Crude party politics has no part to play in tackling coronavirus

The session on April 14 revealed the aborting of inter-government discussion between our Health Secretary Jeane Freeman and the UK Government’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock, due to cancellation of same, for no apparent reason, by Westminster. The proposed subject matter was PPE supplies to front-line staff, who could only have benefited from such dialogue.

Quite apart from the appallingly bad manners, the incident showed the reluctance of Westminster to act on many past and continuing assurances of a whole “four-nation”approach to the crisis. The matter fell to be dealt with by letter from Freeman, who characteristically avoided any criticism of this action. Such distancing of the nations is championed openly by Brian Monteith of the Scotsman, who would welcome Scotland’s complete subordination to Westminster. This is also he whose newspaper championed in 2014 the decision by Edinburgh not to be the capital of an independent country, conceivably the only city in the world which would have done so. He prefers us instead to be forever a docile, compliant outpost of the elitist power group in London. Boris Johnson’s four-nation approach is mere rhetoric!

Recriminations are beginning to surface which will only compromise the processes of fighting the virus. The ambition of the newly appointed Labour leader under the guise of “holding the Government to account” is nothing more than political posturing. That party has not changed.

In the face of the predictable disasters, social and economic, it should surely have been seen as advantageous for regular face-to-face meetings of the head of each of our four nations so that a truly combined, agreed campaign would emerge. Regrettably Westminster preferred to follow its usual isolationist policy of division with theirs as the whip hand. The result of that preference is now only too obvious and no doubt will be spun into success instead of the failure it really is.

Meanwhile the Voice of Westminster, to Scots a familiar VOW, aka the BBC and its collaborators of the pseudo Scottish daily press, continue to talk down every move by our government at Holyrood aimed at defeating the coronavirus, by studiously avoiding any approval of our science-based and professionally advised campaign. This is unforgivable and will be remembered.

J Hamilton

Bearsden

WHY are all would-be experts, nurtured by the media, spending their idle hours pontificating about the effects of the virus lockdown on the economy. Every man, woman, child, dog and cat knows there are going to be issues when this pandemic is over. What people are concerned about now is: are we, our loved ones and our friends going to survive to see the post-pandemic future? How does it help the wellbeing of those in lockdown to have figures plucked out of the air of two million redundancies in a bankrupt UK. What are these pontificators looking for? What can anyone do about it? The governments are doing the right thing even if they were a bit late in starting.

The pundits can keep their conjecture to themselves until we see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Mike Underwood

Linlithgow

I VERY much agreed with the sentiments of David Smart from Brechin who despairs of the current SNP strategy. What does it gain us for Scottish independence to be silent now on the one thing the SNP exists for? It is not being petty to call out things like Prince Charles heading to Balmoral after testing positive for Covid-19 and so on, for the simple reason that for centuries we have indulged the every whim of the establishment for fear of being seen as petty, thus perpetuating all their nonsense.

Along with others, I have had some time to think during this crisis, and amid all the talk of lifting the lockdown, I don’t want things to go back to what they were. I don’t want food banks, and the privileged 1%, I don’t want tax havens, I don’t want people using Scotland’s provisions of free care, prescriptions etc and then moaning about an extra 1% in tax. I don’t want unaccountable bankers holding the real economy to ransom. I don’t want developing countries used as sweat shops, or people in our country used as cogs in the taxpaying wheel until we fall off the perch, thereby saving the government our pensions (it’s bad enough that I have had six years of my pension nicked as a WASPI).

Now is the time for the SNP to be creating the kind of country most of us in the indy movement seem to want, not aping the UK Government and adopting right-wing policies, and not being endlessly pleading supplicants (Ruth Wishart’s apt description). We should not be doing anything to harm the UK/Scotland’s response to the pandemic, but where are our demands for things to change? Where are our plans for a new start? Even Spain has capitulated on Universal Basic Income, as has the UK Government up to a point with the Job Retention Scheme.

Kevin McKenna has rightly called out capitalism as a more insidious virus that has blighted lives for generations (aptly described as Multidep-01 and capitalvirus in recent articles) and killed many thousands before their time. It is a shame we do not have to list “poverty”, “worry”, and “multiple deprivation” as secondary causes of death on death certificates. If we did, would there not be an outcry?

