I wrote in the Helensburgh Advertiser on October 13 about the Helensburgh Lunch Club, lamenting how difficult it has been to find volunteers in the current climate. In its edition of October 20, the Advertiser included an article about the urgent need for cooks and helpers for the Lunch Club to survive.

On Monday of this week the Lunch Club held its 37th annual Christmas lunch in the URC church hall for over 60 people – a mixture of members, volunteers and supporters.

After another excellent Christmas lunch provided entirely by the club’s volunteer cooks and helpers, the Hermitage Academy Junior Choir delighted their audience with youthful renditions of carols and Christmas songs both new and old.

Many thanks to the choir, cooks and helpers for making it such a happy occasion.

Thanks also to Jackie Baillie MSP who found time in her busy schedule to join us and photograph proceedings and to two of the club’s major donors, the Lions Club and Vivien Dance JP, for their very generous financial support and for joining the Christmas celebration.

The purpose of writing, however, is to say a very big thank you to the Advertiser and to let its readers know that thanks to the Advertiser a number of new volunteers have come forward.

At the Christmas lunch we were able to inform the members that from January 6, 2017, the Lunch Club will be re-commencing its regular Friday lunches in addition to those on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We do still, however, need more cooks and helpers to join our happy band of volunteers who provide such a worthwhile and valued service to the community.

Chris Packard

Chair, Helensburgh Lunch Club

There are lies, damned lies and statistics.

The SNP’s Eleanor Hunter (Helensburgh Advertiser, December 8) manipulated statistics to try to prove that I claimed more in MPs’ expenses than my SNP successor has. In fact, the opposite is true.

Ms Hunter compared my expenses for a full year with those incurred by my successor over 47 weeks. Comparing both sets of expenses over the same time frame shows that mine were considerably lower than my SNP successor’s.

Ms Hunter also claimed that I was not “value for money” as an MP because I tabled so few written questions.

A written question takes a researcher a few seconds to table and usually gets an evasive answer from a minister. I learned early in my parliamentary career that these are rarely a way of finding out useful information.

If I wanted to find out useful information from, or to lobby ministers, I either picked up the phone or had a meeting with them. This is not recorded in published statistics.

Political dialogue should be about discussing ideas, not, as Ms Hunter seems to think, manipulating statistics to try to prove that a falsehood is true.

Alan Reid (MP for Argyll and Bute 2001-15)

136 Fairhaven, Dunoon

I am always disappointed to see local councillors making misleading statements, which happens too often.

Sometimes this is to try and score political points, as appears to have been the case with Councillor Ellen Morton in her column on December 8, when she referred to the SNP and changes to council tax.

Councillor Morton stated that “council tax will rise next year for all houses in bands E, F, G and H, which will hit the majority of houses in Helensburgh and Lomond”.

If Councillor Morton had checked her facts before making such statements, she would be aware that well under 50 per cent of houses within the Helensburgh and Lomond area fall within council tax bands E to H.

On the same subject, we see Councillor Aileen Morton state, in her letter in the Advertiser on the same date, that “Argyll and Bute will see £800,000 of the money raised locally seized by the Scottish Government and given to other areas”.

Again, this is misleading, as there is no information available on how the additional council tax ring-fenced for education will be distributed, or whether Argyll and Bute Council will be a winner or loser under the new system.

Finally, I was most surprised to see Cllr Maurice Corry state that, when attending a conference on marine litter; he was “shocked” at videos and photographs showing the scale of the problem in the Helensburgh and Lomond area with particular reference to Arrochar and Garelochhead.

Given that this problem has been discussed at Community Council meetings at Arrochar and Garelochhead over the past few years, which he has attended, Cllr Corry should be well aware of the scale of this problem.

Cllr Corry also said “the need was stressed to support beach cleans and the removal of marine litter”. Unfortunately, Cllr Corry was one of the councillors in the Administration who supported cuts in the budget that has seen the council withdraw the supply of skips to local communities for such activities.

Cllr George Freeman

(Independent, Lomond North)

So Jackie Baillie’s “leaked document” revealing the proposal to close the Vale maternity unit doesn’t exist, wrote Susan Dalton (Letters, 08/12/16).

I had a look at Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board’s public website, and sure enough, the service change proposal is right there under “NHS Board Meeting, 16th Aug 2016”. Not private, so not leaked at all – simply released to the public.

But the plot thickens. Ms Dalton wrote that the maternity unit is not being closed – not only does that turn out to be true, but apparently the unit offers 17 other incredibly well-used pre- and post-birth maternity services, none of which are being moved elsewhere or cut in any way!

Furthermore, after a little more digging, I discovered that the proposed service change (to move all births to Paisley and Govan, where most women already choose to go) is backed by the midwives at the Vale and their lead midwife, Dorothy Finlay!

The money saved by the service change will enable wanted NHS services to be increased, such as the extension of the home birthing team.

So why is Baillie alleging that the unit is threatened with closure? It wouldn’t be so she can go on to claim she saved it from closure, would it? Oh, cynical me. Seriously though, it is utterly wicked of Baillie to use these scaremongering tactics to try to cling to her seat. For shame!

Denise Mackie

Via email

Labour can’t be trusted to prioritise Scotland’s place in the UK. Kezia Dugdale made a speech in London calling for a new Act of Union to preserve the future of the UK. She also U-turned on her previous call for a separate Brexit deal for Scotland, saying it was now important we got a UK-wide arrangement.

The last thing Scotland needs is yet more constitutional upheaval, and Labour should be focusing on being a decent opposition.

Dugdale has flip-flopped in the constitutional debate, and Corbyn is barely interested.

While Labour's weakness on our Union is plain for all to see, the Conservative and Unionist party has no such problem. In fact our commitment to Scotland's place in our United Kingdom is in our party's name.

Labour, sadly, aren't the only ones flirting with betraying Scotland's Unionist majority. The Lib-Dems recently debated a motion at their party conference urging the party to consider Scottish independence.

The motion, from organisation 'A Liberal Scotland in Europe,' states Scotland should prioritise its relationship with Europe over the UK.

It adds that the party should back Nicola Sturgeon on her pledge to consider “all possible options” following Brexit, which would include a second independence referendum.

More and more Unionist voters across Scotland are rightfully turning their back on Labour and the Lib-Dems and backing the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party as the best choice to stand up for our place in the United Kingdom and take the fight to the SNP.

Alastair Redman

Portnahaven, Islay