So away it went and managed to make savings of over a million pounds, bringing Dundee’s Band D figure below Glasgow’s by two whole pounds. Two pounds from a bill of £1211. Let’s all cheer!

But the serious point about all of this — apart from your average working chap having to fork out this huge sum — is this:

If the council was so concerned about doing its absolute best for the people who voted it into office, why weren’t these savings made in the first place?

Why didn’t the council show the competence and determination to set a level of £1211 before shame and embarrassment forced it into an unseemly panic to get below Glasgow’s rate, even if only by a nominal sum?

One can only come to the conclusion that it didn’t try hard enough the first time round.

Which begs the question, “Why not?” Doesn’t the council care that a poorly-paid working population has to hand over such a large percentage of their hard-earned cash? — Thoroughly Taxed Off, Dundee.

He correctly argues that our troops simply cannot up and leave Iraq to descend into anarchy. Nor can we set firm deadlines for their withdrawal.

The coalition must stay until the Iraqi forces are able to look after their country. — W. Wilson, Dundee.

Before the last council elections I, like many others, heard comments regarding lack of facilities, shop closures in the Highgate Centre and a general degeneration in the area.

The City Council approved on February 13 a Draft Lochee Masterplan with a number of proposals to address the problems, but those require an input from the community.

It is essential we have a Community Council if our voice is to be heard. — S. Cunningham, Quarryside, Dundee.

Tony Blair is saying he will not compromise our country’s security, but he is too late. The authorities should have come down hard on Muslim extremists when they started burning Salman Rushdie’s book. These fundamentalists pose a real threat to all of us. — George Aimer, Kinghorne road, Dundee.

Seen as too right wing in Scotland, and too left wing in England, how can the party managers put together a coherent set of policies to satisfy such a wide opinion?

The result of the next General Election will, as always, depend on results in South of England and, consequently, Messrs Blair and/or Brown will have no option but to adopt more right wing ideas. It’s about time the SNP pursued an agenda for socialist independence. — Politico, Dundee.

A decent hard-working couple, we are in our 20s and have been told we have to wait up to one year for housing. We are staying with parents, but are overcrowded. We are frustrated at houses sitting empty, apparently under repair. One property was “under repair” for nearly six months.

We were also told, “You’re not a family”. So do I need four kids and a dog to be considered as a family?

Obviously I want my own family one day, but I am sensible and didn’t get pregnant at 16 just to be housed, like many Dundee youngsters.

We also have fewer points than a criminal gets after leaving accommodation at Her Majesty’s pleasure.

It makes me sick. If you do things properly in life you get nothing. If I had loads of kids, no partners, addicted to heroin and just out of prison, I’d have the nicest council/association house in Dundee. — Very Let Down.

Having worked hard all my life, and given jobs to six employees, I always believed there was no need.

Unfortunately, failing health has put me on the scrap heap.

Last year I was released from hospital and, without a deposit, the only flat I could get had no kitchen floor or ceiling. I don’t qualify for free prescriptions and, although £90 a week may sound great, take £50 off for rent top-up and council tax and prescription charges, and you don’t have enough left to save for a cooker.

If I was employed I would get loans and grants, but as I’m sick, I don’t qualify. I’ve tried to find part-furnished accommodation, but the deposit and rent asked for in advance is out of my budget.

So as I snuggle up for a second winter in a sleeping bag in a semi-derelict flat, I can only do what I thought no one had to do, and beg. — Desperate, Dundee.

Last year, a week after my wife died, the council sent a Sheriff Officer to my door with a letter demanding £31 rent arrears.

It turned out that because of a change in circumstances, I didn’t owe anything. To this day I haven’t had an apology. — C. A. Walker, Lochee, Dundee.

He returned home one night to find his locks changed and he had been evicted.

I went with him to the housing office to try to get the matter sorted out and I was able to offer £1200 and offered to pay off the rest of his arrears at £30 per month plus what they were able to take from my son’s benefits per fortnight (£5). This was refused.

My son was given a homeless flat but was eventually evicted from this, told he wasn’t a priority and wouldn’t be re-homed until his arrears were paid.

So I can’t understand the statement given by the council about getting arrears paid when they can afford to refuse my genuine offer. — Concerned Mother.

“And who can forget those stirring traditional Scottish songs that Andy Stewart used to sing on The White Heather Club throughout the 1960s?

“Broadcast live from the BBC’s Springfield Road studio in Glasgow, the show was intended to disseminate Scottish folk songs and dances throughout the United Kingdom, especially at Hogmanay.

“A close inspection of the repertoire reveals that many of the tunes had seldom if ever been north of the border prior to transmission, having been composed by Londoners in Tin Pan Alley, as Denmark Street was then known.

“Even as a small child — allowed to stay up and ‘‘see the New Year in’’ with a bottle of bubbly (Tizer) — I knew there was something fake about the kilted and sporraned host, who spoke in a language tantalisingly close to Martian, shamelessly hogged the camera, and seemed to be Uncle Tomming for his pre-dominantly English audience.

“Of course, that’s why the BBC employed him. He looked and sounded suitably ethnic, but was a purveyor of bland ersatz Scottish culture.”

I felt obliged to let you read a bit about what us Scots, south of the border have to read in English newspapers.

Andy Stewart was brilliant on Hogmanay and nobody will ever be able to take his place, kilted or un-kilted. — Davy Forrest (ex-Hilltown man).

David Coutts — ex-Dundee SNP councillor — was one of the early settlers and founder of two pubs. — Frans Oosenbrugh, Dalgleish Road, Dundee.