Readers' letters: Modern schooling takes a strange turn

The prurient school census proposed in Scotland, which ten local authorities will, quite rightly, be ignoring tie in with the SNP’s wish to control our children.

The intrusive “health and wellbeing census” asks about such things as 14 year-olds’ sexual experiences of kissing, as well as oral, vaginal and anal sex.

In my childhood, schools were interested in how I performed in English, mathematics and other subjects that related to my education.

Luckily, we did not then have an administration with an agenda based on knowing all our most personal sexual experiences.

The main problem with this proposal is one of consent, of course. I am not aware of any mention being made of the parents being consulted in this matter and they have to agree before any such census can be held.

Parents are perfectly within their rights to refuse to allow their children to be subjected to such an appalling infringement of their privacy. However, the SNP already have form when it comes to ignoring and over-riding parents’ wishes.

However, I think I have found a solution. All members of the SNP at Holyrood should complete the same “health and wellbeing census” and the results should be published and names named. I am sure that they will be delighted to do so.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh.

Putting the wind up nuclear power plants

Poor old wind turbines, and uranium miners for that matter. I never thought I would feel so sorry for them since reading critics’ letters. Who would have known that wind turbines are so unreliable, generating power only 18.7 per cent of the time?

Contrast that with Hunterston "B" producing cheap carbon neutral electricity for 46 years while also heating the sea with 66 per cent efficiency. (No global warming there, then).

It was also a very thrifty power station, only burning ¼ per cent of the uranium used to fuel it, very safe – no accidents. Shame about the uranium miners though.

Their death rate was several times that of even coal miners, but not in this country - so probably we won't be visiting their graves.

Now if there's anything worse than a nuclear power station you can't switch on and off quickly, (remember Chernobyl?) it's a wind turbine electricity system that doesn't work because the government can't be bothered to store surplus wind energy.

No storage facilities then? Let's just burn Norwegian natural gas. All the fault of the poor wind turbines.

Henryk Belda, Penicuik.

Sharing memories of SSAFA anniversary

SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity has had many memorable anniversaries since Major James Gildea founded the-then Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association in 1885.

One anniversary that SSAFA is particularly proud to celebrate takes place in 2022. This year sees the 130th anniversary of the inauguration of SSAFA nurses – then called the Alexandra Nurses. Established in 1892, they provided professional care to the wives and families of soldiers and sailors in garrison and seaport towns across the world.

To mark the anniversary I am inviting readers to tell us about their family connection to our SSAFA nurses

Please send your stories and photographs to [email protected] or by post to the address below with the envelope marked SSAFA Nursing 130 by March 30.

Sir Andrew Gregory, CEO of SSAFA, Queen Elizabeth House, 4 St Dunstan's Hill, London EC3R 8AD

Write to the Edinburgh Evening News

We welcome your thoughts. Write to [email protected] including name, address and phone number – we won't print full details. Keep letters under 300 words, with no attachments. If referring to an article, include date, page number and heading.

A message from the Editor

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription. Click on this link for more information.