IT is irritating that so many opponents of Scottish independence pretend that history started only when the SNP became the majority at Holyrood. Like Donald Lewis (Letters, December 9), these people use this limited timescale to blame all contemporary economic or social problems on the SNP. Mr Lewis’s attribution of the crisis in the NHS to Nicola Sturgeon is typical of this approach.
The most important deterioration of the NHS started when the Thatcher Government allowed Sir Keith Joseph to indulge his fantasies and impose a business management structure on the NHS.
The application of a myopic business economic approach led to such absurdities as vacant beds being treated as financial liabilities so that future hospitals were designed with a reduced spare capacity. The folly was compounded when the Blair Government supported the disaster if PFI.
The likely success of the “business” approach is well illustrated by the triumphs of Enron, Northern Rock, British Home Stores, Carillion, Bank of Scotland, RBS and many others.
Peter Dryburgh, Edinburgh.
POWER PRIORITY IS COST-CUTTING
AREAS of the country were left without electricity for up to a week as a result of weather-related damage to power lines. Younger people are probably at a loss to understand why restoration of supply is taking so long but it has come as no surprise to those of us whose experience dates back to the years before 1990 when the supply industry was part of the public sector.
In those good old days maintenance and repairs were the responsibility of local staff who knew the network intimately and were able to attend to damage without undue delay and without cost constraints. They had a sense of ownership of the system assets in their territory; they knew locations that were vulnerable during severe weather and made sure that adequate spare poles. insulators, fittings and access equipment were held locally. Linesmen even accumulated what they referred to as “squirrel stores” of spares of which their managers were often unaware.
After the industry was privatised by the Thatcher Government the priority became cost-cutting for the benefit of shareholders rather than operational performance. Local in-house teams were replaced by contractors whose staff had scant knowledge of local networks and would cover extensive geographical areas. Those local “squirrel stores” have gone and spares may have to be procured from distant locations as far away as China.
Unless the public is to be faced with the staggering cost of building power networks robust enough to withstand extremes of severe weather, extended power failures will become a way of life due to depleted restoration resources. The UK Government appears to regard the problem as one which should be addressed by Ofgem, the economic regulator of energy markets rather than by the engineers who made this country world leaders in planning, developing and operating the electricity grid in the good old days.
Willie Maclean, Milngavie.
A CENTRALISED SOLUTION
WITH COP26 recently held in Glasgow, and the awareness of the urgent need to cut carbon dioxide emissions to slow the increase in world temperature, it is interesting to look back to 1946 when the first high flats in Glasgow were designed by the then director of housing and overseen by the city architect.
Not only was it a visionary project, built on a high piece of ground in Cardonald, but it incorporated a feature that would lend itself to reducing global warming. I speak of a centralised heating system supplying all the flats.
In those days the heat source was not a heat pump with bore holes drilled deep in the ground underneath, but today’s architects and engineers could build this system into developments of flats whether for social or private housing. Solar panels could supplement the heat generated from deep bore holes to provide hot water and central heating.
Excess power could be sold to the Grid during the summer.
The costs would be low since it would be incorporated within the development in the build stage, as in Moss Heights, and relatively inexpensive to run, emitting no toxic fumes.
It is worthwhile looking to the past.
John Ewing, Ayr.
HALT THE WOKE, REPAIR THE BROKE
I RECENTLY entered my ninth decade and honestly can’t quite believe it. I thought by this time I would have laid the pen to rest and relaxed in the company of a single malt. However, I despair at where this once-proud nation is heading. Sensible voices and alarm signals are continually ignored. Social tragedies occur with regular monotony. Inquiry after inquiry will tell us that “lessons have been learned and it will not happen again”. Invariably it does.
We are at the beck and call of vociferous minorities who are given disproportionate time on the airwaves to express views that are not necessarily universally beneficial or indeed helpful.
The film and print media spend an inordinate amount of time pursuing political correctness and the foibles of politicians of all shades. Perhaps if they, the press, concentrated and reported more vigorously on the problems of poverty, child abuse and the crumbling infrastructure that surrounds us we would not have the horrendous social problems that exist. Politicians would have to react positively. Is there not a tsunami of mental and other health issues about to engulf the NHS?
The benefits of a high-tech society are largely being ill-used and abused, much to the detriment of all, particularly the most vulnerable amongst us.
Despite my concerns, the world is a wonderful place and it is great to be alive, but something needs to be done and quickly, to halt the woke and repair the broke.
Dan Edgar, Rothesay.
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