We desperately needed the positive news of the delivery of the Glen Sannox after the disruption to service over the last five years (“January starting date revealed for new £400m CalMac ferry”, The Herald, December 21). Capacity was down 52 per cent and cancellation up to 14%. The Glen Sannox will be a great boost to island and visitor confidence. The inconvenience of the boat sailing from Troon is manageable in the short term. However, it cannot be the long-term solution.
If Ardrossan closed permanently, it would result in the loss of the 130,000 visitors using the railhead, 200 metres from the dock. Troon is not set up for foot passengers, with the railway station over two kilometres from the dock. This reduction in service and increase in time will have a significant negative impact on an island community and economy that is already under pressure.
To end these seven years of procrastination, the Scottish Government should compulsorily purchase the port to continue with the lifeline ferry service. Transport Scotland should scale back the development plans to include only the essential work to allow safe port operation. We don’t need a new boarding cathedral but a simple ticket office, with basic facilities.
Arran and Ardrossan, like the rest of the country, needs a government decision that supports the communities they serve. Get on with it.
Tom Tracey, Brodick.
• DESPITE the many criticisms of CalMac’s management (mostly criticisms which should be aimed at CMAL or Transport Scotland or Scottish ministers or all three of them), I have not seen them criticised as being dangerous risk-takers. But they have now announced that the long-awaited Arran ferry, Glen Sannox, will become operational on January 13. I know that the 13th is a Monday not a Friday, but nevertheless, given the long and troubled history of her design and construction, is that wise?
At the very least, CalMac should make public its full Risk Assessment of its brave (or foolhardy?) choice of start date.
Alistair Easton, Edinburgh.
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We are being let down by parties that serve only themselves
Shame on them: we will not forget Labour’s act of betrayal
Shame on Labour for Lords move
WHEN is the UK Government going to reform the archaic, bloated, privileged House of Lords as promised in the Labour Party’s manifesto?
Prime Minister Keir Starmer even threatened to scrap it altogether and replace it with a smaller chamber. But in the meantime he’s decided to add to it, announcing last week 30 new Labour peers, including former MPs and loyalists (“Labour duo Curran and Alexander join ex-chief of staff Gray in Lords”, The Herald, December 21).
There are more than 800 unelected inhabitants of the Lords, including business leaders and others who are pally with political parties. The SNP is not represented.
There are 25 bishops, including the Archbishop of Canterbury. Given the current state of the diocese in England amid allegations that sexual improprieties have been ignored for decades, should these men and women of the cloth have automatic entry? The Church of Scotland does not have a seat.
The PM has targeted hereditary peers as the first step in his reform proposals. That will be a lengthy process, as the wealthy heirs, including dukes, earls, viscounts and barons, will fight all the way.
Next up, the Prime Minister wants a mandatory retirement age of 80, despite his appointment of two old friends, former deputy Labour leader Margaret Beckett (81) and Margaret Hodge (80) in July.
Members of the House of Lords are not paid a salary but they do enjoy a £361 per day tax-free attendance allowance and expenses, which costs the taxpayer tens of millions of pounds.
Critics claim many members sign in, rarely sit in the chamber, and don’t speak or vote. Instead the Lords is seen as a “gentleman’s club” by those who enjoy a bottle of wine or two over a subsidised lunch in the Peers’ Dining Room.
This is just another example of the rich, the powerful and the privileged, basically the Establishment, living in a completely different world from the rest of us. Why trust the Labour Party to call final orders when many of its own members have seats for life in the Lords?
Andy Stenton, Glasgow.
Why Starmer had to act
ANDREW Learmonth’s article outlining the appointment of new peers to Parliament was only mildly critical of Keir Starmer in stating that “it comes despite Labour promising to reform the House of Lords”. Other media outlets sympathetic to the nationalist cause have been incandescent with rage and, as is their wont, vitriolic in condemnation of this news.
What the critics deliberately fail to acknowledge is that in order to pass any legislation in the UK Parliament, the consent of the Lords is essential.
Even with these new additions to the peerage, a Conservative majority of 62 in the Lords remains.
Few Tory peers are likely to vote for any legislation to abolish the Upper House. Consequently, Keir Starmer will need a further tranche of appointments to pass bills reforming Parliament’s second chamber.
Currently I am retired and due to a recent bout of sciatica I am unable to play golf. Combined with the loss of the winter fuel payment and being relatively immobile, perhaps Santa Keir could gift me a warm, comfortable seat in the soft, red benches of the House of Lords.
