Readers' letters: Treat causes of obesity before doling out weight-loss jabs

Would the money required for this initiatve not be better spent investing in undermining the cowardice of governments (UK and Scottish) which continue to depend for much of their revenue on food manufacturers who pack their products with weight-gaining additives; to say nothing of the brutality of industrial farming which unnaturally fattens billions of creatures, rendering them toxic, and tasteless.

In other words, the Government is coming at the obesity epidemic from the wrong end of the stick. Why not start with banning advertisements for McDonald’s and their ilk, and supporting people to make healthier choices. Gandhi said that the seat of taste is in the mind. Wise words.

Joyce Gunn Cairns, Edinburgh

Worst impression

It would be hard not to agree every once in a while with at least something that Jill Stephenson contributes to The Scotsman letters. But, heavens above, I now find myself in the unprecedented position of agreeing with an entire Jill Stephenson letter, (“Airport Regression”, 29 October), which I read just prior to travelling back from Munich towards the delights of Edinburgh International Arrivals.

She is right on all points, other than there being more air bridges than she suggests. However, their availability is deliberately priced beyond the carriers responsible for the high-volume, many-flights-per-day, bread-and-butter of the airport, in favour of the once-per-day premium clients (Emirates, Air Canada, United Airlines, etc). Most of the time these air bridges lie idle.

Meanwhile, in International Arrivals, she is likewise absolutely right. It’s an industrial hovel with no welcoming features whatsoever. Forget air bridges, there aren’t even escalators from the apron level to the overhead corrugated walkway, which itself looks like some sort of annexe of the adjacent Newbridge Industrial Estate. And it is a walkway. Other airports have travelators – Edinburgh makes you hoof it... for miles. I’m 71 years old, and thoroughly detest being treated as cattle. Not content with that, Edinburgh Airport, flush from announcing record income, can’t even find the wherewithal for ceiling tiles to disguise the plumbing, electrics and IT that hang above Baggage Reclaim. Apart from being an obvious huge security no-no, it contributes to the worst possible experience of “Where Scotland Meets The World”. You don't get a second chance to make a first impression!

Iain Masterton, Kirknewton, West Lothian

Poet’s legacy

I recently attended an excellent concert about Scots language poet Hugh MacDiarmid during the Biggar Little Festival, 100 years since his groundbreaking book, Sangschaw.

The Biggar Corn Exchange event featured poetry, songs and music. It was organised by a charity called MacDiarmid’s Brownsbank, which wants to renovate MacDiarmid’s old home, Brownsbank, at Candymill near Biggar, and build on his legacy.

Hugh MacDiarmid’s real name was Christopher Murray Grieve. Raised as a boy in Langholm, Dumfriesshire, he later lived in places including Montrose, the Shetlands and Brownsbank, from the 1950s until his death in 1978.

Readers at the Biggar performance included broadcaster Sally Magnusson, Alan Riach of Glasgow University, poets Gerry Cambridge and James Roberston, grandson Chris Grieve and journalist Jane Grieve. Songs came from Kirsteen McCue, David Hamilton and Jane Grieve. Pupils from Black Mount Primary School sang the fun Scots songs.

Today, Hugh MacDiarmid is increasingly recognised as a pioneering 20th Century “modernist” writer along with Ireland’s James Joyce and the American England-based TS Eliot. MacDiarmid has influenced many younger writers. New books, writers and universities globally are exploring MacDiarmid’s work. But he had a tough life and was overlooked for many years. Brownsbank saved him.

At different points, MacDiarmid was a newspaper journalist, published small magazines and wrote widely on many topics. He helped found the National Party of Scotland, which became the SNP, and later joined the Communist Party. He stood in various elections up to the 1960s.

Today, a MacDiarmid hill-top memorial is located near Langholm. In Biggar, the Brownsbank Trust urgently wants to renovate his cottage. I urge readers and Scottish organisations to support the Brownsbank project, in a similar spirit to Scotland’s support for Robert Burns.

Robbie MacDonald, Manchester

Failing schools

Much political capital has been invested by the SNP in its Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) and “progressive” education policies. Cameron Wyllie tells on his recent article (Perspective, 30 October) how the public are now increasingly aware that “the current state of behaviour in Scottish schools needs to be improved; that Curriculum for Excellence has failed; and that the best people to decide how to run any individual school are those who manage the schools and their staff”.

Scotland’s schools are now the most violent in the UK and have the highest levels of pupil absence. It’s no accident that they have the highest rate of teacher absenteeism as well. Hardly surprising, given the strain this profession is under.

Findings by PISA and other international educational research studies tell their own woeful story of declining academic attainment. These are stark facts, which no amount of spin can hide.

Former head teacher Mr Wyllie also believes that “Scotland needs to learn from England”. For that statement alone, he’ll no doubt join JK Rowling and Neil Oliver in nationalist demonology as enemies of “the people of Scotland”.

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

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