Letters II: Establishment power is maintained by oppressing and controlling women

I must confess that he can take the credit to lifting the veil from this man’s eyes. Like many men, I was brought up with please and thank you, encouraged to open doors for ladies and also taught that respect of others is the only possible way that you can achieve this valued resource to be given to yourself.

I was very fortunate to be brought up in a household that could boast a strong woman who exercised her authority with compassion and understanding, quick to smile with pride, to laugh with her children and to radiate her affection, she taught me of humility, equality and that the journey of life was measured by how you travelled not what you amassed.

I have been hearing of the inequality that women suffer my whole life. It is too easy for the media to pay lip service to society’s mistreatment of more than half the population. They report the words and quote the statistics but then forget till it rises above the horizon once again. But today while reading Mr Sheppard’s words I had a slight epiphany. Our society is unfair because it is a creation of the political/capitalist establishment whose position is maintained by exercising power and control over others. It is a by-product of this system of oppression that women are penalised to an even greater degree, penalised for being child-bearing.

It is time that we began to measure the success of our society by the manner of its journey through the world, not by what a few privilege of can amass. Is it not the truth that all any of us want is to live in a safe, happy environment, is it not the truth that the gift of life is the greatest gift that any of us can have? Yet we still choose to penalise the women that bring this gift to our society?

I know that our current government, the SNP, are very good at saying that they are a different breed, I know that they say they listen to the people that have joined their ranks over the last two years, but I do wonder if they actually open their ears?

I know what kind of country I want Scotland to be. We have to open our eyes and ears and realise that this world is meant for all of us: we all have talents and abilities, we all have something to give but most of all, our governing class have to open their eyes and ears and listen. We want an honest, open, fair country. We want an honest, open, fair government. We want no more of those in power talking in “political speak”, we want them to say what they say and to mean it.

Let politicians understand this is a country full of talent and invention, full of the wise and industrious, the artistic and the understanding, and they must build a society for us all, not just the privileged few. To Tommy I say sorry, yes I agree with your sentiment about women but that it goes much deeper. But I also say thank you for making me think, for having the words and wisdom to open my eyes to the absolute disparity in our society.

So Ms Sturgeon wants to survey our country? To hear what we want? If she hasn’t heard already then she isn’t actually listening.

We want a country of equality, honesty, fair taxation, that doesn’t measure its worth by how many weapons of mass destruction it has, that can say it is not leaving a legacy of pollution and hate behind.

So I believe that Tommy Sheppard should be our deputy leader because he is one that truly thinks outside the political box, but that he should be charged with the job of calling the leadership to account, of making our country a fairer better place.

Neil Morison, Dornie

British democracy makes a mockery of the word

THERE has been a lot of talk in the UK about “democracy” in recent times. Let us exam this a little more closely. The present Conservative government was elected on around 24 per cent of the registered voters.

The present Prime Minister was elected by neither the voters or even her own party! The majority of the registered electorate did NOT vote for Brexit. The head of state is unelected and King Charles is waiting in the wings.

The House of Lords is totally unelected. They include convicted criminals in their ranks.The overwhelming number of MPs have "safe seats”. There is no chance that they will lose their seats. The fabled British Constitution does not exist as most people in other countries would understand it and is made up on the hoof anyway. Fancy a little war on the side. You got it! Royal prerogative, don’t you know? But things have got better now we have a CONVENTION (plucked out of thin air) where we ask Parliament to give an opinion before the government takes action anyway.

Neither the Leave nor the Remain campaigners actually had or have a plan about Brexit’. This is a shocking lack of responsibility on their part. The majority of the present Cabinet did not vote for Leave – around two-thirds.The three main Brexiteers – Davis, Johnson and Fox – cannot agree with each other. The UK suffered a national humiliation, at the Foreign Office of all places, when Foreign Secretary Johnson was firmly put on the back foot by questioning US journalists and totally humiliated when US Secretary Kerry said: “It’s called diplomacy, Boris!” after Kerry praised him in his speech.

We hear a lot of nonsense about “Parliamentary sovereignty”. Where did that disappear to? The referendum was “advisory”. We have a Parliament to decide some of the things which are not in the national interest and Brexit clearly falls into this category. Ask those on the Costa del Sol this summer after the collapse in the pound. The majority of MPs voted to Remain. Now they only remain speechless and useless. The situation with regard to Scotland and Ireland is storing up massive problems for the future.

“One (not three) is the magic number!” at least in Scotland. We have one Tory MP who has to be Secretary of State for Scotland, one Labour MP who was shadow secretary of state until he resigned, one LibDem MP who is a liar and one Ukip MEP who was and is unknown to the majority of the Scottish electorate and was only elected due to the LibDem collapse and the list system of voting chosen to elect MEPs.

The civil service will be tied up for years trying to unravel the complexities with which they are being confronted. While they are doing this, other areas of government will take a back seat. Back in the 1960s, there existed a party called the Empire Loyalists. Today we are faced with “Brexiteers” who can be seen as the New Empire Loyalists – “the Nellies”. They want to take us back to the good ol’ days when “Johnny Foreigner” knew his place and Britannia was a player to be taken seriously. Can anyone take the UK seriously when Boris Johnson is considered fit to be Foreign Secretary? “British democracy?” More like British ‘DeMOCKracy’.

We in Scotland need to sort out our own problems. Westminster does not have the legitimacy or the inclination to do this. Let the cry go out throughout the land: “Don’t be a Nelly! Prepare now for independence!”

Daniel O’Sullivan, Milton of Campsie

ANGRY’s comment, “If Blairites get their way, they will represent only each other, not the people of Britain” is deja vu, (Owen Smith: History’s first cult of no personality, The National, September 1). For most UK MPs we are already there, where party interest comes first. This is the result of a government made up of the unelected House of Lords and the quaint, first-past-the-post (or in other words, the safe-seat-postcode-lottery) system for the Commons where the government of the day gets to change its electoral chances by altering constituency boundaries.

Thanks to the Fixed Term Parliament Act, brought in on Nick Clegg’s watch, the unelected Mrs May is unchallengeable as she attempts to push through her version of Tory Brexit.

Peter Gorrie, Edinburgh

Letters I: English firms are mocking us, no matter how we vote