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The Herald Scotland

American President is a Top Trump when it comes to language

Americans, being linguistically conservative, continue to use the word correctly, whereas the relatively slovenly British started to abandon it about the end of the 17th century. Donald Trump is not an elegant orator and freely uses colloquialisms; sometimes even words that the Chambers Dictionary once categorised as 'not in polite use'. However, his speech is syntactically more precise than that of any other prominent politician. Robin Dow, Rothesay. Read more Bus-t up On a recent BBC News at One there was a report about plans to introduce free bus travel down south for young people aged between 16 and 22. The report mentioned that in Scotland we've had free bus travel for 5–22 years olds since 2022. On the follow-up Scottish news there was a report describing how the authorities are considering measures to deal with the anti-social behaviours that plague our buses, and the possibility of bus passes being withdrawn for offenders. Problems have increased dramatically in the past three years due to a minority of young bus users travelling to places quite distant to their home and causing trouble either on the bus or at their destination. A few months ago, there were reports of serious problems on buses in the Kelso area, which regularly led to police involvement. In Edinburgh there have been many cases where bus services have been stopped on certain routes due to anti-social incidents, particularly during the fireworks season. So, England, be aware! Brian Watt, Edinburgh. Centre of attention I am writing a book about Chesters Management Centre, which was located in Bearsden, Glasgow. Part of the University of Strathclyde, it operated from 1955 until 1976. It was a residential management training college, with accommodation for 100 participants. Each year about 1,000 people were attending management courses. I would love to hear from anyone who has memories of Chesters Management Centre. My home is in the village of Aberuthven, near Auchterarder, Perthshire. Please contact me through my personal email, profgordon@ or by telephone, 077-622-76693. If anyone would like a face-to-face meeting, I will be delighted to meet with you. Gordon C. Anderson, Auchterarder, Perthshire. Worrying trend On page eight of Wednesday's Herald there was a photograph of people running through the water at some speed. The caption underneath reads: "Migrant families wade into the sea in an attempt to board a small boat." I studied the picture carefully. Rather than seeing 'families', as the caption suggests, the photo shows over 70 young men. There are only two females and a child, towards the rear of the group. With reportedly more than fifty thousand illegal immigrants landing in the UK since Labour came to power, the proportions in the image are surely typical, and should be a cause for concern. James Martin, Bearsden. Brought to book Libraries gave us power. So goes the first line of 'Design for Life' by Manic Street Preachers. It's a reference to 'Knowledge is Power', the legend carved in stone above a library in Newport, near the Welsh band's home. Here in cosy, soi-disant 'progressive' Scotland, it would be nice to think that we too would embrace this ethos. To be accepting of books or writing, irrespective of whether the content offends, provokes profound disagreement, or sets us on edge. No matter how egregious we deem such content to be, banning or proscribing books is the stuff of totalitarianism. Yet over at the National Library of Scotland, they appear to have a different take, certainly based on the removal of a gender-critical book from an exhibition, at the behest of NLS staff ('Scots National Library accused of 'cowardice' over exclusion of gender critical book', The Herald, August 14). Perhaps the staff didn't feel comfortable with the content, but that's neither here nor there. It's a library, not a protest group. Unless, of course, they are so intolerant of other views, based on seeing life through their ideological prism, that they can't abide to entertain for one second a diversity or difference of opinions. (Such irony.) So now they hold the power over knowledge. Why not go the whole hog and burn the gender-critical book? On which note, a Google search confirms that the NLS keeps a copy of Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' in the building. Assuming this is true, it seems we're now so enlightened in Scotland, and such is the health of public debate, that the staff of our nation's foremost repository of books, writing and knowledge are comfortable working in an institution that protects and preserves a book written by the racist, fascist, instigator of the world's worst conflict and the Holocaust. Yet they can't handle women speaking their mind forcefully on a subject of controversy and heated view points. Wow. Just wow. Colin Montgomery, Edinburgh. Wolfish ways We are informed that Scotland's national library banned a book about feminists' fight against Nicola Sturgeon's gender self-identification law, after staff complained its contents were ''hate speech'' comparable to racism. American President Thomas Jefferson argued that if the facts in a book were false they should be disproved, and if the reasoning was fallacious it should be refuted, concluding: ''But for God's sake let us freely hear both sides''. Unpopular ideas must be given a hearing and criticism encouraged. Without unhampered criticism of public figures and public policy a democracy would soon deteriorate. To quote Jefferson again: ''To demand the censors of public measures to be given up for punishment is to renew the demand of the wolves in the fable that the sheep should give up their dogs as hostages of the peace and confidence established between them.'' Censorship in the National Library of Scotland… for heaven's sakes! Doug Clark, Midlothian. Author Charles Dickens... was he one of the Victorians who had strange ideas? (Image: Rochester Museum) Body bafflement Some people look back on the Victorian era with amusement, if not scorn, for some of the attitudes of the time. For instance, covering up table legs lest they inflame the passions of gentlemen with little self-control. I wonder if, in a century's time (should humanity last that long), people will look back with incredulity at the "Sturgeonian" era in Scotland, when it was thought that women could have male appendages. Brian Johnston, Torrance.