After by-elections, Boris Johnson should take his own advice and 'move on'

No, it was the Conservatives’ vote in both constituencies that was the shock. The Conservatives received more than 30% of the vote in both constituencies, quite astonishing considering the country is in crisis and the PM’s approval ratings are non-existent.

READ MORE: Boris Johnson wants to continue as Prime Minister until 'mid-2030s'

Those by-election results resemble politics here in Scotland. Rejecting the Conservatives, yet it will be business as usual in Downing Street, taking voters for granted, treating voters with contempt.

The voters have taken the PM’s advice and “moved on”; the PM’s must heed his own advice for the country’s sake.

Catriona C Clark
Falkirk

IN her letter of June 23, Glenda Burns indicates that a non-Section 30 referendum would require 50% plus 1 of the total electorate to win. I would disagree as a precedent was set by the EU ref when about 37.5% of the electorate in a consultative referendum took us out. I do not see non-voting at a referendum as any different than non-voting in General Election or toon cooncil vote.

M Ross
Aviemore

CHARLIE Kerr (Letters, June 23) correctly says “The Treaty of Union (states) that Scottish Law would remain separate”, and “our laws are protected by The Treaty of Union”.

Can someone explain how the UK Supreme Court in London came into being, and how can it supersede Scottish law? Is this a precedent for Holyrood rescinding the Treaty?

Jim Clark
via email

I THINK I’ve missed something, in listening to the English talking about an independent Scotland. It struck me more listening to the Murdo Fraser interview on GB News. The interviewer kept on saying he liked to visit Scotland, it was a good place to visit, as if they’re not going to be able to visit Scotland after independence.

Is an independent Scotland somehow going to block people from coming to Scotland, is Hadrian’s wall suddenly going to miraculously be rebuilt to block off Scotland from the rest of England? Does Scotland suddenly disappear after a Yes vote?

READ MORE: Murdo Fraser inadvertently hit the nail on the head in his latest interview

It seems strange after all the time and effort the Scottish Government has put in to stating an independent Scotland would be a place of welcome to everyone who comes to stay or visit.

As Murdo stated we have a lot to give to the world it seems inconceivable that people will be barred from coming to Scotland. Unless they’re like my brother who lives in Cornwall and said that he would never come up to Scotland if it was an independent country. Which is their loss, I guess.

Paul Gilchrist
via email

LAST week I watched a really interesting programme entitled Lenny Henry’s Caribbean Britain presented by the comedian. Lenny was born in Dudley in the West Midlands in 1958, his parents having immigrated at some point earlier from Jamaica.

The programme starts with Lenny recounting that when he was young his mum stressed to him and his siblings that they had to integrate with the local community.

He said she told them: “You have to integrate. You must go to the people of Dudley and talk like them, talk to them, mingle with them, eat their food, try not to box them down. Integrate, otherwise you won’t fit in.” Lenny added he therefore “tried to fit in”.

Lenny said as he grew older he tried to think what does integration actually mean. He said, “Does it mean that we as a Caribbean people have to sacrifice our culture? How much of my culture has Britain absorbed?” The programme goes on to explore these aspects.

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As an auld punk, totally daft about The Clash, it was heart warming being reminded in the programme that there was that period during the late 1970s when there was very much a meshing of traditional white and Caribbean communities through a mutual love of music.

To explain, The Clash were very much influenced by reggae music, doing their own punk versions of reggae classics such as “Pressure Drop” and “Police and Thieves.” Of course this was repeated for other music from the Caribbean such as Ska, with Madness probably being the most famous group that reflected this.

Lenny’s mum, in a very well meaning way of course, concerned about the welfare of her family, seemed to have a very one-way idea of integration. In reality that was often the case back then and to some extent nowadays, mainly due to racism, but surely this has to be a two-way process, as admirably shown by The Clash.

From the last census in 2011 ethnic minorities made up 14.7% of the English population. The corresponding figure for Scotland was only 4%. Almost two years ago I attended a BLM protest in Dunfermline in the local park on a lovely sunny day. One after another the speakers spoke about racist type incidents they and their families had to endure in the past here in Scotland.

One heart-breaking one was a mum saying her little boy had invited classmates round for his birthday party, only for him to be told by one of them, “My dad says I can’t go to a blackie’s party”. That is so awful.

I think too many people in Scotland that comprise the 96% either convince themselves racism/Islamophobia/xenophobia, etc aren’t a problem up here or at least it’s definitely not as bad as England or the US.

