SOME years ago, following the unionist victory in the independence referendum, we made a journey, a pilgrimage of sorts, to the Union Chain bridge not far from the border town of Berwick. Sadly, the bridge at that time was far from its best. It was still hanging together, but neglect had begun to impede its functionality and its future hung precariously. Today, after a considerable cross-border maintenance programme, a better future is secured. A repeat of the neglect that threatened its existence must be avoided.

Two hundred years before the building of the chain bridge, James VI, on his way to become James I, paused in Berwick but was distinctly unimpressed by the wooden structure that then crossed the Tweed. The new British king commanded that a stone bridge be built to commemorate the union of his two kingdoms.

Last weekend, we were again in Berwick to enjoy the festivities to mark the quadricentennial of the old bridge built across the river Tweed. The celebrations began with a procession led by the pipes and drums of the Berwick RBL band. After a ceremony and a blessing, the day progressed with historical re-enactments, arts and crafts workshops and a host of market stalls celebrating local fayre. It was a great British weekend.

The absence of any celebration of Britishness is something lacking in Scotland. Siren voices have filled that void. We allowed a space to open up into which those who happily tarnish our country's great achievements confidently pontificate. Here in Berwick, in stark contrast, were ordinary English people celebrating their physical and spiritual connection to Scotland. What can they teach us?

We have recently heard from the leadership of the Scottish Conservative and Unionists that a cowed SNP allows them to push their unionism into the background in order to foreground their conservatism. On one hand that makes welcome sense. Even as a member, I've no idea what the leadership actually believes. On the other hand, it's both dangerous and simplistically binary. As Ruth Davidson might well have said, you can't have one without the other.

The thesis that conservatism is a philosophy of love connects two of its most iconic recent representatives, Russell Kirk and Roger Scruton. Admittedly it's a difficult thesis to turn into policy. But we in Scotland have in this leadership election the possibility of putting that thesis into practice. It is from our love of home, expressed constitutionally as our unionism, from which all our policies should spring. Our unionism, in other words, should be the very foundation of our Scottish conservatism.

Contrary to the idea of backgrounding unionism we must instead articulate how our love of home underpins all our policies. The need for family, community, settlement is not ideological; it is instinctively human. We should look to find ways to celebrate our love of home like the good people of Berwick and Tweedmouth did last weekend. There is no room for complacency. We must not neglect the links that connect us.

Graeme Arnott, Stewarton.

READ MORE: The soft-touch approach to school discipline must be binned

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Where the DRS blame lies

MARTIN Williams’ lead story on the failure of the Scottish Government’s Deposit Return Scheme ("Fury at Scot Gov 'false assurances' over disastrous bottle scheme", August 4) lays the blame for the bill’s failure and the resultant financial mess on the Scottish Government itself.

This is not how I remember it.

The Scottish DRS as planned for 2023 was similar to schemes successfully operating in other countries. It was also similar to the schemes originally planned to operate in England and Northern Ireland and in Wales. The bill passed in Holyrood with all-party support.

However, after intensive lobbying by the drinks industry, followed by a £20,000 donation to the Tories by the Wine and Spirit Association, the UK Government withdrew glass from the English/Northern Irish scheme.

Both the Scottish and Welsh Governments announced their intention to carry on with their original bills, including glass.

The Scottish Government asked for its scheme to be exempted from the UK Internal Market Act. The post-Brexit UKIMA insists on uniformity of trading schemes across the four nations (in reality this means that England can and does force Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to follow English practice).

The UK Government refused such exemption. The Scottish Government then reluctantly agreed to go along with the UK scheme. The Welsh Government agreed to delay its scheme until the English scheme came into practice but still hoped to include glass. The UK Government has indicated it will veto any Welsh scheme which includes glass.

It’s true that Lorna Slater indicated to relevant stake-holders in the private and public sector that the Scottish scheme was going ahead. However at that time the blank authoritarianism of the UK Government was not yet manifest and the Scottish Government would have hoped that reason would prevail.

The UK scheme has now been delayed until at least 2027. If it hadn’t been for the UK veto, the Scottish scheme including glass would have been successfully operating for two years by now.

