YOUR VIEWS: Where have all of our police officers gone?
We really need more police presence please.
We spend millions on peat bogs and apparently nothing on community policing. We need local bobbies.
From my own experience I can tell you remote policing does not work.
You mention bird poisoning and public toilet vandalism, but of course there's a lot more - St.Vincent’s Hospital attacked by vandals; houses burgled causing a great deal of stress for the residents; the Co-op in Kingussie broken into and a large sum of money stolen; cats kiled by a crossbow; drink driving.
To quote wordsmith Bob Dylan "The Order Is Rapidly Fading", that's more relevant now than ever.
Yes, we need more police and we need them now.
Alastair Meade
Old Distillery Road
Kingussie.
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Government support for forestry was set up to increase our nation’s self-sufficiency in forest products,not to line wealthy pockets of absentee owners as suggested by Dave Morris (Letter, Strathy, July 18).
At the start of the Second World War less than five per cent of forest products consumed in Britain came from Britain. Our lack of self-sufficiency in food and forest products could have resulted in our defeat.
Whilst countries such as the Netherlands and Finland are net exporters of food, we currently import 40 per cent of the food and 81 per cent of the forest products we consume.
Our increasing dependency on imports is why fertiliser prices tripled and domestic wood pellets prices more than doubled here in Scotland following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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The UK contributes approximately one per cent of global greenhouse gases from economic activities here in the UK, but considerably more if we take account of what we consume from elsewhere. What we import contributes to deforestation and our greenhouse gas emissions.
If we want to reduce our contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions and have a more secure, sustainable and prosperous rural economy, we need to produce more of the forest products we consume here in the UK.
This objective should not be constrained by ethnic cleansing of non-native species or using government support to plant trees primarily to claim carbon credits.
Managing vegetation with controlled burning, herbivore grazing and fencing plays an important part in contributing to biodiversity, productivity from our land, reducing the risk of wildfires and their intensity when they occur.
Jamie Williamson
Alvie and Dalraddy Estates
Kincraig.
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MP Drew Hendry will be a big miss
Drew Hendry was one of those MPs that really cared about all of his constituents.
He was able to help me on three occasions and his team provided me with the information I needed and had asked for.
He was always busy meeting people and busineses in all three wards.
He was a very good MP - one of the best.
I hope new MP Angus McDonald turns out to be as good a representative of his constituency as Drew would have been but I doubt it.
I feel so sorry for Drew, perhaps he is a victim of the system.
Paul Fairbrother
Nethy Bridge.
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UK state pension trails well behind
Scotland should welcome the recent independent Wellbeing Pension Plan.
In support the SNP has pledged that with independence they would provide pensions in line with Europe, which could end pensioner poverty.
From UK government figures, 80 per cent of pensioners are still on the basic pension of £159.50 per week, which is one of the worst in the developed world.
The Wellbeing think tank has calculated that at £241.50, this would be just enough for a person to live with some kind of dignity.
In welcoming this the respected economist Gordon MacKintyre-Kemp, founder of Business for Scotland, has stated that polling indicates t hat if pensions were to rise in line with the EU ‘the independence vote would rise to well over 60 per cent’.
However he added - ‘Both Tory and Labour have kept pensions low to boost the City of London, where middle class people buy private pensions’!
Grant Frazer
Newtonmore.
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Energy Minister Ed’s big mistake
Ed Miliband, the new Minister for Energy and Climate Change has arbitrarily banned further UK petroleum exploration and drilling.
As a loyal, patriotic and well-meaning UK citizen does he want adequate funding for national welfare, health, education, defence and the infrastructure?
Each is an obvious priority for government?
His well-known very strongly held ‘Green’ opinions recall in zealousness those of the convinced US prohibitionists of early last century which culminated in the bans on alcoholic drink which was of course an ultimate total failure to nobody's benefit.
We in the British Isles, though now relatively poor, are still blessed with huge exploitable mineral riches which could help save our public services.
Governments surely must seek the best deals for the nation's voters.
Sometimes politicos' perceived, albeit misplaced, idealism must give way to pragmatic realism, as Bismarck declared ‘Politics is the art of the possible’.
Charles Wardrop
Perth.
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Keep up terrific work
Regarding your online story “Highland Council react to being ranked the worst local authority in mainland Scotland.”
With such a geographic diversity I believe that the council punches way above its weight.
How can such an area be compared with conurbation, urban sprawl etc?
If the council is rated worst I'd say ignore the rating and carry on.
This is a wonderful place.Carry on, nothing to see here.
John Heil
Knockando.
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Smart meters but not so clever governments
Many think that Scotland is a net exporter of electricity, and in the sense that the volume of electricity generated by the many windmills situated here, and fed into the national grid, could sometimes be in excess of our requirements, that could be true.
However, the Scottish Government does not own any onshore or offshore wind farms, directly or otherwise, as the Scottish Government website will confirm.
All UK windfarms are owned by various private enterprises, mostly foreign, who sell their electricity to the national grid, and then Scotland is allocated a share of that electricity, based on population.
To retain the output of windmills based here, Scotland would have to become an independent nation, and then nationalise them. Similarly, it was never Scotland’s oil.
That also belonged to its discoverers and developers, as the UK government had chosen nuclear as the way forward at that time.
As a result this allowed oil to be owned by its discoverers in exchange for rentals, VAT and licences and various output levies, but not the profit from the sale of the oil itself which remained with its developers and still does.
It is the same with wind except the UK pays subsidies to windfarms so they are actually a cost as opposed to a benefit, and also give us some of the most expensive part-time electricity in the world.
UK energy policy is a classic example of political ineptitude and lack of long-term thinking.
The present UK government now proposes banning all fossil fuel development so we will definitely have an energy shortfall with inevitable rationing, hence the real reason for smart meters, as the reality of our situation finally became obvious to government some time ago.
Malcolm Parkin
Kinnesswood.
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Cuppa to fighting cancer
Breast Cancer Now’s Afternoon Tea is back this August.
Every 10 minutes, someone in the UK hears the words “you have breast cancer”which is why we’ve decided to host an Afternoon Tea for Breast Cancer Now.
Every day, our research brings us closer to finding new treatments and a future where everyone with breast cancer lives and is supported to live well. So, why not get your friends together and host an Afternoon Tea this August by signing up for your fundraising kit now at: breastcancernow.org/afternoon-tea
Lucy Preston,
Breast Cancer Now
London.
