SOME correspondents in the current independence debate claim that Scotland doesn’t need additional rights or that those who are for independence should suspend their campaign until the election of 2021.
I acknowledge that others may share their views but I think that those who campaign against perceived injustice do not have the luxury of waiting until there is a more auspicious time.
The democratic deficit of the 1707 arrangement by power-hungry, ruling-class cliques in both England and Scotland has left us Scots vulnerable to whatever decisions are taken by the current ruling body.
I would argue that the last few weeks have shown once again that the Westminster elite protect themselves first, in all circumstances.
The current Conservative Party have failed to declare their true election expenses in the previous election, and possibly in the last one but it is unlikely that anything serious will come of it, possibly due to their connections in the media, police and judiciary.
The Prime Minister, Theresa May’s decision to award the Democratic Unionist Party over a £1 billion to secure their support has scarcely created a ripple in Westminster circles although this has put the Northern Ireland peace process in serious danger.
The victims of the dreadful Grenfell fire are being offered a series of unsuitable establishment figures to preside over the analysis of what happened. Most of us who remember the Miners’ Strike and Hillsborough have a fair idea of how this will go.
This behaviour may satisfy those people who believe Scotland should be associated with this form of “democracy” but I would have to declare – not in my name – people deserve better, now.
An independent Scottish Government could create more people-centred forms of democracy that would be respected in the world.
For a’ that and a’ that, It’s comin’ yet for a’ that!
Maggie Chetty
Glasgow
I WISH Hannah Bardell (The National, July 6) well with her plea to the Home Office to intervene on behalf of “Lola” and her child, but fear it will, like so many others, fall on deaf ears. The Government has no interest in amending their cruel immigration policies for the benefit of Scotland.
The First Minister’s tweet – “Hope the Home Office intervenes to help this wee girl and her mum” – is welcome, but I suspect it will have no effect whatsoever.
Following the excellent article by Neal Ascherson in The Herald, where he suggests that those of us who believe an independent Scotland would flourish should behave as if we were already, may I suggest that the Scottish Government adopts a more radical position regarding the deporting of Scottish residents and simply refuses to accept or comply with these heartless decisions.
J Fairgrieve
Gordon
AS I happen to be currently enjoying my annual pilgrimage to Orkney I was delighted to read your article about Dr John Rae, the Stromness man who contributed so much to completing the mapping of northern Canada and discovering the fate of Sir John Franklin’s expedition to the Northwest Passage. However, your image is not Rae’s tomb, as you report. Rae is in fact buried in the churchyard at St Magnus Kirk, his grave marked by a simple marble cross and flowers. What you show is his memorial in St Magnus, paid for by the people of Orkney. They were so greatly irked by the denigration of Rae’s achievements by Victorian England they decided to honour their own by public subscription in Orkney.
I’m pleased to report that in recent years Rae’s achievements have been largely restored to the position they deserve by historians and writers, and also by as a splendid new life-sized bronze statue of him in Arctic clothing, looking across from Stromness towards his childhood home at Hall of Clestrain.
Peter Craigie
Edinburgh
MANCHESTER cotton workers who went on strike in support of the African American slaves and starved should have a statue. Maybe Michelle Obama should be a patron to such a play.
I hope Jo Horrocks will do well with this project.
AC
Aberdeen
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