Julia Pannell

Friockheim, Tayside

IN discussion about what is described as “the constitution”, too many journalists make the mistake of using popular stereotypes. Those of us who support independence are also guilty of pushing many strands of opinion into the box labelled Unionism.

For much of my life I supported the Labour Party and its candidates in campaigns. I thought that it was normal for MPs to get elected in Scotland and get on the train to go to the House of Commons.

The ravages brought about in Scottish industrial communities by Margaret Thatcher began to undermine these political norms for me. The painful political defeats of the 80s and 90s began to shift thinking. I began to consider the democratic deficit of a Scotland that voted no to the Conservatives and the disregard of those votes. The Scottish Constitutional Convention introduced a feeling of optimism about the possibility of constitutional change.

Many people who have come to support the Scottish National Party came through a gradual shift in thinking over time .

Bertolt Brecht said: “The worst illiterate is the political illiterate. He hears nothing, sees nothing, takes no part in political life. He doesn’t seem to know that the cost of living, the price of beans, of flour, of rent, of medicines all depend on political decisions.”

The way Covid-19 and its aftermath will be handled is dependent on politics. We the public must be engaged in that process.

This is inseparable from the Scotland we want to be.

This year we celebrated the 700th anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath and the 200th anniversary of the 1820 Uprising. Both efforts represent Scottish aspirations for change, not navel-gazing.

This is why I urge supporters of independence to be patient and build the consensus we need to establish an undeniable majority for independence.

Maggie Chetty

Glasgow

THERE are many examples from the past few weeks that can be used to highlight Tory Party pretentiousness, but not many can compete with the bombastic words by MP Andrew Bowie, reported recently in The National.

Although his comments were penned in The Times I wonder if he had said it to camera he would manage to keep a straight face! If you missed it, I would suggest you look it up. His words don’t match up with reality, however. Take the present pandemic where the UK Government is culpable for the situation we are in _ privatising the NHS through stealth has shone a light on the elephant in the room. Indeed, the past 10 years in particular have seen a callousness beyond words. Policies linked to ideology where the poor, sick and vulnerable have been affected the most; lack of climate change action; a love affair with weapons of mass destruction; persecution and torture of Julian Assange are all nothing short of crimes against humanity.

The inhumanity doesn’t stop at these shores either: arms sales to Saudi Arabia contributing to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, regime change in Libya and Syria, lack of compassion and support to the plight of the Palestinians, the jingoistic list goes on. The sociopaths that are in government know no shame when it comes to profit over people.

Andrew Bowie finishes his article calling for a “new Britain” to be built when the crisis is over – hopefully, and eventually, Scotland will be independent from this envisaged “new Britain”!

JC

Fife

HEADLINE: “UK flies home 1000 Britons but leaves 65,000 in limbo during pandemic.”

We are regaled by Unionists drawing “evidence” that the Union is the saving, driving force in this pandemic and its ramifications when referring to how Scotland must be grateful to the “broad shoulders”.

Well, the above headline shows the Union is useless, dysfunctional when it comes to acting on behalf of its citizens, or subjects as they are usually referred to!

Compared to countries in the EU, its response to taking back control is woeful. No doubt some backwoods Labour or Tory MP would say, as they always do, that any Holyrood response would be “worse”, which actually would mean that it is in fact “bad” under the UK. Worse is the comparative of “bad”.

John Edgar

Kilmaurs

THE Scottish SPCA has urged people to keep their dogs under control since cases of sheep worrying and wild animals such as deer being savaged or killed have increased.

Seemingly more people are exercising their dogs using rural routes during the coronavirus pandemic.

Every dog owner claims their pet is under control off the lead but this is a fallacy, as can be seen from the number of children being seriously injured and disfigured, as well as adults.

Pet owners should be reminded that farmers are legally entitled to shoot a dog which is attacking their livestock.

Appealing to the dog owners’ conscience is a waste of time. Legislation should be introduced that dogs should be on the lead at all times. This would also stop the excuse when fouling occurs and is left: “It wisnae my dog.” Will Scotland now lead the way?

Clark Cross

Linlithgow

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