Stop the carnage: make cat owners keep their pets under control
The problem is the strong cat ownership lobby, and this appears to stop strong legislation taking place. It will have to be put in place in the future; why not now?
In Australia roaming cats in certain states are banned after some species have become extinct.
In the UK there would not be a problem if house cats were the norm. However, cat owners appear to be in denial and would support their right to allow their fluffy pets to kill whenever they can.
Dog owners are duty-bound to keep their pets under control. Cat owners should be made to do the same.
Matthew Sneddon, Bearsden.
Read more letters
Seeking to right NI wrongs
I am trying to contact those women and their loved ones who have suffered great historical injustices in institutions in Northern Ireland. My appeal is to them right across the world (Neil Mackay: "Thought of what happened to my gran in a Magdalene Laundry haunts me" heraldscotland, August 3).
This year we, the politicians in Northern Ireland, have the opportunity to right a great wrong of the 20th century, imposed upon young women in mother and baby institutions, Magdalene laundries and workhouses between 1922 and1995.
We have launched an international appeal to victims and survivors of these institutions, asking for their views on legislation to establish a public inquiry and financial redress scheme. Both are aimed at addressing the terrible wrongs done to them during one of the most distressing and hurtful episodes in our history.
The Inquiry (Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses) and Redress Scheme Bill was introduced to the Northern Ireland Assembly in June 2025. Our scrutiny of it has begun and as part of our work, we are asking those who will be directly affected by the legislation to respond to an online consultation. We want as many as possible to have their say before it closes at the end of September.
The consultation is available online here: https://lk.cmte.fyi/InquiryRedressBill but we can also email or post hard copies to anyone who is interested. Email us at: cteotrconsultation@niassembly.gov.uk
You can also contact the Committee for the Executive Office by writing to us at Room 247, Parliament Buildings, Belfast, Northern Ireland BT4 3XX.
Paula Bradshaw MLA, Chairperson, Committee for the Executive Office, Northern Ireland Assembly, Belfast.
Teaching to the test
I see that the old chestnut of 'teaching to the test' is raising its head again as the new head of the SQA takes up his role ("New chief executive backs reform of exams", The Herald, August 9).
Would I be correct in thinking that a well-designed curriculum or course is defined by a set of suitable and appropriate criteria, stated as 'objectives', "content and skills', 'benchmarks' or whatever?
If I am correct, I assume that these criteria will be tested, examined or assessed in some form and at agreed frequencies. I also assume, therefore, that teachers will focus on ensuring that they focus on the criteria and use an appropriate means to determine how well their students are meeting them. In my experience, able teachers have been following that arrangement for years.
Therefore, if a course is well designed and includes relevant content and skills or processes – let's hope that the balance and interaction between them is sound – and the means of determining whether they are being taught, learned and achieved are agreed, then, essentially, are teachers not ' teaching to the test'?
Why do we continue to use these emotive terms? Why not focus on ensuring that courses are well designed, include effective means to determine their success, and incorporate the best technology that is available?
GPD Gordon, Bearsden.
Mute the music, please
I enjoy watching documentaries and factual programmes on my television. Three programmes in particular that I tried to watch recently were Humans, Parenthood and The Antiques Roadshow.
These are beautifully-photographed, educational programmes and considerable research has gone into making them.
Why then do we have to suffer orchestral music which has been added in an effort to enhance the show?
This has the effect of taking over the programme, making the presenter's voice inaudible and has meant me having on numerous occasions to use the subtitles,which has the effect of blocking out some of the programme.
I am fortunate to have reasonable hearing and good eyesight.
I wish the producers of these programmes would take time to listen to their work and realise that we don't need an audio background to enhance them.
Neil Stewart, Balfron.
Is there anything wrong with teaching to the test? (Image: PA)
Why did Berlin outscore us?
As in previous years, The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland distinguished itself during a sell-out concert in Berlin's Konzerthaus last Wednesday (August 6). The audience response was impressive.
