THE latest tragedy in the English Channel and the fine words issued by Macron and Johnson working together to defeat these murdering gangs just seems to be an emollient and allow the intensity of the news to subside.
The UK Home Office has a stated goal of reducing illegal immigration and despite all of the actions taken so far the immigration rate has increased. Increased security around ports has prevented access by previous routes into England by road vehicles.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon: Those seeking refuge are human beings not political footballs
I recall that there used to be processing centres in France where UK immigration officials would interrogate those migrants and validate their entitlement to asylum. UK regulations now require the seeker to be in the UK to claim asylum. These travellers are at Calais because they are in fear for their lives. The migrants may have family or friends in the UK, hence travelling to Calais.
The criminal gangs are not “rounding up” migrants in Afghanistan/Syria/Libya/Sub-Saharan Africa and transporting them to Calais as service for which the migrants pay. The migrants are making their own way to Calais.
READ MORE: BBC criticised over use of the word 'migrant' in Channel deaths coverage
How ironic, as these controls have created a new market for the criminal gangs currently providing the flimsy inflatables.
That’s the “free market light touch” model touted by the likes of Rishi Sunak, Priti Patel and many others in the UK Government.
Alistair Ballantyne
Birkhill, Angus
I HAVE one simple question for the Home Office anent Windrush. If they knew the details of all those they decided were illegal immigrants, so that they could deport them or put them in detention etc, why is there any need for those same people to fill in forms, apply and wait for their claims to be processed? The Home Office already knows all their details and compensation should have been almost immediate.
P Davidson
Falkirk
BRIAN Nugent (Letters, Nov 21) and others are (intentionally) misled by the figures for Scotland’s export trade. ALL goods exported from Scotland which travel through England (a high proportion) immediately lose their Scottish attribution and become UK exports to their further destinations. (It is not clear whether they get the compulsory “Union” flag stuck on.)
I understand that oil – 90% from Scottish waters despite the theft by England of 6,000 square miles of waters with three oil wells and all the fishing – is accounted for as an import to Scotland. And as mentioned in another letter, Scotland has to pay to export electricity to England.
READ MORE: Government announces 'Union Division' of British Army in 'Future Soldier' restructure
This is all part of the false accounting used by the Westminster government (all parties) to cheat and impoverish the people of Scotland. The retention of more than 40% of taxation to force us to pay a population share of things of no benefit, and often harm, to the people of Scotland – eg nuclear weapons, HS2, House of Lords, London Crossrail, London weighting, Hinkley Point etc etc, and probably the £37 billion cost of the unusable Test and Trace in England, and other defective items.
Perhaps the National could obtain some more accurate figures about exports from Scotland.
Susan FG Forde
Scotlandwell
AS we approach this St Andrew’s Day, it is important to note that St Andrew is not only the patron saint of Scotland but also of the likes of Russia, Romania, Ukraine and the Caribbean island of Barbados.
With a population of less than 300,000, Barbados also celebrates its Independence Day on November 30. In 1966, more than 300 years after the first English settlers arrived on the island in 1627, Barbados became an independent sovereign state.
READ MORE: St Andrew’s events organised by independence groups for this weekend
This year’s St Andrew’s Day in Barbados is doubly important in that it marks the removal of the Queen as head of state and the island becoming a republic, but still within the Commonwealth. Prince Charles will travel to the island for the ceremonies marking the removal of his mother as head of state.
“The time has come to fully leave our colonial past behind,” Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said in a 2020 speech prepared for Governor General Sandra Mason, who will replace the Queen as head of state after being elected president. “This is the ultimate statement of confidence in who we are and what we are capable of achieving.”
Though its name will remain simply Barbados, the removal of the monarch from an island also known as “Little England” may well sow the seeds of republicanism further across the Caribbean.
Alex Orr
Edinburgh
IF Richard Walker correctly describes Anas Sarwar’s view that we remain bound by a vote in 2014 then he has a problem. If he applied that measure to his own party then Johann Lamont would be leading it while he and the four others who filled the void in between then and now would have not (when trying to recall how many leaders had filled this gap, I had to google to be reminded of Richard Leonard).
I spy yet more inconsistency.
Archie Drummond
Tillicoultry
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