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I, a member of the Church of Scotland, suggest that there is a significant challenge for all Christians, no matter their denomination, in what Pope Leo says.
For instance, he points out: “The wealth of the few continues to grow exponentially while the gap between rich and poor increases.”
So he calls for a “renewed commitment to fixing the structural causes of poverty, while providing unquestioning charity to those who need it.”
For those who insist that politics and religion do not mix, I point out that the Pope says: “We must never forget that religion, especially the Christian religion, cannot be limited to the private sphere, as if believers had no business making their voice heard with regard to problems affecting civil society.”
John Milne, Uddingston.
More letters…
Pop records are appalling
Leonard win will mean Scottish Labour will be even more in thrall to Westminster
Lobbying of the victim support industry has led to more cases of injustice
Money lost on changing room row
Has Sandie Peggie (“Peggie employment tribunal judgement looms as key deliberations begin”, The Herald, October 15) given a thought to the resources NHS Fife could have provided for its patients with the hundreds of thousands of pounds it is currently having to spend?
Cathy Baird, Dunipace.
Affordable was unaffordable
Robert Frazer (Letters, October 7) states that following the Welsh tax hike on second homes, no local people wanted to take advantage of the newly expanded market “no matter how much prices fell”.
Some data on the situation would be useful, particularly regarding why people declined the apparent opportunity.
Some 15 years ago, the Highland Small Communities’ Housing Trust investigated the possibility of building some houses for affordable rent at Achiltibuie, following the offer, for free, of a site for that purpose.
The study confirmed an evident need for affordable housing, but also a depressed economy with limited employment and low wage rates.
Consequently the level of rent required to enable the development would be greater than what could be afforded by those who needed the housing, and the proposal was abandoned at that time.
Taxation on second homes may, or may not, be particularly relevant, but what is clear is that serious investment in affordable housing is a prerequisite for the maintenance and economic development of rural communities.
Allan Graham, Ullapool.
Red letter day for Royal Mail
I note that Royal Mail are being fined for not meeting delivery targets (“Royal Mail fined £21m by watchdog for missing mail delivery targets”, The Herald, October 15).
In previous letters to The Herald I have raised issues I’ve had with weekly magazines arriving over a week late, or in many cases going missing; one monthly magazine regularly took up to eleven days to arrive, and on one occasion twenty-one days.
It is a standing joke with my postman about such delays, which he can’t help.
Then there’s mail which goes missing; car road fund renewal which never appeared, for example, and several documents relating to my retirement.
Where do they all go? Is there a depot somewhere with a huge backlog which is dumped occasionally?
I wonder if Ofcom is investigating further, and forcing Royal Mail to explain delays, and where missing mail ends up.
There should also be an effort to force Royal Mail to make it easier to raise issues with their abysmal customer services.
Douglas Jardine, Bishopbriggs.
Attraction of attic
It was a pleasure to read the letter of your correspondent Michael Sheridan (Letters, October 8), on the contribution which Latin and Attic Greek have made to our language.
With the neglect of those subjects – thanks to their disappearance from the curriculum of most schools apart from a privileged few – there has been an impoverishment in awareness of connections between related words.
Unless some attempt is made to reintroduce elements of classical education into our schools, an appreciation of the value of those two languages – derided as dead languages in certain quarters by those with an agenda of their own, centred round their holy grail of relevance – will be lost.
Here are a few words which we use in English today, unchanged from their appearance in Latin, and only by transliteration from Attic Greek… Latin has given us arena, bonus, circus, data, extra, and so many more.
Crisis, coma, hubris, nous, phenomenon and trauma are words we have absorbed into our vocabulary, along with so many others, from Greek.
We must not forget the many derivatives we owe to single Latin words. I will restrict myself to the following list: abject, conjecture, dejected, eject, inject, object, project, reject and subject.
You can see the ‘ject’ element within all the above words, and I could multiply the examples of such groups of words, taken from single Latin words, but that one example from the Latin verb ‘to throw’ must suffice.
I could easily expand upon this topic, though space dictates that I only provide you with just a few examples, to whet your appetite.
So I will not bore you by presenting you with examples from both those languages, ad infinitum, or perhaps you might say ad nauseam.
What we do not want to do here is to reduce this topic ad absurdum.
Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs.
Facing the music
I note two recent Herald articles about the ludicrous price of live music.
First, Donald Shaw, creative producer of Celtic Connects indicated that dynamic pricing won’t be applied to any Celtic Connections performance (“Boss of Celtic Connections speaks out on dynamic pricing”, The Herald, October 15).
Second, Shirley Manson of the band Garbage has told audiences that acts such as her group simply can’t afford to tour America (“Singer Manson blasts cost of tours in US”, The Herald, October 15), leaving audiences with only Taylor Swift type shows, which cost hundreds of dollars/pounds to attend.
On behalf of poor (literally ) concert and gig attendees, I thank the more affordable performers, and more power to their Elbow. (Sorry about that.)
Brendan Keenan, Glasgow.
