Readers' letters: Pious strip club closures are wrong

Not for the first time, I am in disagreement with my former colleague, Cllr Cameron Rose, who yet again takes a pious approach to so many matters, this time on the future of Edinburgh's strip clubs.

When I served on the council's Regulatory Committee, I supported the closure of 'saunas' in our city. It was clear these were places which did operate some form of illegal activity.

Although I do not frequent such establish-ments, I do know that strip clubs are well regulated and organised, where the safety and wellbeing of women is paramount.

Cllr Rose has no evid-ence, even as a long retired police officer, that strip clubs exploit women or where there is the potential of prostitution taking place.

Having experienced a pandemic where so many people have lost their jobs and businesses have closed, I would have thought that, as a fiscal Conservative, Cllr Rose would understand the argument that a perfectly legal part of the hospitality sector should be allowed to continue and contribute to helping our economy recover. And let women work as they choose.

Dominic RC Heslop, Conservative Councillor.

We need a windfall tax on energy profits

Oil giant BP has reported that for the first three months of this year profits have more than doubled as oil and gas prices soar.

With an underlying profit of £4.9 billion, compared to £2.1bn in the same period last year, this is well ahead of expectations. It is no wonder that BP boss, Bernard Looney, described his company as a ‘cash machine’.

Rising profits have naturally renewed calls for a one-off windfall tax on energy companies to help UK households grappling with rising household bills.

While gas prices have increased fivefold from pre-pandemic and oil prices almost doubled as economies open up, the choice for many, pushed into fuel poverty, will be between heating and eating.

The pockets of the oil companies are deep, having profited from higher wholesale prices, and a one-off windfall tax on excess profits on fossil fuel giants helping hard-pressed households cope with record energy bills is urgently required.

Alex Orr, Edinburgh.

Cost-of-living help

Why will the SNP govern-ment not do more to help with the cost-of-living crisis? It has responsibility for most benefits. Why not increase them?

Council tax could have been held with a £90m payment to local government. Why no help? The SNP failed to deliver the promised not for profit energy company after spending over £500,000.

If one of the costly blunders by the SNP had been prevented we could have had a 10 per cent reduction in council tax rather than an increase.

Is this what independ-ence looks like, costly failure after failure, the only difference being SNP would be in charge and couldn't blame the rest of the UK for its mistakes and inaction?

Alastair Murray, Edinburgh.

Mask use unmasked

The wearing of masks is still being promoted by some people despite the mandate being dropped. An old news item recently came to my attention. In New South Wales in 2003 the Fair Trade Minister threatened fines of up to $110,000 against retailers promoting unrealistic claims for masks against SARS.

The action was based on a study from the Dept of Infectious Diseases in Sydney which found after just 15 minutes masks became useless as they were saturated with moisture from a person's breath.

Geoff Moore, Alness.

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.