Picture of the day
security themselves and not from the public purse.
Their celebrations of hate and discrimination have no place in any modern democratic Scotland.
Owen Kelly
Stirling
WHAT a great International Women’s Day paper from
The National yesterday – so refreshing to have all these great women contributors. They are all the very epitome of smeddum.
With this depth of talent, independence is vital to allow them and Scotland to flourish. Well done to all involved!
Angus Ferguson
Glasgow
HOW can the Tory Party keep quiet about the big con trick of this week’s Budget? Its messaging on repeat is that “the average taxpayer will be £900 better off by the end of the year”, when, as the BBC’s Amol Rajan says, they are more likely to be £900 worse off because the tax
READER Calum McKenzie took this dramatic photograph during a walk on a cold and foggy morning at Whitelee Windfarm
The women who wrote for your special edition are all the very epitome of smeddum
bands have been frozen for some years to come. When Gordon Brown pulled a rabbit out of the hat, it was usually a benefit. When Jeremy Hunt tries it he pulls out a dead rabbit. Does this Tory government think that the average person believes this nonsense?
Since Ms Truss, in one day, raised inflation to levels higher than 10%, incomes may never catch up with or even get near the cost of living. Mike Underwood, Linlithgow
CAN someone please explain to me the logic or morality of America’s actions in making a Port in Gaza?
What is the point of putting aid in through the back door when you are putting arms through the front door – and the same goes for all the other countries supporting the war and suffering in Gaza. The US and the UK must stop supplying arms to Israel. The phrase “make it make sense” comes to mind.
Winifred McCartney Paisley
GEORGE Galloway, love him or loathe him, was voted in as the MP for Rochdale in a democratic vote held under legitimate voting procedures in an allegedly democratic country.
Yet the following day, the Prime Minister stated openly, in a national address, that “it’s beyond alarming that ... the Rochdale by-election returned a candidate who dismisses the horror of what happened on October 7, who glorifies Hezbollah and is endorsed by Nick Griffin, the racist former leader of the BNP”.
No mention of the daily horrors being inflicted on those trapped in Gaza, a topic which was certainly to the forefront in “alarming” Galloway’s campaign.
Instead we were subjected to a diatribe on the extremism of those who dare to protest peacefully (except, presumably, Welsh farmers) against undefined “British values”.
Rishi Sunak insulted the people of Rochdale for daring to vote for their chosen candidate and demeaned the office of Prime Minister by challenging the concept of peaceful protest in a democracy.
And where was the condemnation from His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition of this clear attack on democracy? Nonexistent because the unholy Starmer/Hoyle collusion, through their antics on the Gaza debate, had empowered Sunak to talk about so-called extremism in these terms.
How could Keir Starmer possibly object, given his cynical undemocratic derailing of a legitimate SNP Opposition Day motion in case HIS MPs did not vote in line with HIS party?
We in Scotland are now faced with anti-democrats while trapped in an increasingly undemocratic UK. In the 2021 Scottish Parliament we secured a clear mandate – in terms of both seats and votes cast for independence-supporting parties – for indyref2. This mandate has been rejected out of hand by these anti-democrats.
What now? The SNP need urgently to tell us what the General Election strategy is to secure independence, so we can get on with it and, in the meantime, our MPs need to disrupt and cause chaos at Westminster with its ludicrous protocols to be followed to the letter, except when the baadSNP dare to threaten to cause a problem.
That institution and its main parties aren’t worthy of our respect, obedience or support – if they ever were.
Jean Dunlop
Glasgow
IT was without a hint of irony that Prime Minister Sunak delivered an emergency statement last Friday. This was not, as many expected, to confirm the date of the next General Election, but to face down “extremists” currently trying to undermine the UK’s “multi-faith democracy”.
In response to George Galloway winning the Rochdale by-election, the public were warned about Islamists and the far right, though most of the PM’s fire was focused on “extremists” who have been protesting against Israel’s military intervention in Gaza.
There can be few greater examples of brass neck. The Prime Minister and Conservative Party have been sowing the seeds of division for years, stoking up rancour, pandering to the far right and pitting communities against each other for electoral gain.
This was most recently exemplified by Lee Anderson MP’s claim that Labour’s London mayor Sadiq Khan was under the control of Islamists, joining the ranks of his fellow Tory politicians who have pushed the boundaries of acceptability on matters of race and immigration. The Tories have played a major role in creating a problem, which their leader now warns we must all guard against.
Alex Orr
Edinburgh