The systems are broken

IN his thought-provoking article on the need for real change in the body politic Neil Mackay issues a challenge for real change.

Independence of itself is of no value unless you say and outline what you intend to do with it. The harsh fact is that both the Holyrood and Westminster systems are broken and indulge themselves in a cosmetic confrontation over Scotland’s independence when there are equally strong calls for a complete reorganisation of central governments in these isles with a greater emphasis on returning more political and economic power to communities. Power up, not power down.

Mr Mackay, of course, is right. The slaying of the pandemic is of first priority and one of the key elements of real change is creating an all-embracing public health service that covers systems to deal with a situation like Covid should it ever, God forbid, happen again.

We need a system that listens to the front line, for example GPS, and one that recognises the creation of a responsible care system that is part of that service and is long overdue.

Real independence means creating an economic structure that stimulates small businesses and social enterprises as well as ensuring employees in larger organisations having a role in decisions and also having a fair holding of some of the shares in the company that employs them.

It means also that Scotland can play a role with associated countries via the likes of the Nordic Council, a recreated British Isles Council and having meaningful trade relationships with them and others like the EU, like Switzerland, without being subservient to the political vagaries of over-centralised bureaucracies where the people have little say.

Chic Brodie,

Leader, Scotia Future,

Ayr.

PETER Mclagan, Scotland’s first black MP, represented the county of Linlithgowshire from 1865-1893. Born of mixed parentage in Demarara in 1823, his father, also named Pete, was the joint owner of a coffee plantation in what is now British Guyana. With money which his father obtained as compensation from the sale of “his” slaves he returned to Scotland with his father and older brother, Henry.

Listed as a graduate from Edinburgh University in 1842 he then was noted as a keen agriculturalist and helped establish the Scottish Chamber of Agriculture. After the death of his father in 1860 he inherited the estate of Mid-calder and Pumpherston ( his elder brother having pre-deceasd him in 1850). In 1865 he was approached by his local Liberal Association and was asked to represent them in Parliament.

This he duly did and won seven successive Parliamentary elections, thereby becoming the longest-serving Scots MP during the reign of Queen Victoria.

Now considering the fankle that the relevant authorities at Edinburgh University are currently engaged in over the renaming of the David Hume Tower, might I suggest that Mr Mclagan’s name be considered for this “vacancy”?

David Main,

Bathgate.