WITH lived experience of drug use in the heady 1980s and 90s whilst working in the City of London I feel qualified to comment on Calum Steele's article (“Memo to the government: beating addiction is key to Scotland’s fight against drugs”, The Herald, September 4). I have lived experience too of volunteering in street homelessness, shelters such as Centrepoint Soho and harm reduction situations from Inverness to Liverpool. I feel further qualified to comment accordingly.

Such experiences have taught me that often our police services are ahead of the politicians. Here in Edinburgh, Superintendent Samantha Ainslie only two years ago was cited as perceptively understanding our drug deaths horror, with specific regard to drug crime, that offending cannot be reduced unless long-term solutions are found to underlying causes; she specifically mentioned poverty and wider inequalities.

I suggest these include homelessness/inadequate housing, insufficient resources dedicated to maintaining good mental health and in particular childhood trauma and a worsening education picture amongst our young people; these are all within the powers of this SNP Government.

In the capital too often our council billets problematic drug users in unsuitable bedsits with no support. Shame on them.

Nicola Sturgeon said she took her eye off the ball when it came to drug deaths. It still is in play though and despite a five-year investment of £250 million (before health costs inflation) our drug deaths across Scotland, people with families and friends living within our communities, increased last year by 12% to 1172 individuals dying from drug misuse.

Meantime a new Scottish Labour MP, Alan Gemmell, bowled a googly at the weekend. His suggestion was that Labour/Keir Starmer might ignore the Scotland Act and intervene directly over the heads of MSPs, including Scottish Labour's 22 representatives.

He suggests that Scottish Labour support the accident-prone Douglas Ross's Right to Recovery Addiction Scotland Bill. Yet the experts at four leading drugs charities caution: "Ultimately we feel that although well-intentioned, this bill would, as written, cause more harm than good if it became law. It also risks further fuelling a harm reduction or recovery debate that is both unhealthy and damaging to those people trying to access help, rather than a useful discussion about where the optimum combination of both approaches lies."

William Moyes, chair of the Accounts Commission in Scotland, said in 2022: “Delivery of drug and alcohol services in Scotland is complex and difficult to navigate, with many organisations working across different sectors. What we need to see now is clearer accountability across all partners. In the longer term, more focus is needed on the root causes of drug and alcohol dependency and breaking the cycle of harm stretching down generations and across communities."

Calum Steele in his article misses those points, I feel.

Accordingly if Alan Gemmell really wants to make a difference in the drugs space I respectfully suggest within his agency and jurisdiction he can lobby his own Cabinet colleagues to overturn the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and introduce a legally-regulated drugs framework for current times.

Douglas McBean, Edinburgh.

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Glasgow should learn from Paris

DAVID J Black writes that "perhaps we should be outsourcing our planning powers to the French" (Letters, September 3). I should like to endorse his letter.

We have recently returned from France where we visited Paris and a number of towns and cities on the Seine. Many buildings were razed to the ground or badly damaged by the Second World War bombing.

Some were stunning cathedrals or public buildings but others were domestic ones. Often notice boards showed the degree of damage in the 1940s. Some were reduced to just a heap of stones. They had been faithfully rebuilt with recycled or new matching material.

Contrast that with Glasgow. Listed buildings abandoned. No maintenance or security whatsoever. Weather and vandalism take their toll and then the building is deemed to be dangerous and demolished.

John Thomson, Glasgow.

Direct contradiction

I HAD a wry smile to myself reading the article on Direct Line this morning stating that they had lost some 488,000 customers ("Direct Line returns to profit despite losing motor customers", The Herald, September 5). They can add another one to that.

I recently received my car insurance renewal and was surprised to find it had gone from pennies under £600 last year to £860 this year. An hour or so of comparing quotes online easily got quotes starting in the low £400s, with well-known competitors coming in at just under £500.

How they can say the average for new customers was £592 and for existing customers was£514? Must be some lucky folk out there with very cheap policies. I do wonder at their claims.

Douglas Jardine, Bishopbriggs.

Mangled metaphors

IF I may add to the recollections about great Scottish football commentators (Letters, September 3, 4 & 5), the wonderful Fraser Elder of the BBC should never be forgotten. I know David Murdoch laments the lack of good English by today's current crop plying their trade in football's commentary boxes, but Mr Elder was supreme: the man who put the pun in pundit and who didn't mix his metaphors, he mangled them.

I remember my dad and I almost fell off the couch with laughter watching a UEFA cup match back in the 1970s when Hearts were playing Lokomotiv Leipzig. Hearts were weathering a barrage from their German opponents when the incomparable Mr Elder uttered the immortal line, "and Lokomotiv Leipzig are going like a train".

Another time, the great man was covering over radio a Dundee versus Patrick Thistle match. Thistle scored a goal. Unfortunately an own goal, which inspired the cracking correspondent to declare: "Patrick Thistle have shot themselves in the foot and have been left with a nasty headache."

Many people say that football doesn't have have any real characters playing the game nowadays and I must say that, in my opinion, this extends to the commentators too.

Gordon Fisher, Stewarton.

Archie Macpherson: one of the bestArchie Macpherson: one of the best (Image: Newsquest)

• IN the continuing praise of Scottish sports broadcasters of the past former masters of their craft David Francey, Dougie Donnelly and the redoubtable Archie Macpherson deserve mention. Whilst current commentators provide a good enough service the ever-increasing number of match appraisers (aka pundits) has intruded on the role of the commentator. Sadly several of these pundits perform poorly with inaudible mumbling laced with grammatical clangers.

In this time of inevitable cutbacks surely a cull on these touchline critics is appropriate.

Allan C Steele, Giffnock.