Congratulations to Rory McIlroy and his decision not to take part in the golf tournament in Saudi Arabia.

We are all familiar with the vast amounts of money on offer in Saudi Arabia for those taking part in its sporting events as it tries desperately to pretend that it is a “normal” country and not a vicious dictatorship.

In addition to its recent assasination of the journalist Khoshoggi and the mass executions of dissidents, its imprisonment of women who dont want to wear strict Islamic dress we have the example of people like Ali al-Nimr who will be marking his sixth consecutive birthday on Saudi Arabia’s death row on December 20. He’ll be 25 years old.

He was just 17 when he was arrested in Saudi Arabia. He was 19 when he was sentenced to death for ‘crimes’ linked to protesting. Ali is trapped on death row without any friends or family. Ali was a child when he was tortured and forced to sign a false confession.

He was denied access to the evidence against him throughout his trial. He was not even informed of the charges until halfway through the proceedings. His forced confession was the only ‘evidence’ brought against him. And that’s how he was sentenced to death.

What’s worse is that Ali’s final appeal was held in secret, without his knowledge.

Now, he could be executed at any time. No decent person should have anything to do with this evil country.

B McKenna

Dumbarton

During indy1 we were warned that if we dared go independent we’d be booted out of the EU. And 500,000 pro-indy voters said No, just to stay in the EU.

Then the Brexit referendum showed that Scots wanted to remain. England voted leave and is dragging us out, too.

Some democracy when Tory England can always outvote us due to its population being over ten times ours.

And it always will do, until we say enough is enough and grasp the opportunities that a true socially just and independent country will provide.

Alex Guy

Posted online

YET another planning application for a Glasgow hotel, this one down by the Garden Festival site.

I’ve nothing against hotels, but why do they always look the same, tedious high-rise boxes with no sense of architectural grandeur or sense of time or place.

When you look at some of the wonderful buildings that the city can boast of from times gone by, it’s embarassing to think that this sort of stuff will be the legacy of our era. Come on, all you professional architects, use your imagination and create something a bit more original.

J W

Merchant City

Shock, horror, richer people who are better educated look after themselves better than people from poorer areas (Glasgow’s life expectancy gap, December 13).

People in richer areas are most often (1) better educated and will know the difference between health and unhealthy foods, (2) more likely to exercise and (3) most likely in full time employment, keeping their mind sharp and stopping them from, say, having a drink during the day.

John Smith

Posted online

IT made me smile to see your story about the competition winner who wants to buy his 60-year-old wife a hamster with the £500 prize money (Glasgow Times, December 13). It’s great that in these strange and uncertain days, there’s still people who don’t take life too seriously!

L S

Glasgow