Hoping our MSPs won’t force through national police plan

Now that the Scottish Parliament is back in session it is to be hoped that our MSPs will ponder the responses to the official consultation which was held on the future of Scotland’s police forces. As a former MP I took part in the consultation.

The responses were published and the result was an overwhelming rejection of a Scottish National Police Force.

You are right to say that Scotland is not a big country (An opportunity that we cannot dismiss lightly, News, August 29) but wrong to argue for replacing our forces throughout Scotland with a chief of police based in Edinburgh, with his or her commanders based, presumably, around Scotland.

I believe we have been generally been well served by our policemen and women in Lothian and Borders and throughout Scotland but the police are not angels and sometimes one or a group of officers get things badly wrong and, of course, corruption occasionally occurs. In a single all-Scotland national force this could be very serious indeed. Such a structure would threaten our civil liberties in the future.

Rank and file officers and Scotland’s Chief Constables (with a few exceptions) are also against a Scottish National Police Force. We look to our Holyrood politicians to rule out the option of a single national force in Scotland.

Gavin Strang , Western Harbour Place, Newhaven, Edinburgh

Time everyone pulled together

Now that the trams project has undergone yet another dramatic twist on its farcical journey to completion it is surely the time for all the sniping, negativity and procrastination to come to an end and for those responsible to call a truce, work in unison and make a concerted effort to complete the project once and for all.

It may be very difficult all things considered but if those who have swithered and dithered can somehow put their differences and egos aside it may still be possible for them to not only save the reputation of the city but also themselves.

Who knows, by the time Glasgow hosts the Commonwealth Games in 2014 Edinburgh might at long last have a trams system it can be proud of, even though it will have cost so much in the way of upheaval, heartache and, of course, money.

Angus McGregor, Albion Road, Edinburgh

On wrong track with religion

What was the point of the Reverend Richard Frazer leading prayers in the council tram debate on Friday, quoting Luke 19:41 (“Jesus wept”) and urging councillors to “form their own opinions”?

Did he think that he would make any difference? Does the council think that religious sentiment is either necessary or useful to its debates? Let’s get off the religious track; religion has no place in civil government.

Steuart Campbell, Dovecot Loan, Edinburgh

Feeling deflated after poor Tattoo

I noted your photo of the fireworks taken on the last night of the Tattoo (News, August 30).

I attended the Tattoo and found it to be the worst I have been to. First World War uniforms on bikes, sorting a puncture. Dancers, although quite good, not in Irish dress. A boxing boat invasion, sailors running up and down with a gun and a man signing Auld Lang Syne who looked like a roadsweeper without his brush.

The pipes and drums are the main attraction. Their presence should be prominent but they were not, which I am sure must have disappointed many tourists, myself included. This is our own Scottish festival and a brass band is not the music for which Scotland is famous. It may have sold a lot of tickets but many of those buying them would not know what they were getting until they got there. I was one.

This Tattoo was nothing to write home about. Quite pathetic. Whoever put this together needs to find another job or get their act together before next year. We do not want any repeats of this year.

Pipes and drums playing alone, as it has always been.

T Scott, High Street, Kirkcaldy, Fife