BRAVO to Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh (Britain’s days in control of islands are numbered, Feb 16). Her highlighting of criminality by successive British governments is something that should be shouted by every self-respecting inhabitant of this island called Britain!

The treatment of the people of the Chagos Islands by Westminster casts shame on us all! For those who don’t know of Diego Garcia and the clearance of its population, I recommend a viewing of John Pilger’s documentary Stealing a Nation. You’ll see there’s a good reason why you probably have never heard of it!

I first heard of it in the 1970s when, as a medic in the British Military Hospital in Hong Kong, I met a young lad, a patient in the Royal Navy, who had been evacuated off Diego Garcia for treatment.

READ MORE: The Chagos Islands and the decades-long battle for justice

I asked him what Diego Garcia was; it sounded Hispanic, to me. He told me it was this British Indian Ocean Territory which had a small Royal Navy contingent to show it was British but, actually, was a huge US military establishment where the B52s that bombed Vietnam flew from, and it also refuelled the US 7th Fleet. He didn’t tell me there had been an expulsion of the people whose home it had been: I don’t think he knew of that.

This is a crime which has parallels with the atrocity of the Highland Clearances: the difference is it has been done during the lifetime of many of us and it has been done in our name! It has brought shame to us all!

Ned Larkin
Inverness

THE case of Lady Grange, who was kidnapped by her husband and whisked away to St Kilda, has always proven intriguing and we are soon to discover more about her life on the island after the uncovering of a dwelling she resided in.

Born the child of John Chiesley, who was convicted of murder and publicly hanged in Edinburgh, Rachel Chiesley met her future husband James Erskine in the early 1700s, marrying him in 1707 and becoming Lady Grange.

Lady Grange was angry at her husband’s infidelity and being a Jacobite, which he kept secret, Lord Grange was terrified that his wife would expose this as the marriage descended into trouble. Straight from a Netflix drama, Lord Grange and his co-conspirators kidnapped Lady Grange from her home in the middle of the night and whisked her away to North Uist, then onto Hirta in St Kilda.

She would never see him or her children again, with friends and neighbours left mystified by her disappearance, although her husband had previously held a mock funeral at Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Kirk. Lady Grange spent nearly ten years on St Kilda before dying in Skye in 1745 – and all the while still married to her husband of 25 years.

Dr Samuel Johnson said to have told St Kilda’s landlord that he might make the islands profitable if he let it be known it was a place for “naughty ladies”.

Alex Orr
Edinburgh

I HAVE wondered, over the past few weeks, why the search for a reason behind the massive fuel bill increases always ends in the same excuse – it’s just the rise in wholesale gas prices. Now it seems the real answer is very clear – it’s the £20 billion pound profit sucked out of the energy market by the likes of BP and Shell.

In a quiet moment I was looking out my window at the wind and driving rain, dreaming of what to spend my very generous £200 energy bill windfall (loan) from our good friends in the UK Government. On the basis of the old saying “if you can’t beat them join them”, in a light bulb moment I thought – I’ll buy some BP shares with my £200.

READ MORE: Energy regulator Ofgem cracks down on loyalty penalty as energy crisis continues

At the time of writing, a quick look online tells you that the price of a BP share is currently around £4, but the really good news is that is has grown in value almost 4% since 8am this morning. If this kind of daily growth rate could be maintained over the next five years, even paying back the £40 a year to my new UK Government friends, I could still be in financial heaven. BP shares have actually risen by more than 50% in the past year.

In addition to the share price increase I would presumably be entitled to dividends on my shares, in effect, my very own cut of their massive multibillion-pound profits for the next five years. Current forecasts put this at more than 4% per annum – a lot better than money in a bank or building society account. I could cut back on food, especially the very occasional fish supper, which would be good for my waistline, and instead invest this in BP as well. Turning off the central heating from now until November would reduce the gas bill and free up more cash for my investment plans.

I’m not sure what to do with my council tax £150 rebate. I suspect the tax itself will rise and probably swallow up a good part of it, but what is left should buy me an even larger slice of BP’s corporate empire.

Perhaps Kate Forbes could invest the £120 million from the Scottish Government budget which was recently allocated for tree planting in BP. If the share price continues to rise at 50% per annum she will have £60m to hand back to the taxpayer in 2023 (possibly in time for the referendum) and have only delayed her tree-planting plans by a year. Not a long time in tree terms.

If this all sounds completely mad – it most certainly is, but is no madder than the current energy market.

Brian Lawson
Paisley