I shall soon be 62 and I can assure you throughout my life I can’t personally recall many people pro-actively raising the subject of racism in a conversation. It’s a topic that seems to often just get ignored and it took the eight minutes 46 seconds slow torture to death of George Floyd to wake the world up. That’s a well shi**y state of affairs!

We in Scotland can do much better. We should all stand up and challenge those in any conversations in day to day life that resort to the usual tropes of many racists, usually disguised as “genuine” concerns about immigration. Nae bairn in Scotland should have to endure such a horrendous rejection to his birthday party invite.

Ivor Telfer
Dalgety Bay, Fife

BOOKED online for park and ride on way to the Eagles concert at Murrayfield. Park was overcrowded and no staff to help. Online booking should have meant a guaranteed space but apparently not. On return to my car I then waited, with hundreds of others, for an hour and 45 minutes before being able to exit. It took less time to get back to Dumfries. Again no staff to manage traffic flows. People getting angry, trying to escape by driving through hedges etc.

After an hour I, and others phoned to report problem to police as I was concerned that there may be road rage starting. Management were aware of the demand so should have been prepared. Shockingly bad. I will never use that facility again. So much for encouraging us to use public transport.

Wonder how the guy trapped in the bushes managed to get his car free?

Chick McKenna
Dumfries

THIS morning’s small stroll in a quiet urban area was totally ruined by an aggressive seagull. It’s common news these days: aggressive seagulls attacking members of the public.

“Oh they’re just protecting their young,” comes the defence. Well, I always thought birds were quite intelligent; on the contrary, seagulls must be as thick as two short planks if they think us humans are up to the job of scaling the outside of a house and getting close to their nest.

No other animal actively goes out of its way to attack Joe Public in the UK. And yet it is a problem that we fail to properly tackle, thinking we should put up with it for a short spell until the wee yins grow up.

Well, I’m sorry, but something needs to be done here. In short, we need to start killing or culling seagulls in towns and cities.

“Ah but, they’re a protected species,” comes that weary defence. Well, as far as I’m concerned if anything attacks me I will defend myself, even if that means killing it.

“But they don’t make physical contact,” comes that same old weary defence, “so they’re not causing an injury.” Nonsense. The stress and trauma that goes hand in hand with a seagull swooping low over your head and screeching can have an impact on your heart, and so is causing an injury.

We’ve poo-pooed this problem for far too long; it’s now time for action. If Avian Flu were to accidentally find its way into the seagull population in towns and cities, I for one would be delighted to see thousands of seagulls drop down dead!

Edward Burns
Glasgow

RECENT events in Israel do not bode well for western democracies. With the break-up of the coalition parties, Benjamin Netanyahu is making moves to retake Israel under the Likud Party (National Liberal Movement).

What’s that got to do with us?

Israel is often used as a “bell weather” state, where activities there are preludes to what often happens in America, and as we all know the wind that sweeps America frequently drops it’s spindrift on the UK after a 3000 mile trip across the pond.

Netanyahu has been investigated by Police and Investigators for Breach of Trust, Corruption, Bribery and Fraud, and was required to step down from his ministerial roles, except Prime Minister, until his ousting in 2019.

Currently Trump is making the same noises across the pond, as he and his cohorts are planning to destablise the US House of Representatives at the 2024 elections. Trump is as we all aware being investigated as to his contribution to the insurrection that he is alleged to have instigated over some months and stoked on the days prior and on the day of the attempted coup, January 6 2021.

In the UK we have a dysfunctional democracy and both Netanyahu and Johnson have lived and worked in the good ol’ US of A. Netanyahu is bosom bodies with “The Donald”, as is Boris.

“Cutting the head off the monster” by removing in this instance (instances) Johnson, Trump and Netanyahu, is not the full answer. The body will regrow a new head. In the UK the head will be selected by the grouping which wields the most power, the ERG or CRG or NRG groupings of Politicians, English voters don’t see these sub-labels on the Ballot paper.

What about Labour, you may well ask, Yes what about Labour? Nowhere.

Scotland’s 59 MPs in Westminster are treated very badly, exemplified by the Minister of State for Scotland Alister Jack’s comment to another Scottish MP to just “suck it up”.

Scots need to escape being controlled by UK is our only option. EU/EFTA/EEA groups have a far better track record.

There will be other crises; Wars; Floods; Famines and all sorts of bad stuff that will happen, taking responsibility for our own actions is our right and our responsibility.

Don’t let the short term cloud the long term.

Alistair Ballantyne
Birkhill, Angus