IT is ironic to hear Anas Sarwar asking people in the Scottish independence movement to support the Labour Party. For years the independence movement has been asking the Labour Party to support us. Given that call has fallen on deaf ears, why should we believe that our voices will be heard by the Labour Party now? What advantage would Scotland gain from another turn on the Westminster roundabout?
In recent times Labour governments have done little or nothing to reverse Conservative legislation that has given more wealth and power to the rich and powerful. The Knight Commander of the Order of Bath has given plenty of indications that an anglocentric government under his leadership would not reverse this trend before another Tory government comes around to further increase the divide between rich and poor.
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The Scottish independence movement must resist the inappropriate wooing of Mr Sarwar and his puppet master in London. It would be better for the Labour Party in Scotland to join the independence movement and leave their southern counterpart to pursue among the English electorate the votes that they need to win a General Election.
Ni Holmes
St Andrews
WHY on earth would us Yes voters want to vote Labour when itself has no interest in Scotland’s independence?
Alan Magnus-Bennett
Fife
RHODA Meek in her first regular Sunday National column took aim at UK and Scottish Governments for her island predicament (The ignorance of both our governments is hurting our communities, Jan 7). Yes, most readers would agree top priorities are affordable housing, better broadband, more frequent ferries, steady Gaelic and arts funding.
All of these have been a part of Scottish Governments’ priorities since 1999. Rhoda would agree, I hope, that full tax-raising powers in Scotland would make the choices of policy spend much easier.
READ MORE: MP David Linden reacts after Labour snub cost of living debate
Regarding second homes, I read of problems in every country along the Atlantic Arc. Climate change and opportunity draws buyers from the cities and further inland to the quieter coasts. Galicia, Aquitaine, Brittany, Ireland, Wales and Scotland are all pinch points for young people priced out of the housing market.
Yes, the market is one issue. However, later this month, Community Land Scotland will celebrate 100 years of community landownership with the Simon Fraser Memorial Lecture at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh. Strikingly, despite the complexities we need to better understand, small communities have built new affordable homes and increased resident, active populations. Land reform, like self-government, is a far too slow process, I know.
It would be good for your readers to hear from Rhoda how Tiree responds. I look forward to future columns becoming more focused.
Rob Gibson
Evanton, Ross-shire
I FOUND much to agree with in Dr Innes Kennedy’s assessment of Scotland’s relationship with London as a colonial one (Why Scotland isn’t a colony ... and yet is, January 8).
When we remember that the basic British perception of Scotland is that our nation has at last become the extension of England it always should have been, and that the history, society, culture, sensibilities and even ethnicity we still identify ourselves by should be eroded away to nothing, “corrected” as they see it, it becomes plain Scotland will never be treated as anything more than an internal colony.
I see an opportunity, not just a complaint. If the SNP has become so desperate for effective anti-establishment causes it has to embrace the extreme wokery that’s risking estranging so many, I’d suggest they look at anti-colonialism.
The media, education, all the indoctrination with the lie that Scotland is and always was defined by its relations with the British, and other self-alienating factors, MUST all be combatted using the anti-colonialist arguments that have rocked the media and education. The evidence is enormous that they’re at least as justified here. We need to organise a movement using community-led counter-education and counter-economics to stave off an actual, documentable danger to our existence. And we need the SNP and all its support organisations to support it. How about it?
Ian McQueen
Dumfries
IT was interesting to read Tuesday’s article on the use of 3D printers to make guns. It recalls a conversation many years ago with an old armourer who stated that, given a few hours in a machine shop, he could make viable firearms and gave the example of resistance movements making Sten Guns in World War Two. Guns and the making of them were to him not a problem. He stated that getting or making viable ammunition for them was the real problem and remains so today. Cut the ammunition supply and you kill the gun problem, no matter whether 3D printed or other sourced.
Drew Reid
Falkirk
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