April 16, 2012
Letters, Scotland

Beauty and bread

www.scotsman.com 16 April 2012

I find myself wondering whether my deep anger at the First Minister’s enthusiastic determination to destroy Scotland’s iconic landscapes in association with his allies in the wind turbine lobby will over-ride all other considerations and prompt me to vote against Scottish independence. At the very least, should I still be uncertain as to how to vote, it may be the deciding factor.

Some may think I am over- reacting, but there will be many others who share my passion for Scotland’s mountains, woodlands, glens, lochs and sea-shores and will understand that such profound attachment is one of the more significant factors contributing to who we are.

I hope that when the SNP publishes its manifesto for an independent Scotland there will be some indications that it recognises the significance of John Muir’s words: “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.”

I am aware that the renewables subsidy regime is a Westminster creation, but the SNP administration has the powers to determine where the commercial wind farms shall, or shall not, be located and I am thus equally angry at the extent to which “Alex Salmond’s drive towards a ‘renewables revolution’ is trampling over local democracy”, (your report, 14 April).

John Milne

Ardgowan Drive

Uddingston, South Lanarkshire


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/04/16/beauty-and-bread/