YESTERDAY my wife and I enjoyed a wonderful afternoon with our three grandchildren (six, eight and nine years old) at an Edinburgh skate park. Can I say that we two were there as supportive spectators!
It was extremely busy, our estimate being that there were 100+ participants using micro-scooters, roller skates, bikes and skateboards, at an age range from about three years old up to one brave soul on a scooter who was well into his sixties!
At one stage we looked around and saw no signs of smoking, cans of fizzy drink, snacking or litter. When I say “no” I mean ZERO! We also saw people, skilful young people, enjoying socially responsible physical activity.
READ MORE: No new Scottish coronavirus deaths but rise in cases ‘to be closely examined’
We saw give and take sharing of the facility across the age groups. This appeared to be an in-built part of skating culture which in “adult” terms would be described as good manners and courtesy.
When you have a chance to visit such an amenity in your area, please take it and rejoice in the potential of this, the generation in waiting.
Could you also perhaps join me in resolving to support our government to the greatest extent we can, as we emerge from Covid, in giving our young people every educational, vocational and social development opportunity possible. In years to come our lead citizens and workforce will come from this group. They need and deserve all the help we can give – now!
Alex Leggatt
Edinburgh
JACOB Rees-Mogg has been rightly castigated for, despite his expensive Eton education, failing in geography and history for not knowing that Scotland is a separate country from our neighbours in the south.
However, on a similar ignorance of fact, our own Scottish Government has declared that crofters per se “are not a community” and therefore are not eligible for assistance in estate buyouts. If crofters are not recognised as a community (Fergus Ewing, letter to Keoldale Sheepstock Club, Durness), then why have there been several Crofting Acts since 1886, regulating – with various degrees of success, and at continuing cost to the public purse – the affairs of a non-existent community body?
The above Club will successfully celebrate its 100 birthday in two years’ time, but the powers-that-be in Edinburgh still do not acknowledge that that is proof that they could manage the land as proprietors.
So much for “giving the land back to the people!” Only, it appears, if they aren’t crofters!
David Morrison
Committee Member, Keoldale Sheepstock Club
SUPPORT for organic farming and locally produced food should top the agenda of the Scottish Parliament’s Agricultural Committee in the interests of public health and the environment.
Mike Small’s excellent article in The Sunday National (The Next Political Battle: The Food We Eat, July 12) highlights ten points in a Soil Association’s report. They range from the EU ban on hormones in beef to GM crops and the use of many chemicals in agriculture with a carcinogenic potential. Will Westminster maintain the current regulations on food safety? Much is at risk.
READ MORE: The next political battle: the food we eat
Follow the money – from day one the aim of Brexit was a no deal. The EU were threatening to examine UK’s tax haven arrangements, a major “no no” for mega wealth. Multinational corporations in the USA have a keen interest in both chemicals and food production on an industrial scale. The issue of what we eat should concern all people, and placing it in a political context leaves only one conclusion. An independent Scotland capable of feeding itself in a rapidly changing environment is the sane answer.
Iain R Thomson
Strathglass
IN response to Brian Quail’s letter (July 9) where he says slavery was not “condemned in sacred texts such as the Upanishad or Dhammapada”, I know the Dhammapada quite well and nowhere, by his implication, does
it condone slavery. It is a very well-known early Buddhist text and is very much about individual responsibility and the equality of ability of all. In fact, it is a well-loved text because of its emphasis on equality.
READ MORE: It's remarkable the great philosophers did not condemn slavery
Additionally, the Buddha (Gautama Siddhartha) came from the highest echelons of the caste system, the Khshatryia caste, that of warriors and nobles. But he totally refuted the caste system and accepted all, from kings to untouchables, without making distinction. Untouchable were more or less slaves, with no rights, shunned, seen as polluting and made to do the worst jobs. They did not even have a caste but were seen as so low to be literally “outcasts”. There is little if any evidence for slavery as we understand it in India at the time; why bother when you have untouchables! So you can not speak out against something that was not there!
This attitude of the Buddha was shocking in India in the fifth century BCE. It still is today, where many Dalits (untouchables) have converted to Buddhism as they are treated as of equal worth. Some have suffered greatly for this conversion, even being killed.
In fact, Burns’s words “the man’s the gawd fir aw that” are very fitting with Buddhism, where any external differences is merely superficial but each is of equal worth and ability.
Crìsdean Mac Fhearghais
Dùn Eideann
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here