Readers' letters: Lib Dems' energy aid plans are not enough

The Lib Dem proposals to help with high energy bills (Alex Cole-Hamilton, News, 10 August) is a temporary sticking plaster on decades of the UK’s failed energy policies particularly when compared to Norway.

The Norwegian government is increasing the electricity subsidy for households to 90 per cent and France is capping electricity price increases at 4 per cent while UK energy prices are twice the EU average.

Alex Cole-Hamilton doesn’t address why energy-rich Scotland is suffering fuel poverty as part of the Union, with consumers paying the highest standing charges in the UK.

And our renewable industries are paying the highest grid connections in Europe, when Scotland’s North Sea has the potential to become the cheap green energy hub of Europe.

Labour had from 1997 to 2010 to re-nationalise the energy industry and reinstate British National Oil Corporation but Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were too frightened of upsetting the City.

Scottish Power was bought by the Spanish firm Iberdrola in 2006 and the sale was approved by the UK Labour Government. In 2013 the Tory/Lib Dem government removed the Scottish Parliament’s powers in respect of renewables obligation in Scotland.

Last week MP Kenny MacAskill was lamenting that UK National Grid was directing almost half of the output from the massive Berwick Bank Offshore Wind farm, located in the outer Firth of Forth, directly to Blyth in England without any benefit for Scotland.

The economies in Denmark, Norway and Ireland are not forecast to go into recession but to grow over the next few years, while Scotland is once again paying the price of being in the Union.

Fraser Grant, Edinburgh.

Tough to get action on bridge closures

The latest bridge closure (Third ‘deteriorating’ bridge across Water of Leith closed’, News, 9 August) means all footbridges on Longstone Community Council's boundary are closed.

The footbridge over the Murray Burn at Burnside beside the former Longstone Inn (it leads to Stenhouse and is a right of way) has been closed for several years, allegedly because it is unsafe.In the latter case, ownership is disputed but denied by the City Council. Consequently LCC has found it difficult to get anything done, but we still try.

Steuart Campbell, Secretary LCC, Edinburgh.

Inglorious Twelfth

The Inglorious Twelfth marks the start of the shooting season, during which 750,000 red grouse will be blasted in the name of “sport”.

It’s a shameful pursuit that involves cruelty, kills many species and contributes to the climate catastrophe.

In this blood sport, which continues until December, “beaters” prowl moorland and drive grouse from their homes, straight into the line of fire. Falcons, owls, eagles and other protected raptors who are the grouse’s natural predators may also be killed to ensure plenty of birds are available. Other animals, such as badgers, suffer and die in traps laid by landowners.

Shooting “parties” pay up to £14,000 a day for their pleasure, and almost all use toxic lead ammunition which poisons wildlife. Heather is also burned to boost grouse populations, releasing hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from the underlying peat – a carbon sink.

Gunning down animals for pleasure has no place in our society, and this senseless massacre should be banned for the sake of all animals and the planet.

Jennifer White, PETA, London.

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