A prime minister’s hands can’t be tied by waiting for unlikely agreement at the UN
Both Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon have waded into the row over the missile strikes on Syria (“May forced to justify Syria air strikes to angry MPS”, Scotsman, 16 April).
This begs the question of what a prime minister is supposed to do. If you take the Labour/snp point of view the answer is nothing.
The United Kingdom voted for Brexit to “take back control”. What the left-of-cen- tre politicians are promoting is the idea that even parliament cannot really give the green light to military action if the United Nations have not approved.
There can be no one who does not realise that unanimity of the five permanent members of the UN is well nigh impossible. Corbyn, in particular, is therefore proposing handing over power from Westminster to the UN which will never be used. This may well suit his pacifistic views but it would leave the world in a far more dangerous situation.
None of us wants a war but there are several foreign governments who do not share this view. Corbyn has, once again, demonstrated his lack of credentials to be prime minister and Ms Sturgeon has just jumped in to seize an opportunity to attack the Tories, blithely ignoring her claims to be looking for a fairer and more equitable society both here and abroad.
GERALD EDWARDS Broom Road, Glasgow
In 2003 the artist Michael Franti wrote a song with the words “You can bomb the world to pieces, but you cannot bomb it into peace” in response to the bombing of Iraq. How relevant these words are in the context of the world today. Whatever readers think of the suspected chemical attack in Syria last week, the hypocrisy of the Westminster government could not have passed them by.
While our MPS are happy to condemn the use of chemical weapons on Syrian children, they are equally happy to promote the sale of conventional arms, made in the UK, to the Saudi Arabian military forces to bomb children in the Yemen.
Surely, the maiming and murder of children caught in unnecessary conflict is what is wrong, not the method used to carry it out. Our government may do well to heed the words of Michael Franti and seek political and diplomatic solutions in future, for the sake of the children, if nothing else.
JOAN ROWLEY Waverley Road, Innerleithen