WHILE I agree largely with the sentiments of M E Mackenzie's letter regarding regenerating the Highlands and crofting traditions, couching this regeneration in terms such as "an obligatory duty on us all" implies the area is depressed and in need of external help. This approach has characterised failed attempts at regenerating the area over the past 70 years and is not helpful.
The Highlands arguably is in a better state of regeneration than at any time since the Second World War owing to the efforts of the people in getting it back on its feet again through taking advantage of technology. Arguing that "importing different attitudes" will not help regeneration in the region is wrong. Without a change in attitudes towards the tourist industry over the past 60 years, the Highlands would be a fairly desolate and empty place. Importing new attitudes shows that the region is outward-looking and forward-thinking, not insular, feeling sorry for itself and expecting help from others. Recent history suggests that the Highlands can and will do better than that.
Niall G MacKenzie, Tollington Place, London.
M E MACKENZIE (Letters, April 29) clearly identifies the "dead hand" of bureaucracy and its stifling influence on crofting matters. Why else would there be a current Commission of Inquiry to attempt to break the pattern of futile legal blocks to what should be simple negotiations?
We do not employ a lawyer in our attempts to settle matters as the anticipated cost over the three-year struggle would have been exorbitant and completely disproportionate to something that should have been able to be settled round a table. Every simple, straightforward attempt to move forward has been blocked by spurious complaints from the same source that lead to countless months of delay and inevitable hearings. We have no interest in financial gain in these matters, only the promotion of good crofting culture.
The mountains of paperwork are reality and the stress and consumption of precious time is scandalous. The totally unnecessary cost to the public purse is even more shocking.
Nigel Dewar Gibb, 15 Kirklee Road, Glasgow.
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