Your letters to the Helensburgh Advertiser: December 5, 2019

To have your say on any topic of local interest, all you have to do is email your thoughts to editorial@helensburghadvertiser.co.uk or get in touch with us via the Send Us Your News section of this website.

Please try and keep your contributions as brief and to-the-point as you can, and to provide us with your name and address.

We also require a daytime contact phone number in case we need to check any details at short notice, though this will not be published.

Happy writing!

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With reference to Andy Galloway’s report on the idea of a ‘tourist tax’ (Advertiser, November 28), it is worth recalling that the background to all of this is the vacuum left after area tourist boards were wound up in April 2005.

Back then, neo-liberalism was the shiny new model, and it was widely believed that market forces would deliver whatever was necessary.

Suddenly no one was looking after the public realm side of tourism. VisitScotland began to close down its information centres while increasingly cash strapped local authorities felt they could no longer justify spending on visitor infrastructure like public toilets, car parks, motor home hook ups, litter bins, viewpoints, picnic facilities, interpretation panels, the expensive maintenance of Victorian era steamer piers and the extension and improvement of the footpath network - all essential ingredients for the delivery of a quality visitor experience in 21st century Argyll and Bute.

You didn’t need a crystal ball to forecast what was coming.

Soon, with litter building up in laybys and picnic benches rotting, tourism operators all over Scotland began casting around for some mechanism to deliver the kind of tourism related public realm services which in Argyll and Bute’s case had been so ably discharged by AILSST (Argyll, the Isles, Loch Lomond, Stirling and Trossachs Tourist Board).

At first, dedicated volunteer groups like Lomond and Clyde Tourist Association, made valiant efforts, but without proper funding, these small bodies could never hope to do the work which was needed.

More recently, organisations like Love Loch Lomond were set up with grant aid from Scottish Enterprise, but with marketing as their main focus, these too were never in a position to deliver what was needed.

Still more recently the Argyll and The Isles Tourism Co-operative has been doing some good work, but it also has chosen to concentrate solely on marketing and networking.

In Helensburgh itself, two volunteer efforts to deliver tourism information services have been tried, one in the old Clock Tower and more recently the Helensburgh’s Heroes cafe effort in Sinclair Street. Both have failed for lack of funds and volunteers.

John and Anne Urquhart, Balmillig House B&B, Helensburgh

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READ MORE: Your letters to the Helensburgh Advertiser: November 28, 2019

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It is my view – shared, I believe, by other constituents throughout the country – that the primary function of an MP, regardless of political affiliation and of his or her views on such wider issues as Brexit and whether or not Scotland should become independent, is to promote the local interests and welfare of his/her constituents.

Alan Reid was from 2001 to 2015 the MP for Argyll and Bute, and I am delighted to see that he is standing for re-election on December 12.

I have lived in several parts of the UK, and consider that he was by far the best constituency MP, of any political party, whom I have encountered.

Throughout his time in office he sent out regular leaflets informing us of his movements in the area and of the local issues to which he was giving his attention.

Because of this I wish Mr Reid well in the forthcoming election; all the more so because I am not aware that the constituency has been given anything like the same, or indeed any, attention by the present incumbent who defeated him in the 2015 and subsequent elections.

Peter Waddington, Shore Road, Kilcreggan

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READ MORE: Your letters to the Helensburgh Advertiser: November 21, 2019

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Johan van Zyl, the CEO of Toyota Europe, has said that production of Toyota cars may cease in the UK in 2023 without a suitable deal between the UK and the EU.

This is particularly important for electors in Argyll and Bute, as the Conservative and Unionist candidate is a director of a company which sells and services Toyota cars in Helensburgh.

Businesses have a duty of care to their employees to protect their employment, and to their customers to ensure after sales service includes the availability of parts, etc.

As Gary Mulvaney is standing for the Conservative and Unionist Party – which is prepared to leave the EU without a trading deal – what agreement has he reached with Toyota to ensure that his employees’ employment is protected and that his customers can source Toyota parts without incurring tariffs post-Brexit?

