THERE has been much soul-searching in governments, both north and south of the border, about whether we, as a nation, can afford cold weather payments for old people, or child benefit for poor families with more than two children.

The answer to this problem is staring us in the face. Surely our King, whose personal wealth (though officially a state secret) is in the region of £2 billion, could step in here. The incomes from the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, the rental income from the vast Royal property portfolio, the value of the late Queen’s racing stables, the seashore, the royal train and the marvellous collection of Rolls-Royces, Bentleys and Aston Martins could all be cashed in and used to give the poorest in society a bit of a boost. Maundy money just doesn’t hack it, Charlie.

The monarch’s family are, of course, like the King, welcome to carry on doing their jobs, but how hard can “kinging”, as Terry Pratchett so elegantly put it, be? Not as hard as emptying dustbins from half-past-five in the morning, or looking after doubly incontinent old people in a hospice, I would have thought. Pay them a decent wage, if they are doing a necessary job. Are their jobs absolutely necessary?
AJ Clarence, Prestwick. 

 

OAPs must claim all their benefits
I WAS staggered to read that some 780,000 pensioners in England and Wales may lose their winter fuel allowance because they’re not applying for benefits they’re entitled to. Apart from wondering what the equivalent Scottish figure might be, I do hope that all those OAPs put in immediate applications. These, after all, are benefits for which they have worked their entire lives.

It is impossible not to worry about the potential effect on the poorest pensioners in a country like Scotland, which can be really cold in the depths of winter.

The Age Scotland charity is entirely correct to point out the impact of the UK government’s decision to scrap the winter fuel payment for pensioners who don’t receive pension credit. 

According to Age Scotland some 150,000 Scottish pensioners live in poverty, while many more live on incomes just above the pension credit threshold. They will now miss out on a payment which could help them heat their homes and stay warm over winter.
S Matthews, Glasgow.

 

The injustice of protest sentences
I’M very far from being any political leftist, and I quite like tanking up the car for a trip, but sentencing anti-petroleum activists as if they were dangerous criminals infuriates me close to actual violence.

Should people be treated severely for opposing things I like? The idea is complete nonsense and no better than the imprisonment of suffragettes one hundred and twenty years ago.

There is no respect for the citizen, just as there is none when courts of law allow energy firms to humiliate perfectly orderly customers with pre-pay meters.

There may some danger to individuals in an effective protest. Police are there to thwart danger to the public and have resources to assist people placed in danger by events. It would be no different in a flood or a train strike.

We’ve all skirted round city centres getting from A to B while folk halted the place in protest at something. We didn’t want the protestors banged up for it.

What’s the matter with these judges? Were some of them made late for sherry? And these magistrates, JPs and sheriffs? Are they so cosy with the pin-striped spivs in power companies who retaliate before ever presenting an invoice?
Tim Cox, Bern, Switzerland.

 

Still waiting for pothole payout
ON the subject of Glasgow Council’s Pothole Claims Policy, I had a tyre blow-out due to a large pothole on Merrylea Road, Glasgow, last March. I submitted a claim shortly afterwards and subsequently furnished the Council Claims Team with all the information they requested. Since thenI have been in touch with them about the progress of my claim, with no success. 

According to the FaceBook site Potholes Make Glasgow, delaying payouts is a deliberate strategy by the council in the hope that the applicant will just give up and forget about their claim. I’ve asked the Council Claims Team if this is true, but I still await a response. Have any other of your readers had the same experience?
Alan R Melville, Glasgow.

Driven to distraction

AFTER years of disruption and inconvenience I feel I must congratulate Glasgow City Council on their provision of cycle lanes on Byres Road. Their construction has meant that Deliveroo and other providers of meals to the good citizens of the West End can now zoom up and down on their electric bikes at speeds in excess of 20mph, endangering pedestrians of all ages. Whether ordinary cyclists appreciate the new facility is hard to tell as I’ve not yet seen enough of them using it to form an opinion.
Dave Henderson, Glasgow.

 

The renewable energy myth
THE widely-held view that renewable energy is cheap is a delusion which is so effectively promoted by the renewables industry that most of the public have been duped into a belief of what is no more than a myth. 

That we need to cease our dependency on fossil fuels as soon as possible is true, but it does no service to promote false expectations among the public: the vast majority, understandably, are ignorant of the nature of electrical energy and the physics of producing, transporting and storing it.

There is no shame in this ignorance, which is so vividly illustrated by Iain McIntyre (letters, September 16) suggesting that energy, like data, could be stored in ‘the cloud’. The shame should be directed at the industry and naive politicians who promote the myth of cheap wind power. If the euphemistic  term ‘cloud’ applies to the vast pump storage schemes that are required to store energy to compensate for when the wind does not blow, then the public need to know this. Especially significant, since as I write this, Scotland is importing more than one gigawatt of energy from England.

We cannot prepare properly for the future if we are unaware of the truth. Everyone –  business, industry and politicians – have to set in place plans of how to manage a high-cost energy future, since it will impact on every aspect of our lives if we don’t. Investment in energy conservation should be a priority.
Norman McNab, Killearn.