Your letters to the Helensburgh Advertiser this week

To have your say on any local issue, email editorial@helensburghadvertiser.co.uk with your name and address and we'll publish the best contributions in next week's print edition of the Advertiser.

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I would like to commend Ruth Wishart on her article in last week's Advertiser. What a welcome breath of fresh air to hear the positive comments about Hermitage Academy that I'm certain are representative of the vast majority of parents.

Ruth's article was in sharp contrast to the pieces, printed over the last months in the Advertiser, of what can only be described as a sustained barrage of negative propaganda aimed at the school and voiced by 'the sharp elbow brigade'.

Whilst I am first to agree that everyone is entitled to put their opinions and legitimate complaints, this relentless assault on the school is more akin to a Jack Russell with a bone!

Many parents would like to come forward and offer support to the school, through whatever means, but feel intimidated and marginalised by this small group of 'activists'.

To the 'sharp elbow brigade', and in line with Ruth's use of figures of speech, I would like to offer an alternative idiom in the form of: "While the squeaky wheel may get the most grease - it's also the first to be replaced!"

A. Johnston, Helensburgh

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I am delighted to read that Ruth Wishart is so interested in the progress being made at Hermitage Academy in her 'Point of View' article in last week's Advertiser.

Certainly it is always helpful to have comments and feedback from many parents whose children attend the Academy to help shape and prioritise the improvements and progress planning within the school in partnership with parents.

Perhaps a little disappointing is that Ruth's point of view is based on one friend's experiences, which I'm glad have been very positive.

One thing is for sure, there is no parent of any child attending Hermitage who isn't striving for the best for their child, which, when combined with the comments and feedback from the wider parent forum, forms the basis of the Parent Council's partnership work.

Some of these areas will look for improvements, changes and building on successes, working with staff and the senior leadership teams to achieve this in a progressive manner, so most definitely on the same team - the teachers at Hermitage want no less for their students than any parent.

I quote Peter Peacock: "The Parental Involvement Act provides a framework giving all parents the opportunity to get the information they need to support their child and enabling them to express their views. It introduces a more flexible and inclusive system so that parents and schools can decide what works best locally."

Both we as a parent council, and I as the parent council's chair, would always welcome parents' views and encourage parents to be involved and speak up about works well within the school, as well as what they want to see improved - sharp elbows not essential!

Stella Kinloch, Chair, Hermitage Academy Parent Council

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In the EU referendum the Leave campaign promised business that a free trade zone from Iceland to Turkey "will not end" just because there was a Leave vote.

Fast forward six months and Theresa May declares – with no democratic mandate – that that free trade zone will end with no certainty of an alternative. She is prepared to take the UK to a position where greater legal minds than her, Boris Johnson and Ruth Davidson have shown, the only area we could negotiate a trade deal with before Brexit is the EU.

All of them are prepared to reject that and take us back to square one – a year zero in trade where WTO tariffs go up and bureaucratic barriers return. Overnight international competitors will be gifted a massive competitive advantage over Scottish businesses. Already other EU states like Ireland and Germany are circling to capture that international trade.

That just doesn’t affect those businesses that export but also those that rely on those companies and their employees’ incomes – less trade means less employees means less incomes going into local businesses.

To put what the UK government threatens into numbers a look at the current preferential trade we have is sobering.

The single market has a population of 460m – eight times bigger than the rest of the UK to Scotland; the Custom Union a population of 530m – nine times bigger; agreements for preferential trade about to be finalised with other states amount to a population over 670m –11 times bigger; where are agreements are in place with other states amount to a population over one billion –17 times bigger; and there are ongoing negotiations with an area of 4.3bn people – 74 times bigger.

It took 60 years for the EU to create that web of trade deals worldwide and those numbers show the UK government is prepared to take us back to that year zero in trade.

The Scottish Government has offered a compromise position – that we stay in the single market but the attitude of Mrs May appears to be more concerned with keeping her party’s backbenchers happy.

Before the referendum the Scottish Conservative leader agreed that thousands of Scottish jobs were “reliant” on exports to the EU. Just after that referendum she said she wanted the UK to stay in single market even if it meant free movement.

Now she totally agrees with Theresa May and acts as if she can say what she likes and get away with it.

This May Scottish business has an opportunity to send a message to both Mrs May and Ms Davidson that they do not support being taken over this cliff edge.

Any votes the Conservatives get in May this year at the local election will be used by them to claim they have the endorsement for this strategy.

Scottish business can send the message that they want the Scottish Government’s compromise and won’t be taken for fools by the UK government.

James MacDonald, Oban

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One issue voters can send a message to the increasingly arrogant Tories in the coming local elections is saying they no longer want Police Scotland to pay VAT like every other police force in the UK.

The only reason this is happening is because the Tory Treasury imposes it. It is another example of how the Tories think they can do what they like to Scotland and get away with it.

In 2011 the Tories stood on a policy to “merge Scotland’s eight police forces into one”, so cannot claim it was because a single force was created. They cannot claim it is because only agencies run by local government are exempt from VAT since the police in Northern Ireland are not run by local government and VAT is refunded back to them.

If the UK is an equal partnership as Theresa May and Ruth Davidson claim then that equality must also extend to Scotland's police.

So when the Tories come to your door send them the message that your voting for a party that will stand up for Scotland's police and not discriminate against them as some form of cash cow the Tory Treasury thinks will just lie down and take it.

Graham C.B. Roberts, Glasgow

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I am Head of Travel for the travel arm of the Royal British Legion, Remembrance Travel, and I'm currently on a mission to find every single surviving D-Day veteran.

The Treasury is enabling a series of free-of-charge tours for D-Day veterans to return to Normandy and pay their respects to their fallen comrades. The tours are being funded by the Treasury from LIBOR fines, and will enable a D-Day veteran to return with a family member and carer on a six-night tour.

The 2017 tours will take place in March, April, May and September and will give Normandy veterans - now mostly in their 90s - the chance to revisit the Normandy beaches, cemeteries and memorials. The tours will be accompanied by a medic and a guide from the Royal British Legion.

The tours will depart from London and will include Eurotunnel from Dover to Calais, accommodation, visits to Pegasus Bridge, Juno, Sword, Gold beaches, Arromanches, and war memorials, plus visits to personally specified cemeteries too.

Sadly, there is no database of D-Day veterans so we're calling on the goodwill of the media and general public to spread the word.

So, if you do know a D-Day veteran, please do let them know about our free tours.

Normandy veterans wishing to benefit from this tour need to apply to our tour operator, Arena Travel, on 01473 660800, or visit www.arenatravel.com/journeysofremembrance.

Nichola Rowlands, Head of Travel, Remembrance Travel