Our country, our future, our terms
THE letters page of The Herald is no place for a history lesson.
James Cormie’s assessment (April 22) that the Act of Union “rescued Scotland from its thirdworld status” is, however, so ignorant, misleading and inflammatory, that he should surely be asked to read about the many Navigation Acts, The Act of Settlement, The Aliens Act and The Equivalent, and what followed for Scotland, including Culloden, over the very next 100 years.
He could then perhaps reflect on lessons learned.
In terms of debt, the sooner Scotland extracts itself from the bankrupting, magic money-tree mess of Brexit, HS2, Crossrail and the Covid national debt – as created by Westminster cronyism, corruption and incompetence – the better.
Scotland’s future is internationalist co-operation in a pandemic-alert world, aware that no matter how many billions are spent on unusable, unstable nuclear missiles stored for “safety” just outside a remote and expendable city somewhere near Loch Lomond, viruses pay no heed whatsoever. And the ice-caps will go on melting.
Yes, indeed, Mr Cormie: Brexit is also a disaster. Scotland did not vote for it and that’s exactly the same point that goes all the way back to that so-called “Union” in 1707.
While English votes dominate London Rule, Scotland has no real say in vital matters. Devolution has only allowed Holyrood to ameliorate, the most recent example being Covid, the care “industry”– privatised by London Rule – and the consequent suffering and deaths.
We are simply a different nation, in terms of environment, culture, economy and outlook – the oldest in Europe – with a long, long history of non-predatory internationalism. We should be looking to the future on our own terms. We need our own independent government, not the looming, extremely dangerous “power grab”.
Frances Mckie, Evanton, Ross-shire.
JAMES Cormie reminds the people of Scotland that the Westminster Government can be voted out of office every five years.
Perhaps he has just arrived from Mars on the new helicopter service and is not aware that many of us here in Scotland have been trying to do that exact thing for many years without success. We need some further guidance from Mr Cormie to improve our deficient grasp of arithmetic.
Willie Maclean, Milngavie.