The same programme had been performed in Scotland during the previous week where the audience was similarly appreciative, but sadly hugely depleted in numbers.
I wish I could explain this discrepancy.
David Rimer, Edinburgh.
Running the gauntlet
Your coverage of the Sandie Peggie tribunal has generated as much debate (online and offline) as I've ever come across in all the five decades I've been reading your newspaper.
But it reminded me that as a young trainee in the late 1960s, I had to carry out the annual inspection of a large knitwear factory in Saltcoats in terms of the Factories Acts (staff welfare and the like).
I always insisted the manager accompany me when I entered the women's changing area and toilets as I didn't want any of the (mostly female) workforce to actually do to me what their catcalls inferred. I had every right to go into these areas, but couldn't get out quick enough.
How times have changed.
John Crawford, Preston.
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South Wales Argus
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An appeal to women and their loved ones to right a wrong
This year we, the politicians in Northern Ireland, have the opportunity to right a great wrong of the 20th century, imposed upon young women in mother and baby institutions, Magdalene laundries and workhouses between 1922 – 1995. We have launched an international appeal to victims and survivors of these institutions, asking for their views on legislation to establish a public inquiry and financial redress scheme. Both are aimed at addressing the terrible wrongs done to them during one of the most distressing and hurtful episodes in our history. The Inquiry (Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses) and Redress Scheme Bill was introduced to the Northern Ireland Assembly in June 2025. Our scrutiny of it has begun and as part of our work, we are asking those who will be directly affected by the legislation to respond to an online consultation. We want as many as possible to have their say before it closes at the end of September. The consultation is available online here: but we can also email or post hard copies to anyone who is interested. Email us at: cteotrconsultation@ You can also contact the committee for the executive office by writing to us at: Room 247, Parliament Buildings, Belfast, Northern Ireland BT4 3XX. Kind regards, Paula Bradshaw MLA, Chairperson, committee for the executive office, Northern Ireland Assembly
Daily Mail
a day ago
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EUAN MCCOLM: Shouldn't we worry about the youth we're creating for the future?
It was once a crucible of intellectual inquiry, a revered institution where some of the greatest minds in politics were sharpened. The late Labour leader John Smith, the much-mourned Liberal Democrat MP Charles Kennedy and Scotland's inaugural First Minister, Donald Dewar, were all schooled in the great art of debate at Glasgow University Union. In the chamber of the GUU in Glasgow's West End, they – and others, including broadcaster and journalist Andrew Neil and banker Angus Grossart – learned the skills that would take them to the top of their professions. And they did so while – often ferociously – disagreeing with their fellow students. On Saturday, a women's rights group was thrown out of the GUU after staff complained that banners bearing feminist slogans made them feel unsafe. Words such as 'Women's rights are not a hate crime ' and 'I'm not a vet – but I know what a dog is' were considered so dangerous by management at the union that members of Let Women Speak – whose booking to meet there had previously been accepted – were refused service and kicked out. Earlier, those feminists had gathered outside the nearby Kelvingrove Museum to demand – months after the Supreme Court ruled that sex is a matter of biology rather than feelings – recognition of women's legal rights. Inevitably, a counter protest of angry misogynists disguised as progressives turned up to try to drown out the words of the participants. Those shouting down feminists outside the museum had the law on their side. Quite correctly, their right to free speech allowed their protest to go ahead. However, management at the GUU are not on such solid ground. Let Women Speak – headed by activist Kellie-Jay Keen – had paid in advance for use of a space within the union for their post-rally gathering. Ms Keen has already announced plans to launch legal action against the union, which – in common with other organisations captured by crank ideologues – is now on course to learn a costly lesson in the law. Discrimination against anyone on the basis of their