Time to stand up for our old folk

READERS’ hearts will go out to the residents of the Meadowlark Nursing Home in Forres, and their families, over the uncertainty surrounding the home’s future in the wake of the collapse of operators Southern Cross.

Elderly people should be able to live out their twilight years in peace and comfort, and not under a cloud.

It is not clear yet who will take over the running of the house, but there have been assurances this week that no Meadowlark residents will have to move.

Moray Council, the Scottish Government and others are working together to minimise disruption to the day-to-day operation of the home.

There has been much debate in recent years about residential and home care for the elderly, and how society can fund it. It is a debate that will go on, but there can be no doubt of the commitment to look after our old folk.

They deserve security and care. The authorities must deliver on their assurances – it is the least they deserve, at Meadowlark and elsewhere.

Still playing the waiting game

THE wait should have been over, but it isn’t, which is just another chapter in the whole sorry tale of what is to happen to RAF Lossiemouth.

Tuesday went by with no announcement, and Thursday, too – now Monday is being tipped as D-Day, but we don’t know for sure. There has been speculation that there may not be a decision at all before the Westminster Parliament’s summer recess, but surely not.

Remember, we have been due a decision before. Last Christmas, then the end of February, then March or April, maybe May, then definitely, we were told, by mid-July. Yet still we wait.

Our old friends, the "senior sources", have been popping up again in national newspapers, giving a view on what might happen. One is that RAF Lossie might be turned into an Army barracks to house troops returning from Germany, and Leuchars in Fife saved as an air base – and yet, they say, Lossie could be kept by the RAF instead.

Is it too much to expect the Government at least to tell us when an announcement will be made? The whole saga continues to reek of uncertainty, which seems to sum up the conduct of MoD mandarins and politicians.