Readers' letters: At Darroch school with the Connerys

At Darroch school with the Connerys

Neil and Sean Connery both attended Darroch Secondary School, in Gilmore Place. In 1986 I held the first of Darroch former pupils association re-unions.

Of course, I invited both the Connerys. Sean's PA answered saying he was filming at that date. But, through John Gibson, Neil phoned me.

However, he asked if he could come along, and he did! He kept us entranced with his stories and we almost had to evict him at the end of the night!

We walked outside to his car, there was a Mini and a Mercedes, and I said " I guess this is your car, pointing at the Mercedes, and he said " no that's my Mini." Laughter all round!

A true Darrochian! Sad to hear of his passing. We will enclose an obituary in our next newsletter.

Angela Downie nee Lancashire, Edinburgh.

Cimate change denial is irresponsible

Extrapolating from the current spell of chilly weather to conclude that climate change is therefore not happening is a dangerous falsehood.

A BBC weather report recently showed how our unseasonable cold was mirrored by more extreme relative warmth in southern and eastern Europe.

The Met Office's website for the UK shows anomalies between current average maximums and the average in different 30-year periods. This scientific data prove that the climate is warming.

The EU's Copernicus site does the same for the wider world, as well as illustrating worrying trends in, for example, sea ice cover.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has consistently warned of the linkage between human activity and unsustainable rises in global temperatures.

But it's not just about theory. Bangladesh is faced with the encroachment of sea water which is already devastating crops in coastal areas; and low lying islands are losing access to drinking water as sea water contaminates local supplies.

People in these situations are in crisis, and will find it ever harder to be able to live where they do now.

We might wish for a little more warmth here in Scotland, but that wish ought not to blind us to recognising that denying human-led climate change is hugely irresponsible.

Colin Brown, Dudley Gardens, Edinburgh.

Anwar’s off message

Lawyer Aamer Anwar, involved in the Glasgow immigrants case over the weekend, sounded just like an SNP politician.

He told us that we Scots should not have to obey UK immigration law, because we did not vote for this Tory government in London.

So, here we have a lawyer telling us we can choose which laws to comply with or not! Take this logic further; many Scots did not vote for the SNP at Holyrood - so can we choose not to obey laws here? This is dangerous ground!

William Ballantine, Bo'ness.

Animal crackers

A new animal welfare bill is being introduced which will include micro-chipping of pets, the banning of the important of animal trophies, but it does not go nearly far enough and continues to ignore the elephant in the room, along with the cows, pigs and sheep and the many other animals that we exploit for our diet and clothing.

Environmentalism and the role of animal agriculture is like talking about lung cancer and not addressing smoking.

It is madness to choose a diet that causes cruelty and suffering to billions of creatures, threatens our life-support system, the planet and causes us so many health problems when we have a cruelty-free, healthier alternative.

Sandra Busell, Warrender Park Road, Edinburgh.