entirely legal beliefs is no trifling matter. Shortly after the group was evicted from the GUU premises, Ms Keen said the male manager told them he was closing the bar because the women's beliefs and opinions could constitute harassment towards their staff and make them feel unsafe. How much more of this nonsense are we expected to tolerate? There is a tendency for us, when we age, to romanticise the past and our place in it. Times were tougher, people worked harder, bullets were faster… the list of ways in which we ancients dismiss the challenges facing the young people of the day is long and varied. Pub bores sneer at their every choice; from their politics (always wrong) to their preferred breakfast (the idea of eating avocado on toast really upsets some people), there is no end of critical commentary about their fecklessness. I've always tried not to be that man. It's not always easy. Frequently, during political debate, we hear talk of the future we are creating for our young people. Environmental activists argue – with science on their side – that more must be done to halt the devastation caused by climate change while others focus on the ongoing housing crisis, demanding more affordable properties and arguing for rent restrictions. The increased use of short-term contracts and the continuing transformation of traditional industries add to the feelings of uncertainty with which young people must wrestle. If those of us longer in the tooth are honest, we must admit that – in so many ways – we had things easier. If you left school in, for example, the 1980s, there were college places, better quality apprenticeships and plentiful white-collar traineeships in banks and insurance companies. Yes, fewer young Scots went to university but those who did were more likely to find good jobs upon graduation than students today. And, once in work, the purchase of a house was a reasonably straightforward process rather than a pipe dream for all but the most fortunate. At some stage in life, usually in childhood, we all learn that the world does not care about our problems. There are some good, compassionate people who do, and great campaigning organisations that give focus to their concerns. But reality does not give a hoot about our battles or our feelings. The world keeps spinning while we struggle by. Difficult though the realisation that the world cannot be shaped to accommodate our needs – or whims – may be, it is a useful developmental stage. Exposure to reality – messy and unfair – breeds resilience. To employ the old cliché, what does not kill us, makes us stronger. How disturbing, then, that the GUU's position is that feminist slogans should be considered a threat to safety. Members of Let Women Speak and other campaigning groups argue that, when it comes to the debate over gender, those who pose a real danger are the activists who continue to campaign for the prescription of powerful puberty-blocking drugs to emotionally confused children and the placing of trans-identifying men in women's prisons. What happened at the GUU last Saturday is in keeping with the aggressive way trans activists have reacted to feminists at higher education establishments across the UK and beyond. The Aberdeen-born philosopher and writer Kathleen Stock was hounded out of her lecturing job at the University of Sussex by students and – for shame – staff for refusing to adhere to the belief that a man can become a woman because he says so. The academic was terrorised by anonymous activists to the point at which she needed personal security to go about her everyday life. Eventually, Professor Stock received compensation from the University of Sussex, which was also fined £585,000 by the Government's Office for Students for its failure to uphold freedom of speech and academic freedom. In January last year, an employment tribunal found that the Open University (OU) had discriminated against Jo Phoenix, a professor of criminology. The tribunal agreed bosses had failed in their duty to protect Professor Phoenix from harassment by colleagues and management. Like Kathleen Stock, Professor Phoenix's crime was to believe in the immutability of sex and the importance of women's rights. In common with the University of Sussex and the OU, the GUU is failing all who attend by censoring and excluding feminists with perfectly mainstream views. What terrible damage trans extremists have wrought across the higher education sector. Theirs is a culture in which intellectualism withers and dies. It remains legitimate to worry about the future we're creating for young people but there are also concerns about the young people we're creating for the future.
