Wishful thinking on electricity
On the subject of future electricity generation in Scotland, politicians of all the major parties are indulging in hypocrisy and wishful thinking. Labour is promising us 50% renewable generation by 2050, the SNP 60%, the Greens 80% and the LibDems 100%. However, not one of these parties can tell us how they propose to achieve this, other than vague mumblings about wind, which is unreliable, and wave and tidal, both of which are unproven.

Labour claims to be well on the way to achieving its target of 20% renewable generation by 2010, without mentioning that this will be largely achieved due to long-existing hydro power stations.

This election-generated bidding war will only further encourage the dash for cash, haphazard activities of windmill developers and landowners to the detriment of Scotland's highly prized landscapes for little or no environmental benefit. Not only is this wing-and-a-prayer approach to a major issue irresponsible and extremely worrying, but it gives credence, if any more were needed, to the widely held belief that Holyrood is nothing other than a very expensive talking shop.

G M Lindsay, Whinfield Gardens, Kinross.

An OED omission
PAUL Climie (letters, April 10) has, indeed, found a longer word, but he need not have trawled through Chambers dictionary. It would have been far easier to have consulted a chemical dictionary, for there he would find the complex organic compounds with far longer names. They would not be authorised for Scrabble.

I had a problem with an omission from the OED, not a long word, just seven letters, synesis, meaning lack of agreement between syntax and meaning, eg, not only John was present. Not only John is a plural subject. An Oxford editor told me immediately the dictionary history of my queried word.

It was in Chambers, Collins and Webster, et al, its first appearance being in Century Dictionary in the US in 1891. It was a word used by classical scholars in their English texts, eg, Sloman's Latin Grammar, but it did not pass the Oxford tests for inclusion in an English Dictionary. They regarded it as a technical word. The evidence they were seeking was its appearance in several independent, non-technical publications, and not in publications such as this letter devoted to the word.

However, they did tell me they had an avalanche of complaints about this omission. I was the third in 70 years, so they put a note in their revision file for consideration in their Third Edition.

Chris Parton 40 Bellshill Road, Glasgow.

Word power
Speaking of long words, I too await a day. The day when the antidisestablishmentarians of the Unionist parties in Scotland get their comeuppance. Not long now, I suppose.

Niall G MacKenzie, 37 Mull Place, Perth.

Central funding
Labour Party candidate and propagandist, Alex Gallagher, considers that it is anathema to democracy for North Ayrshire Council to be wholly funded from a centralised source.

Can he explain why it is acceptable for the whole of Scotland to be financed by a block grant from the UK government?

Gordon Evans, 5 York Drive, Burnside, Rutherglen.