last generation or two. We find from data published through the Law Society of Scotland that in 2022/23 almost 57% of solicitors in Scotland were female.
When one turns to some other professions, we find that in medicine in Scotland in 2022 over 3,000 GPs were female and some 2,000 were male. In dentistry from a report by NHS Scotland we find that in 2019/20 65% of those commencing dental degrees were female. With regard to the veterinary profession one learns from an RCVS report in 2021 that 57% of all registered veterinary surgeons were female.
These figures illustrate remarkable changes in the make-up of those working in many vocations in Scotland. Scotland is obviously not unique in this regard. The situation raises a number of questions to ponder. For example, are females essentially more intelligent, with that eventually being confirmed when the obstacles previously put in their way were removed over time and they were encouraged to go for it rather than being discouraged? Another question is: what have all the men been doing who have no longer been forming a large majority in the legal, medicine, dental and veterinary professions?
The regiment of women may never have been monstrous, but their influence in so many important areas of Scottish society has never been more profound.
Ian W Thomson, Lenzie.
Two months of puzzlement
YESTERDAY I was informed by a TV weatherman that in one unfortunate spot in Scotland “two months' worth of rain fell in the last 24 hours”. What am I supposed to do with this statement? I have no idea what two months of rain looks like because guess what, it varies from place to place. Similarly I do not stand for 24 hours on my porch with a wee cup in my hand just to check that I’m not being misled.
Why can’t they just report in millimetres the average measured over two months for the place in question and then tell us what the 24-hour total was? My abacus can cope with that.
Robert Menzies, Falkirk.
Jim Clark was the greatest
CONGRATULATIONS to Andy Murray on a long and successful career and for being a credit to Scotland.
As to being our greatest sportsman (or sportsperson) that has to be a matter of opinion. To me nobody will ever replace Jim Clark. His record of eight grand slams still stands 56 years after his death. In 1965 he won the Formula One Championship, won the Formula 2 races he entered, won the Tasman Series in Australia and won the Indianapolis 500, finishing almost two minutes ahead of his nearest challenger. Nobody else has ever done that.
Jim Clark risked his life every time he stepped into a car and like many in the 1960s paid the ultimate price. But to me he is the greatest motor racing driver of all time and our greatest sportsman, sorry Andy.
Iain Harrison, Millport.
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