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
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Stop the carnage: make cat owners keep their pets under control
Surely the time has come to stop people just throwing their pets out to look after themselves. Cats are born hunters, that's what they do. The trouble is the owners who allow their pets to cruelly kill their prey. The problem is the strong cat ownership lobby, and this appears to stop strong legislation taking place. It will have to be put in place in the future; why not now? In Australia roaming cats in certain states are banned after some species have become extinct. In the UK there would not be a problem if house cats were the norm. However, cat owners appear to be in denial and would support their right to allow their fluffy pets to kill whenever they can. Dog owners are duty-bound to keep their pets under control. Cat owners should be made to do the same. Matthew Sneddon, Bearsden. Read more letters Seeking to right NI wrongs I am trying to contact those women and their loved ones who have suffered great historical injustices in institutions in Northern Ireland. My appeal is to them right across the world (Neil Mackay: "Thought of what happened to my gran in a Magdalene Laundry haunts me" heraldscotland, August 3). This year we, the politicians in Northern Ireland, have the opportunity to right a great wrong of the 20th century, imposed upon young women in mother and baby institutions, Magdalene laundries and workhouses between 1922 and1995. We have launched an international appeal to victims and survivors of these institutions, asking for their views on legislation to establish a public inquiry and financial redress scheme. Both are aimed at addressing the terrible wrongs done to them during one of the most distressing and hurtful episodes in our history. The Inquiry (Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses) and Redress Scheme Bill was introduced to the Northern Ireland Assembly in June 2025. Our scrutiny of it has begun and as part of our work, we are asking those who will be directly affected by the legislation to respond to an online consultation. We want as many as possible to have their say before it closes at the end of September. The consultation is available online here: but we can also email or post hard copies to anyone who is interested. Email us at: cteotrconsultation@ You can also contact the Committee for the Executive Office by writing to us at Room 247, Parliament Buildings, Belfast, Northern Ireland BT4 3XX. Paula Bradshaw MLA, Chairperson, Committee for the Executive Office, Northern Ireland Assembly, Belfast. Teaching to the test I see that the old chestnut of 'teaching to the test' is raising its head again as the new head of the SQA takes up his role ("New chief executive backs reform of exams", The Herald, August 9). Would I be correct in thinking that a well-designed curriculum or course is defined by a set of suitable and appropriate criteria, stated as 'objectives', "content and skills', 'benchmarks' or whatever? If I am correct, I assume that these criteria will be tested, examined or assessed in some form and at agreed frequencies. I also assume, therefore, that teachers will focus on ensuring that they focus on the criteria and use an appropriate means to determine how well their students are meeting them. In my experience, able teachers have been following that arrangement for years. Therefore, if a course is well designed and includes relevant content and skills or processes – let's hope that the balance and interaction between them is sound – and the means of determining whether they are being taught, learned and achieved are agreed, then, essentially, are teachers not ' teaching to the test'? Why do we continue to use these emotive terms? Why not focus on ensuring that courses are well designed, include effective means to determine their success, and incorporate the best technology that is available? GPD Gordon, Bearsden. Mute the music, please I enjoy watching documentaries and factual programmes on my television. Three programmes in particular that I tried to watch recently were Humans, Parenthood and The Antiques Roadshow. These are beautifully-photographed, educational programmes and considerable research has gone into making them. Why then do we have to suffer orchestral music which has been added in an effort to enhance the show? This has the effect of taking over the programme, making the presenter's voice inaudible and has meant me having on numerous occasions to use the subtitles,which has the effect of blocking out some of the programme. I am fortunate to have reasonable hearing and good eyesight. I wish the producers of these programmes would take time to listen to their work and realise that we don't need an audio background to enhance them. Neil Stewart, Balfron. Is there anything wrong with teaching to the test? (Image: PA) Why did Berlin outscore us? As in previous years, The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland distinguished itself during a sell-out concert in Berlin's Konzerthaus last Wednesday (August 6). The audience response was impressive. The same programme had been performed in Scotland during the previous week where the audience was similarly appreciative, but sadly hugely depleted in numbers. I wish I could explain this discrepancy. David Rimer, Edinburgh. Running the gauntlet Your coverage of the Sandie Peggie tribunal has generated as much debate (online and offline) as I've ever come across in all the five decades I've been reading your newspaper. But it reminded me that as a young trainee in the late 1960s, I had to carry out the annual inspection of a large knitwear factory in Saltcoats in terms of the Factories Acts (staff welfare and the like). I always insisted the manager accompany me when I entered the women's changing area and toilets as I didn't want any of the (mostly female) workforce to actually do to me what their catcalls inferred. I had every right to go into these areas, but couldn't get out quick enough. How times have changed. John Crawford, Preston.