James Quinn, Lanark.
Brexit still not properly done
RE Barry Docherty’s eulogy of the Herald’s Brexiterfinder-General, Ian McConnell (Letters, December 23): the latter argued, in naïve “post hoc ergo propter hoc” fashion, that the UK’s present economic woes are largely down to Brexit.
Yet the Tories didn’t “get Brexit done”, their lazy then-minister Jacob Rees-Mogg not even seeing to it that VAT was symbolically renamed, let alone breaching its EU-imposed rate-floors, so detrimental to consumers. Our potential outside the EU straitjacket remains, and for those who argue that free trade with anyone anywhere is our natural right, Brexit is a step in the right direction.
George Morton, Rosyth.
Churches must never be silent
THIS Christmas we ought to reflect on the circumstances in which the poor Jewish peasant from Nazareth was born, he who went on to challenge the empire and the religious authorities with a message of radical inclusion, love and justice.For which subversion he paid the ultimate price.
On turning to the historical Christmas story we find a story of political power, humanity, inhumanity, people on the move, resilience, refugees, strong women, weak leaders, and terrible violence and of course a new vision for the world.There needs to be more emphasis on these issues; they are very much relevant today.
We Christians must continue the work of Jesus by challenging the powers, the Roman Empire having been replaced by the Anglo-American “Empire” supplying arms and substantial economic aid to Israel without which Netanyahu could not so decimate the Palestinian population (“Death toll in the Gaza Strip tops 45,000 after 14 months of Israeli strikes”, The Herald, December 17). Furthermore the religious authorities of Jesus’s day are replaced by the extremist ethno-nationalists who have considerable influence within his government.
I recommend that your readers read Decolonizing Palestine by Mitri Raheb (Palestinian theologian, Founder and President of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem). He is a pastor of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church with which the Church of Scotland is in partnership.
In his book Dr Raheb says: “As a Palestinian whose roots are in this land, I hear the biblical call to be kind to the Israeli incomers, but I vehemently resist being called a stranger and being made an alien in my homeland or discriminated against politically by Israel or theologically by Christians or Jews”.
With the Christian churches being insufficiently vociferous, Garth Hewitt (Honorary Canon St George’s Cathedral, Jerusalem) is right to suggest we pray “May we never be silent. May our churches never be silent.”
John Milne, Uddingston.
Big isn’t beautiful
IT’S the end of 2024 and as I look towards 2025 I ask myself what would I like for 2025. A simple thing for a simple soul comes to mind. I’d like to read the Brian Taylor column without having to revert to the Oxford English Dictionary. This week’s big word (“Keir Starmer has handed Scottish Labour a bumper Christmas hamper of problems”, The Herald, December 23) was “caravanseria”. Come on Brian, gie us folk that haven’t swallowed a dictionary for breakfast a break.
David McKay, Newton Mearns.
Sir Keir Starmer has announced 30 new Labour peers (Image: PA)
Christmas lament
THE word “Xmas” appears to have superseded Christmas in our language. Christmas is the universal celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. How and why has this been diluted to Xmas? Perhaps the first letter of that word provides the answer. Excess in overindulgence, stress, expenditure and debt. That is certainly not the spirit of Christmas, which should remind us of the real possibility of peace now, on Christmas Day and all eternity.
Allan Steele, Giffnock.
Heavenly Scotland
AS a footnote to the numerous recent letters on the existence of God, may I offer a story that I heard many years ago and believe to be true?
Jock, a thoroughly decent man but a convinced atheist, dies. Much to his surprise, he finds himself standing in front of a fine set of Pearly Gates, bathed in ethereal light, with a distinguished chap wearing a fine golden robe, and carrying a clipboard, standing at its side.
“Jock,” says the gentlemen sternly, “The Big Yin wants tae see ye.”
Humbly Jock enters, and by way of a fine golden staircase he makes his way upwards to an area of luminance, peace, and calm, that was much at odds with the gate guardian’s sternness.
A barely embodied voice demands, but in a kindly tone: “Weel ,Jock, What have ye got tae say tae yersel?”
“Ah’m sorry, Lord,” replies Jock, “Ah didnae ken.”
“Weel, ye ken noo,” thunders the voice, much more sternly.
Thus proving that Scotland is not only heaven but that God is a Scotsman.
John Jamieson, Ayr.