Letters to The Herald



Why Dungavel is worse than a prison

Many people have compared the detention centre in Dungavel to a prison. They are wrong. In prison - I speak from personal experience -

no-one is punished for having food in their cell. In Barlinnie your cell is where you eat (and slop out). Where a canteen system operates, as in Greenock, you help yourself to bread, and can take it back to your cell for later on.

In Dungavel, for feeding her child one Weetabix in her cell, a woman is punished with the loss of her weekly allowance of £3.50. Dungavel is not like a prison. It is worse than a prison.

To the mean-minded minority who have written to justifying the indefensible - the detention of the innocent children and innocent parents in prison - I have only two questions. How would you like a child of yours to be subjected to this treatment? And do you imagine that the children locked up in Dungavel are less worthy of love or less infinitely precious than your own?

To all who are nauseated by the antics of Three Monkeys McConnell and his cohorts of spineless tonyclonies mugwumping on the Mound, may I suggest a practical way of communicating your contempt? Send one individual Weetabix, carefully wrapped, to the first minister. Get your friends to do the same. Perhaps this will give Jack something to chew on while he looks the other way.

Brian Quail, 2 Hyndland Avenue, Glasgow.

Rosie Kane has indeed sheltered the homeless

Chuck O'Connell (Letters, September 8) wonders if Rosie Kane would show the same generosity to a "homeless Scot" as she has to Mercy Ikolo and her daughter. The short answer is yes. I have personally witnessed Rosie taking a homeless family into her home to prevent them having to sleep on the streets or in hostels. People in Scotland perform such acts of decency all the time, even if they escape the glare of publicity.

As in the case of Mercy Ikolo, it was the injustice of the situation and the suffering of the people involved that prompted Rosie to act, rather than some idiotic idea of racial precedence. I will leave Mr O'Connell to judge for himself what the PR value of helping people in need may be, although the chances are we would never have publicised this act of principle and kindness unless he had asked about it.

Mick Eyre, constituency caseworker to Rosie Kane, MSP, 73 Robertson Street, Glasgow.

IN reply to Chuck O'Connell, I know it has become inevitable that every time a true socialist stands up to be counted someone will pop up and question their motives but the anger over children incarcerated in Dungavel detention centre is an entirely different issue from homelessness on our streets. The fact that Rosie Kane has taken direct action over the former does not mean that she or the SSP are not concerned about the latter. As Mr O'Connell seems so concerned about the latter, can he inform us what he intends to do about it? Joining the SSP might be a good start.

Allan Johnston, 23 Dudley Terrace, Edinburgh.


Having read Chuck O'Connell's snide comment about Rosie Kane, I would not be surprised to find that his living-room wall bore a plaque with the homily "Cynicism begins at home".

David Stevenson 47 Cairns Road, Cambuslang.