Letters: Labour in no position to lecture about trams waste

IT was rich of Donald Anderson to accuse Jenny Dawe of incompetence and overspending on the trams project (Letters, May 14).

Anderson was the leader of a previous Labour council which not only introduced the trams project against the wishes of the people if Edinburgh but was responsible for the inadequate legal contract to build it.

It was Anderson and Labour who squandered millions on the congestion charging referendum, the road traffic management scheme, CERT and the rail station under the airport runway, and the council housing stock transfer referendum.

The council was warned that these ideas were being badly handled and would fail.

The last Lib Dem/SNP council was equally inept and squandered our money. It is laughable that the council forecast an operating profit for the trams in the future when it is clear the people of Edinburgh will not use them.

I am certain the new Labour/SNP administration will prove just as incompetent as its predecessors, and will equally ignore the electors.

A Shiels, Milton Road, Edinburgh

Let’s show them how to behave

I would like to take issue with David Bruce (Letters, May 16)), who implies in his letter that Hearts and Hibs fans can somehow not be trusted to travel together to Glasgow for the cup final.

He suggests they do not get on and that there is likely to be trouble even waiting in the queues at Waverley or Haymarket. This is ridiculous. Is he, I wonder, a closet Old Firm fan secretly hoping for trouble?

Let us show that bigoted pair in Glasgow how real fans behave.

Even here in civilised Edinburgh families can have divided loyalties as myself, my son and grandson will be in the Hearts end and my son-in-law and daughter-in-law and her mother will be in the Hibs end, while her father will be in the Hearts end.

And hopefully we will still be on talking terms on Sunday!

Scott Miller, Coillesdene Avenue, Joppa, Edinburgh

SNP wants the perks of power

THE decision by the SNP to go into coalition in Perth, East Ayrshire, Dumfries and Midlothian is deeply disappointing.

The truth is the SNP wants power, that’s why it has held the referendum back for eight years – it wants the high salaries of being in power at Holyrood and local authorities at any cost.

Dave Cochrane, Spottiswoode Street, Edinburgh

Poor reaction to reactor shutdown

INSTEAD of congratulating EDF on the safe automatic shutdown of one of its nuclear reactors at Torness (a result no doubt of the way it was designed), Alison Johnstone complains that it wasn’t announced soon enough and sees that as a symptom of secrecy (“MSP hits out at nuclear firm secrecy”, News, May 16).

Surely her reaction is a sign of anti-nuclear prejudice and paranoia. She describes it as a problem “on our doorstep”. I think that she is the problem.

Steuart Campbell, Dovecot Loan, Edinburgh

No benefit from booze price plan

THE Scottish Government’s plan to bring in minimum pricing for alcohol will bring no benefits to society in general.

There is no empirical evidence to suggest that it will make any difference to problem drinking – those who drink to a degree where they harm themselves, their families and society will continue to do so, just as they always have.

Responsible drinkers among the poorest of society will suffer. The only beneficiaries of this government-imposed cartelism will be alcohol sellers and control-obsessed politicians.

This is another prohibitionist move, following the smoking ban in pubs and other anti-tobacco measures, to wrest our autonomy from all of us.

The job of politicians is to represent people, not to manage them.

Michael Davidson, chairman, Freedom to Choose (Scotland), Edinburgh