WELL done Jim Fairlie for his article (Race to the bottom will ruin food industry, July 19), spelling out the main horrors awaiting not just our food industry, but every one of us in our country. This may seem a large statement; just think about it for a moment.

I was one of those who attended the meeting last Monday evening, and one of the main points I took from it was the large number of farmers from our area who were not present. Alright, some of them would still be hard at work with seasonal work, but the summer we have had has allowed most things to be reasonably up-to-date. This means that a fairly large number of farmers and food producers are still not realising just how serious the situation is.

The very real fears of the beef producer mentioned in Jim’s article were undoubtedly extremely worrying for him – I could see it all too clearly as I was sitting close by – but to contemplate jumping on the hormone bandwagon will not bring success or comfort to him in the long term.

One of the great problems, as laid bare every day, is the overwhelming desire by Messrs Gove and company to get this allegedly hugely important trade deal with the USofA when all sweetness and light will descend upon our country. Oh no it won’t! It will make little or no difference whether the White House is still occupied by the present member of the lunatic fringe or some future successor; the end result will still be the same.

Make no mistake, the aim of the US Government and state is the eventual domination of the trading systems of all the countries it can manage, including those who have “special relationships” with it, who will probably be easier to influence than more hostile regimes. If we go down the US trade deal route I think our beef farming victim will find that fairly soon the price of American contaminated products, which will have flooded our markets, will have fallen so low that he will not have to worry about hormone injections or indeed much else. He will have been forced out of business altogether.

Then of course Michael Gove’s mate Mr Goldsmith will be able to get on with the re-wilding of Scotland to his heart’s content, and we could look forward – those of us who are left – to the arrival of big game safaris as was the privilege of colonies in the past!

The very serious situation facing the food and agriculture industry means there is a need to convince a lot of the custodians of our countryside who have traditionally voted Tory that the time has come when they should seriously rethink the situation. The only viable route to protect our quality food industry is to have an independent country where we control our own destiny. Once that is achieved, those who hold Tory values dear would then still be able to vote for them in a new Scottish context.

We must also remember that subsidies to farmers are not just a hand-out of easy cash to the recipients. That cash, wherever it comes from, is life’s blood for the rural communities, being spent throughout all the various business enterprises large and small in the area right down to that which keeps your local village shop, garage and countless other businesses surviving.

George M Mitchell
Dunblane

READ MORE: Race to the bottom will ruin food industry​

YOUR report, “Hundreds of White Helmets rescued” (July 23) contains a series of inaccuracies, most of which are usefully corrected in the statement of Peter Ford, who was UK ambassador to Syria from 2003 to 2006. In challenging Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s account, he says: “The White Helmets most definitely have not assisted all sides in this conflict. From the beginning they have only operated in rebel-held areas. Government-controlled areas have the real Syrian Civil Defence and Syrian Red Crescent. This is quite a big whopper on the government’s part ... secondly, the White Helmets are not volunteers. They are doing jobs for which they are paid by Western governments. They have a press department 150 strong, bigger than that for the whole of the UK ambulance service. The claims of saving over 115,000 lives have never been verified. The co-location of their offices with jihadi operation centres has been documented.”

The misleading description of this organisation is one thing but that last sentence is rightly raising serious concerns in some of the places (UK, Germany, Canada) where immigrants of very questionable background are to receive asylum. Are local councils aware of Mr Hunt’s “big whopper”?

It is also odd that, as government forces retake this rebel-held area, such rescue priority has been given to the White Helmets.

Murdo M Grant
Rosemarkie

READ MORE: White Helmets to relocate in West after rescue from Syria​

I NOTE with interest the feverish discussion about how the White Helmets are going to be “exfiltrated” out of Syria and relocated in the West. Why? If they were the humanitarian group they purported to be, ministering to all Syrian civilians, why are they in fear of their lives?

The truth is infinitely more unpalatable. They worked exclusively in terrorist-held areas and were in fact part of the invasion of Syria. They were not volunteers, but paid collaborators and fighters working for Britain and America. Ordinary Syrian civilians had never even heard of them, whilst they were filming their appalling propaganda videos for Western consumption. In their off-air time they were involved with the murderous head-chopping of Daesh and the al-Nusra Front, now called Jaish al-Islam (the army of Islam), all funded by the Western allies.

Britain is not known for its care and compassion towards indigenous collaborators in any conflict. They are invariably left to suffer a horrible fate meted out by their own governments. Remember the Afghan interpreters who were refused asylum in Britain, and left to be picked off mercilessly by the Taliban?

So what’s all the fuss about rescuing the White Helmets? It’s because they were the recipients of arms and chemical weapons, sometimes by road through Turkey, sometimes by air-drop directly to strategic positions, and always under the guise of aid/medical supplies from the concerned Western alliance. When the Syrian Government eventually liberated Douma and al-Ghouta (where no chemical attack ever took place) they found an underground city full of Syrian hostages, 5000 of them, and an arsenal of conventional and chemical weapons with their countries of origin stamped on them – USA, UK, Israel and Germany. Daesh agreed to release the hostages, to much rejoicing from distraught relatives, and they did release 100, then massacred the rest.

The White Helmets know too much. If they are not extirpated, oh sorry I meant exfiltrated, then the Syrian Government will pick them up, interrogate them, and a mound of beans will be spilled. It’s all unravelling, the lies we’ve been told for years.

If the exfiltration through Israel and Jordan actually is successful, be prepared to welcome some murderers to a street near you.

If you have doubts about my in-depth understanding of this situation, check with Peter Ford, the ex-ambassor to Syria.

Judith Jaafar
London