Readers' Letters: Why has it taken so long to act over bus louts?

“Free” Under-22 travel was introduced in January 2022 to great fanfare. At the time, many of us said this would be fraught with issues as it would permit young people to run riot on buses and in towns.

In December 2023, Tory MSP Graham Simpson introduced a motion on antisocial behaviour on buses, where he pointed out that under the National Bus Travel Concession Scheme for Young Persons (Scotland) Order 2021, ministers can “withdraw or suspend a travel card in such other circumstances as they may determine”. Fiona Hyslop, Minister for Transport, claimed the Scottish Government was committed to tackling all antisocial behaviour. Clearly not that committed, as nothing changed.

One year later, Labour MSP Claire Baker introduced a motion on the abuse of bus drivers, following the tragic death of Elgin bus driver Keith Rollinson at the hands of a young person on a bus in Elgin in 2024. Indeed, the Scottish Government’s “Behaviour in Scottish schools: research report 2023” states: “The ability of young people to travel for free on buses had, in some cases, led to young people travelling to other areas of the city to take part in fights or meeting up on buses and engaging in anti-social behaviour.” There were reports of children travelling from as far afield as Inverness to Edinburgh to partake in antisocial behaviour such as vandalism, theft, intimidation and abuse.

It felt like groundhog day, Fiona Hyslop, still Transport Secretary, said: “I have the greatest sympathy for bus drivers, who can be at the sharp end of antisocial behaviour from a small minority.” Sympathy is great, Ms Hyslop, however, action is what has been required.

At last the SNP have woken up this week and are looking at removing “free” bus passes from those who are abusing staff and fellow passengers. Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity Jim Fairlie, on Radio Scotland on 13 November, confirmed the Scottish Government will next month legislate for a scheme to take free travel passes away from those responsible for anti-social behaviour on buses.

Why has it taken three years to introduce legislation? If only they were actually interested in making Scottish lives better rather than prattling on about separation.

Jane Lax, Aberlour, Moray

Cream shaving

There has been fevered speculation about Rachel Reeves's upcoming Autumn Statement.

I don't envy her job. However, I have a couple of suggestions for her consideration. Firstly, there is one solution that has literally been staring us in the face. Tax beards. Peter the Great of Russia imposed such a tax in 1698. Lenin, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy were reportedly delighted to contribute to the Russian economy. As well as providing a new tax revenue stream, it would benefit the shaving products sector. It would create new jobs – a Beard Tsar and staff would be required for monitoring.

Obviously there would be exemptions for religious faiths, but otherwise this seems to be a win-win to me.

Another possible revenue source would be to slap prohibitive tariffs on Donald Trump's US, for denying climate change and continuing to pour vast quantities of carbon into the earth's atmosphere. Why should other more responsible countries bear the brunt of measures which come at a cost? Two can play that game, Donald John.

Torquil MacLeod, Drumnadrochit, Inverness

Fair fights

We are told that the truncated Commonwealth Games scheduled to be held next year in Glasgow will not have a blanket ban on trans athletes, with their built-in biological advantage, appearing in women's sports. Apparently, not enough time was available. The IOC plan to have the ban in place in time for the next Olympic Games in 2028.

I do hope that does not mean a repeat of biological males hammering biological females in the “women's” boxing and a repeat of the inequalities we had to witness in the previous Olympic Games.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

North of sanity?

As a Fifer who lives in Peterhead, and from North East Fife where the Labour Party were neither first or second at 2024 General Election, I wonder if Robert IG Scott (Letters, 13 November) could tell those folk north of Perth why we should put up with two Labour Party governments we don't want? The Labour Party may have been dominant in the Central Belt of Scotland, but in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East it was realistic contest between the SNP and the Tories.

Having put up with a UK-EU fisheries deal described by Elspeth Macdonald, Chief Executive Officer at the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, as worse than Boris Johnson's botched Brexit deal, an inheritance tax on family farms, possible digital ID to come and housing asylum seekers in completely the wrong places, why should we want Anas Sarwar as First Minister? If one Labour Party government has been a complete shambles over the last year and a bit, surely two would be a disaster?

Peter Ovenstone, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire

Borrowed despair

I’m uneasy about any government borrowing money. It’s done by politicians who will not be around when it has to be repaid and it simply lumbers future generations with our failures today. I’m even more uneasy about a Scottish Government borrowing money. They will waste it with their extravagances and repeated failures.

But why do they need to borrow? They keep telling us how rich Scotland is and how we send money down south. Surely they should be thinking of paying off our debt given their statements about fairness and equity. It would be fair to future generation that we didn’t land them with more debt, and equitable to give them the same opportunities we have.

No doubt we will hear about not having all the levers at our disposal (levers that our Finance Minister has never seen fit to identify), but if the SNP ever got these levers, the cost of borrowing would unquestionably increase. There is no good news in borrowing.

Ken Currie, Edinburgh

Rewriting history

Apparently, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland have partly financed a book called Carved in Stone: A Storyteller's Guide to the Picts, which makes out that “black monks, religious healers and ordinary villagers” lived in what was Pictland before 1,000AD. It is, apparently, going to be given to schools and libraries in Scotland. The aim is to say to our young people that Scotland was “just as multicultural and socially diverse as it is today”, which is completely untrue.

Indeed, the Picts were very good at keeping other people out, even other northern European people like the Northumbrians and Vikings, let alone black people

I suspect that whoever wrote the book will refer to accounts of “Black Heathens” in early medieval records as justification for their incorrect assumptions. If so, it should be instantly clarified that such “Black Heathens” and “Black Gentiles” who were mentioned in 851AD and 987AD were actually Scandinavians, not Africans. In fact, the terms contrasted with “White Gentiles”, who were also Scandinavians and the term simply distinguished one lot of Vikings from another. That is a far cry from portrayals of Africans living in Pictland! This book badly needs correcting.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Curtains for drama

The return to the TV schedules of Play for Today, a series that was originally broadcast between 1970 and 1984, brought to mind a BBC production in similar vein which was broadcast in summer 1975, 50 years ago.

Eleventh Hour was a series of ten one-off programmes, each of which followed a different group (writer, director and production team) who, over six days and starting with a blank sheet of paper, wrote and produced a 30-minute play. The programme showed the creative process, then broadcast the play performed live.

I particularly remember a play called The Boundary by Tom Stoppard and Clive Exton which was set in a lexicographer’s library. The main character’s work on a dictionary is unexpectedly disrupted by a nearby cricket match. Is there no space in the many channels today for a revival of this programme, which combined a fascinating insight into the creative process with gentle, light drama? Or must all TV drama involve some combination of murders, “celebrities” and special effects?

George Rennie, Inverness

Scrum dancing

At the recent International Rugby Match at Murrayfield the New Zealand All Blacks, although playing in white, danced their haka, a traditional Maori war dance designed to intimidate the enemy prior to battle. Could the Scottish rugby team not demonstrate their pride in nationality with a similar display?

A massed sword dance would be appropriate, but I fear police would, quite rightly, object to the use of dangerous weapons in a public place.

How about the selected team, plus one other, performing either a sixteensome or two eightsome reels in the middle of the pitch? Or better still, a massed Highland Fling?

Such a display would demonstrate the high degree of national pride in the Scottish team, together with a fine display of nimble footwork.

How about it, Gregor Townsend?

Sandy Macpherson, Edinburgh

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