RE Scott Wright’s excellent article on the licensed trade ("Can licensed trade cope with yet more sweeping change?", The Herald, September 5). I agree our sector is facing relentless challenges similar to any High Street retailers or small independent shops. Indeed pubs were often referred to as “shops” by customers.

Before we go off on one about the latest proposal to ban smoking in outside areas I have to admit I was totally opposed to the smoking ban of 2003, despite being a lifelong non-smoker. I also have to admit it was a fear of business loss that drove my feelings, I was proved wrong.

Since then many things have changed and the trade has had to adapt. Sadly some pubs didn’t survive but it’s all too easy to blame it on the smoking ban. The licensed trade has evolved constantly and considerably over the last 40-plus years. In the 1970s a huge percentage of trade was in massive social clubs all across Scotland. Ninety per cent of them are closed down. Then we had the explosion of wine bars and huge nightclubs in the 1980s and 90s. Now their share of business is much less.

The trade evolves and the smoking ban led to more and more food-led operations. Regardless of any bans the societal changes and the resulting sociological impact have had the biggest impact on pubs. No lunchtime drinking, no tea-time drinking, going out later and of course a huge increase in home consumption.

The business evolves and survives by re-inventing and adapting to market forces. The real crime with governments is their constant failure to consider realistic support for pubs that could survive and still contribute to the economy by paying lower rates and lower VAT.

Successive governments have disregarded the Law of Diminishing Return when it comes to supporting many businesses, not just the licensed trade. They simply blunder on and take short-term decisions that fail to deliver a better result for all parties.

John Gilligan, Past Chair of the SLTA, Ayr.

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Give us vote on assisted dying

YET again we have those against the Assisted Dying Bill distorting the issue and raising issues which are not in the bill.

The MSPs are not voting for “killing off” disabled people or those who have dementia or a mental illness.

They are not voting for suicide for people who are unhappy or lonely. They are voting for a bill which can bring relief to people who are already dying and have very little time to live and are possibly suffering excruciating pain and mental torture.

Yet again we now have Eileen McCartin (Letters, September 2) raising issues which are not included in the bill. Why?

And now we have Conal Preston, researcher for think tank Living and Dying Well, trying to represent themselves as an organisation which is impartial when in fact nothing in their website suggests an interest in anything other than campaigning against assisted dying (Letters, September 4). If there is a positive report on their website it is not obvious in the name of the report.

He presents a survey based on misleading questions to encourage the reader against assisted dying.

Let’s have a proper survey with one unambiguous question: “Are you in favour of making the option of assisted dying available, if requested, to terminally ill people who have less than six months to live and who do not want to prolong the dying process because of excruciating pain and severe mental distress?”, and better still make it a referendum which is binding on our law makers.

It should even be possible to include a caveat that any changes to the bill once passed would also require a referendum before any changes can be made to it.

As I have stated in previous letters, anyone who is against assisted dying will have the option of not accessing it. Nobody is going to force them to die; that is called murder.

Let those who are against assisted dying because of religious or moral beliefs allow us to make our decision through a referendum.

Iain McIntyre, Sauchie.

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• I FIND it frustrating and rather amusing that those who object to assisted dying are mostly people of faith. Just why are they so afraid of meeting their maker?

Eileen Stables, Paisley.

Should there be a binding referendum on assisted dying?Should there be a binding referendum on assisted dying? (Image: Getty)

Teach boys to respect girls

THE press seems to be full of articles such as that written by Rebecca McQuillan regarding women's safety ("Will there ever be a time when women feel safe?", The Herald, September 5).

Men are to blame for everything. Ms McQuillan says "we teach our daughters to fear". No mention about what you are teaching your sons. Maybe if more time were spent teaching sons to respect the opposite sex and also teaching them to be respectful to everybody then women would eventually be able to feel safe. Too many sons are not getting a good upbringing which mothers and fathers are responsible for.

Bringing in laws regarding so-called misogyny will not solve anything. Until women stop pointing the finger of blame solely at men and start taking responsibility for raising their sons to be good men then the situation will never change. Misandry is just as bad as misogyny.

Mr A Madden, Stewarton.

A sad lack of ambition

MARISSA MacWhirter writes that Glasgow’s transport system needs a “blast of ideas and ambition” (The Herald, September 6). Some years ago, the local engineering Beckett Brothers sent Glasgow a detailed proposal for a monorail system which would serve Glasgow Airport with stops at Braehead, the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, the Transport Museum and the SEC (which would now also serve the Hydro) before terminating at Central Station.

If this was not a blast of an idea with considerable ambition, I don’t know what would be. The monorail would, of course, be available for journeys between the various stations, useful for all the intermediate destinations.

Exemplifying typical Glasgow “cringe”, the idea never saw the light of day and disappeared without trace. This follows the sad history of scrapping 120 miles of tram tracks and demolishing the Bennie rail plane (in Bearsden, of course).

Nigel Dewar Gibb, Glasgow.