Mary McCabe, Glasgow.

The belt is not the answer

I CAN'T imagine that Jenny Gilruth will be likely to find much in the message from John V Lloyd (Letters, August 4). Teachers returning to school have a lot to deal with and indiscipline is only one of them. However, it is difficult to understand why children are described as feral, twice, in Mr Lloyd's letter. We have to question the reason for that.

Discipline is an issue which has bedevilled schools for many years. However, my experience of 40 years or so leads me to believe that schools have used a number of approaches to deal with problems. Indeed, I can't think of a school which does not set out to ensure that all pupils who misbehave are dealt with immediately, and often their parents or carers are brought into the school to help ensure that pupils understand how to improve their behaviour.

I am sure that the fact that Ms Gilruth was born in in 1984 and did not experience corporal punishment does not mean that she is unaware of the issue. I am sure that she is indeed aware and would not want corporal punishment to be re-introduced.

Mr Lloyd's "feral" children comments are unacceptable, as is his description of bullies roaming the school corridors at will. His view that schools do nothing to deal with bad behaviour is simply not the case. I suggest that he visits schools in his local area where he will find senior management and their staff have working policies in to deal with bad behaviour.

Jenny GilruthJenny Gilruth (Image: Scottish Parliament/PA Wire)

The fact of the matter is that our schools and their teachers work very hard to ensure that violence is dealt with and that parents are part of the process.

However, there are problems in all schools, and not only with those pupils living in areas of disadvantage. Smaller classes would certainly help, more teachers, and more support staff to work with pupils with additional support needs. Whether or not Ofsted (in England) condemns restorative practices is neither here nor there. The fact of the matter is that the abolition of corporal punishment was well overdue in the 1980s and did not result in "soft touches" in Scottish schools.

There are many reasons for indiscipline and schools do their best to ensure that their pupils know the difference between right and wrong. What is certainly the case is that corporal punishment is not the answer. No-one wants teachers to be punched, kicked or threatened; we need them to educate our young people, and to do so with all the support they need.

Brian Boyd, Emeritus Professor of Education, South Lanarkshire.

Issues with nuclear power

I NOTE with interest the letter from Malcolm Parkin (August 4) I have two issues with nuclear power and they are not the usual ones that people think of.

The cost of the decommissioning is a real drain on the country’s finances. In 2020 it cost the Treasury £2,210 billion to fund the 16,000 workforce on 17 UK sites.

The nearest nuclear site to me is Dounreay in Caithness, which currently has a workforce of approximately 1,200. It was taken offline for decommissioning in March 1977.

Wikipedia inform us that NRS Dounreay will enter an interim care and surveillance state by 2036 and become a brownfield site by 2336. That’s good news for us all.

Currently there are 60 reactors under construction worldwide with 110 planned and 416 operable. So where is all the uranium required for all this generation coming from? The largest producer by far is Kazakhstan with 43% followed by Canada 15% and Namibia on 11%.

Do we really want to gamble on our country’s electricity generation in the decades to come when the fundamental fuel supply may not be in our control? I think not.

Alex Dickson, Lochinver.

Blame it on Brexit

NAZI rioting in the United Kingdom is the reward of those pinstriped fools who destroyed our European citizenship.

Vicious morons who believed them then are now attacking minorities and committing endless crimes of looting and arson.

They came for the synagogues on Kristallnacht. They’re coming for the mosques now. And for anyone on the streets who looks a bit foreign.

Tim Cox, Bern, Switzerland.

Despicable Labour

LABOUR has been quick to scrap previous Conservative plans to slash 66,000 civil service jobs. The Government has offered public sector workers in England an inflation-busting pay rise worth £9.4 billion in a bid to stave off strikes. However it will do nothing about the gold-plated, public sector final salary pension schemes paid for by taxpayers, which are no longer affordable in the private sector.

The Labour Government will do nothing to curb the sickness rates for public sector employees which is higher than in the private sector. Labour has now clawed back £3 billion a year from the winter fuel payment of 9.9 million pensioners who cannot go on strike. Despicable.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow.