MICHAEL Fallon, recently knighted by Her Majesty, and now former defence secretary, resigned after a folly and possibly more to be revealed (The National, November 2).
However, his greatest follies are there to be seen. Trident renewal, the two aircraft carriers, the boasting of selling arms to the Saudis and how Brexit can boost UK weapon sales. Other aspects of his policy need to be explored. The role of UK armed forces personnel in Saudi Arabia “advising” on military tactics and other concealed ventures with the Saudi regime.
Many will be welcoming the resignation of this somewhat pompous man who tended to bombastic exaggeration. Whenever Russian planes flew in international air space close to the country or Russian warships passed by in international waters, Fallon would pop up and declare we were being encircled and the Russians were seen off! Fallon’s features in the media were a regular, at times, comic slot.
The current revelation of misdemeanours within Parliament and the Brexit impasse due to incompetence within No 10 simply indicts further the “ruling elites” in this incorporating Union of 1707. It is not simply the failings of the May government we need to focus on, but the whole system underpinning the ancient Westminster two-party duopoly. Its Labour mirror image is too no better. Its leader is a Westminster-centrist.
What will tomorrow reveal?
John Edgar, Stewarton
WILL Keir Starmer, Labour shadow Brexit secretary, prove to be as effective at breaching the Tory dam as Barnes Wallis was in the Ruhr Valley?
Despite the Government seeking shelter from the motion to release the Brexit impact studies by abstaining, the use of a “humble address” does seem to make the motion binding on the Government according to the speaker, who, unfortunately, resisted calls to indicate a time frame in which the Government must respond.
As with the bouncing bomb however, once loose a number of “bounces” occur before the impact studies will be released, not least of which is the instruction that the 50 per cent Tory weighted Exiting the European Union Committee will take the final decision, and of course there is the matter of whether the impact studies will be redacted to obfuscation?
Politics currently heaps woe upon woe on an increasingly weak-looking May: sex scandals; Brexit; votes of no confidence – maybe the perfect storm is upon her? Odds of 25/1 on another 2017 General Election aren’t encouraging but may well prove to be a prudent wager.
Maybe a more dependable forecast came from Dennis Skinner’s point of order in last night’s debate: “I know that Mr Speaker likes to reply to points of order, so I will just throw him one. He and I have been here a long time, so, like me, does he feel that the Government are dying on their feet?”
Piers Doughty-Brown, Glasgow
WHILST agreeing with most of the points in the letters and articles on the Catalan crisis I feel there has to be a bit more balance on the issue.
I lived in Barcelona in 1988-89, teaching English and attending a local university. I travelled around the region and met many people. The main pro-independence party that ran the Generalitat, the autonomous Catalan parliament, was the centre-right, pro-business Convergencia y Unio. Many of their supporters were prosperous and clearly were doing well under the status quo. The traditional picture of the revolutionary movement fighting for independence being made up of the poor and oppressed simply wasn’t true.
The city was very cosmopolitan and its economy was booming. The lower-paid and unskilled jobs were filled mostly by people from the poorer regions of Andalucia and Extremadura. They, of course, spoke Castilian (Spanish) and most of their bosses spoke Catalan.
Most of the Catalan nationalist sentiment came from people outwith the capital in towns like Vic, Girona, Lleida and the most militant of all, Ripoll. Slogans and graffiti were everywhere; most of it, despite the bilingual road signs, urged more use of the Catalan language. Some of the sentiment, however, was clearly scathing of Spanishness, much of it in foul language.
The region is separated from the rest of Spain by the River Ebro. Frequent references were scrawled on walls that everything south of the river was “Africa”. In other words it was inferior, economically and culturally.
I also lived in Madrid and the feeling among some Madrilenos was also negative when it came to Catalunya. There was still an extreme right-wing element within the Guardia Civil, the national police force. The Valley of the Fallen, a shrine to Francoism and its ideals, still exists outside Madrid, and is still visited by Francoists as a shrine. Although this force was, in time, reformed to a certain extent some of its successors were evidently alive and kicking at the referendum a month ago.
Finally, I made many friends who were both Spanish, Spanish and Catalan and others who only saw themselves as Catalan. They weren’t bad people.
Catalonia should be independent and inclusive if and when the people want it: it may take another, internationally recognised, referendum. If it achieves this then Spain will suffer as it will lose its richest region. That, nevertheless, is the cost of democracy and Mariano Rajoy and his government should be candid about that.
James Cormack, Dumbarton
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