Graeme McCormick (Convener, SNP Dumbarton Constituency Association), Redhouse Cottage, Arden

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READ MORE: Your letters to the Helensburgh Advertiser: November 14, 2019

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Gary Mulvaney, the Conservative candidate for Argyll and Bute, is visually distorting the truth in his election adverts and literature.

In using a coloured bar-graph to display the results of the last General Election he knowingly under represents the percentage sizes of the Labour and LibDem votes.

They say “seeing is believing” and by shrinking the columns of the LibDems and Labour by more than 60 per cent, the Conservative candidate is deliberately misleading the people.

One assumes Gary Mulvaney is learning from Boris Johnson how to misrepresent the truth for personal gain. How sad.

Ursula Craig, Cove

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READ MORE: Your letters to the Helensburgh Advertiser: November 7, 2019

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First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has repeated unequivocally the absolute rejection of nuclear weapons and their use by herself, her government and her party.

Scottish CND warmly welcomes these statements and are hugely encouraged by the positive response to her stance from TV studios and audiences outwith Scotland.

Her statements, and those by Green Party and Plaid Cymru representatives, are a valuable part of the shift that is de-legitimising nuclear weapons worldwide as the Treaty on The Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) gets ever closer to the status of international law.

This move towards pariah status for nuclear weapons is accelerated by Pope Francis’s call for all states to ratify the TPNW and insistence that possession of nuclear weapons per se is immoral.

We also note the recent NATO re-statement by its chief Jens Stoltenberg that NATO will be a nuclear alliance so long as nuclear weapons exist.

Scottish CND’s position on NATO and Scotland’s future is crystal clear: it would make absolutely no sense for an independent Scotland to join such an aggressive alliance and align with the US bloc.

Now that Scottish independence looks likely in the near future, the nature of our relations with the rest of the world must be high on the agenda, and our national stance on NATO needs to be openly and honestly articulated.

Membership of NATO is incompatible with a future in which our country stands with the majority of the countries in the world and seeks real security for people and planet rather than military posturing threatening mass death to all living things.

Lynn Jamieson (Chair, Scottish CND)

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READ MORE: Your letters to the Helensburgh Advertiser: October 31, 2019

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As tinsel and fairy lights adorn the streets up and down the country, it can be easy to overlook how the festive season can be the hardest time of the year for some.

But volunteers at Samaritans Scotland branches across the country will be working throughout the festive season to make sure there’s someone there to listen for anyone who is struggling.

Last Christmas – from December 1, 2018 to January 1, 2019 – Samaritans, the only charity that is there for anyone struggling to cope 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, responded to more than 300,000 calls for help from across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The charity answered more than 10,000 calls from people struggling on Christmas Day alone.

On Christmas Eve 2018, while many were hanging up their stockings and getting ready for Santa’s arrival, almost 1,650 dedicated Samaritans volunteers were reporting for duty at Samaritans branches across the UK and Republic of Ireland.

The very next day, over 1,475 Samaritans volunteers headed to branches and responded to thousands of calls for help from people feeling overwhelmed on December 25

In Scotland, around 140 volunteers gave up their time between on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to be there to listen for anyone who was struggling to cope. Each volunteer answered an average of 12 calls per Christmas shift, with callers sharing a wide range of personal challenges from mental and physical health struggles to family issues, relationship problems and isolation and loneliness.

Now, with this Christmas fast approaching, we are asking people to send a Christmas gift to help Samaritans continue to be there for those who need emotional support. Making a donation for as little as £4.99 will help Samaritans answer a call for help from somebody struggling this Christmas - and change someone’s story for the better.

Be a part of someone’s story – send a gift to help them change it for the better by visiting samaritans.org/christmas. Samaritans’ services are there for anyone who needs them this Christmas and every single day of the year.

Mairi Gordon (Samaritans Scotland)