Letters: ‘Gloves are off for the Boxing Day sales’

Only hours on from the big day itself, it’s quite clear the Christmas spirit, including goodwill to all men and all that, has vanished.

From the dog-eat-dog displays I saw from crazed shoppers scrapping to get their hands on the must-have items on sale, they must have ignored the tidings of comfort and joy and spent Christmas Day sharpening their elbows and practising their best girns in the mirror.

The retailers started beating the drum with full-page ads showing what bargains they have to entice shoppers who probably have better places to put their cash in these difficult times.

Some high street firms have been bleating about sales in the run-up to Christmas.

Well, if they can afford to make these huge cuts on items they proudly advertise, they can surely afford to make everything in general a more reasonable price.

That way shops could have a more consistent performance through the year rather than all the peaks and troughs. And we could perhaps return to a more civilised form of shopping.

Shona Mitchell, Dalry Road, Edinburgh

Extracting shale gas is dangerous

I SEE that those most consistent climate-change deniers Otto Inglis and Clark Cross have been taking to your letters pages to extol the benefits of shale gas exploitation, or “fracking” as it is known.

It is like a late-night extension to an office Christmas lunch, when most folks have gone home to their beds, leaving one or two drink-soaked revellers, desperately trying to eke out the evening that was, in denial of the new and different day that is to come.

Shale gas, like coal and oil before it, is a finite resource, damaging and dangerous to extract, and a diversion from the long-term need to secure an energy future for Scotland based on massive efficiency gains and clean renewable energy.

Gavin Corbett, Green councillor for Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart

No reply to my council inquiry

It would appear that local authorities having to be open and transparent with their electorate does not apply to Edinburgh City Council.

Since early October, I have contacted two of my councillors, raising several points of concern within the East Neighbourhood.

Neither has replied. As a result I contacted council leader Andrew Burns, complaining about both the councillors failing to see my inquiry through to conclusion.

On two occasions I was promised a reply shortly. Again no reply from anyone. Why? What does the management at the East Neighbourhood have to hide?

They are accountable to both councillors and residents, yet they are never held to account by those very councillors who are elected to represent their constituents.

David Black, Kenmure Avenue, Edinburgh