Letters: Return after ten years away from home heartbreaking

I RETURNED to my home city Edinburgh with the belief I would see it as I left it ten years ago. I cannot express enough my sheer disbelief and shock at what I was seeing.

I arrived at Haymarket, which was unrecognisable with so many road works taking place. For me it was an absolute dump.

Princes Street, once one of the most elegant streets in the world, looked like a shanty town.

What has happened to the souvenir shops once packed with produce made in Scotland and now filled with merchandise made in China?

What a compliment for Scotland. What on earth has gone wrong?

To think years ago our forefathers worked long and hazardous hours keeping Edinburgh in its original state with the view that the next generation would continue with the same pride.

The Lord Provost and the city fathers lack the necessary knowledge and experience.

Alex Salmond lives in a fairyland with his “Yes” vote. Does he think whisky, oil and a few haggises thrown in will keep the country ticking?

It will never survive without the aid and support of England. I left Edinburgh truly broken-hearted.

William McEwen, Cologne, Germany

Don’t help club that owes taxman

Yet again we have local and Scottish national politicians queuing up to offer assistance to a private company. I have no difficulty with supporters of Heart of Midlothian FC digging into their pockets to try to prevent their football club following Glasgow Rangers into administration due to mismanagement.

Recent on-field successes for both clubs have been secured while tax responsibilities have not been met, and the thought that any time, effort and financial support be expended by elected officials is quite simply obscene.

Surely the efforts of politicians in Edinburgh should be directed to returning this city to one deserving of a world heritage mantle rather than discussing ways in which they can rescue an employer which continually fails to meet its obligations to their employees and the public purse.

James McNeill, Gilmerton Dykes Crescent, Edinburgh

Old soldier’s tale revealed my luck

I READ your story about Harold Ewen (News, November 8). My father was in the 5th KOSB’s C company in that very place and was fortunate to survive the war.

We used to get Christmas cards from Dutch families long after the war and I still have some of them.

I did write to the address on some of them but I knew it was a long shot – it was a long time ago and my father would be 100 years old if he was still here.

Your story brought back fond memories for me and let me realise how lucky I was he returned home to bring up his three sons.

Robert Jenkins, Broxburn

Divisions more serious than Dan

YOU report that the city council education authority has withdrawn a cartoon of Diamond Dan, the Orange Man, from a city school (News, November 9) because, although this was unknown to the school teachers and probably the pupils, it is used as an emblem of a lawful organisation – the Orange Order of Northern Ireland.

I, and many others, are much more concerned about the religious divisions between our publicly funded city schools and about the religious imagery that is to be found in many of them.

When will the education authority take decisive action to remove these images and the educationally impoverishing and divisive environment that they produce?

Norman Bonney, Palmerston Place, Edinburgh

Children deserve an education

there are fears that Castlebrae High School will not be replaced.

Areas such as Craigmillar have been chosen for regeneration and so far new houses and a joint new primary school have been the result. But now we have to take one more step forward, with the rebuilding of Castlebrae High School.

No matter what the results are on how the pupils are achieving, the real issue is about them being able to get an education at the very least.

Chas Dennis, Niddrie Marischal Road, Edinburgh