I WAS recently in Switzerland. Like Scotland, Switzerland is a small west European nation with stunning natural beauty. But there the similarities end.
Not only are the trains and roads superior to Scotland’s, but the Swiss towns I visited were clean, prosperous and bustling. I saw no homeless people on the streets, no shuttered shops, no litter, and detected no sense of hopelessness or despair.
Switzerland doesn’t have the natural resources of Scotland but they have something we don’t – a system of decentralised direct democracy, where the people are firmly in control at all three levels of government: the municipal, the regional (canton) and the federal. Direct political rights are the beating heart of Swiss direct democracy – the people’s right to initiatives (to launch proposed constitutional changes) and to referendums (to accept or reject proposed legislation).
READ MORE: Scotland must not be deceived again about our energy resources
These powers give the people the final say in how their nation is governed.
If the sovereign Scottish people had similar rights, they would be wealthier and happier. They wouldn’t have had their energy resources stolen and squandered by another nation, leaving them with nothing. Their industrial base wouldn’t have been destroyed along with whole communities. Their children wouldn’t have to leave because there are no opportunities.
They would insist on well-funded public services to which all people have a basic right.
They would be part of the world’s largest free trading bloc. They wouldn’t tolerate another nation’s nuclear weapons or go along with that nation’s continual warmongering. And they wouldn’t send their politicians to another nation’s parliament where they are ignored and ridiculed.
Direct democracy is the only governance system that allows the Scottish people to realise their sovereign power.
But to have it, we must leave this moribund Union that has so profoundly damaged us.
Leah Gunn Barrett
Edinburgh
IN her powerful article (Stop arming Israel or be complicit in war crimes, Feb 26), Sharyn Lock quoted the director of Medecins Sans Frontieres on Israel’s targeting of the Gaza health system, from a briefing to the UN Security Council.
He also stated that MDF staff in Gaza had been coming across children “as young as five” who said they just wanted to die because they could not take any more. Is there a human who would not find that devastating? Starmer and Sunak, perhaps, but have they any humanity? They would rather quibble over the wording of ceasefire motions, in Starmer’s case at least apparently taking instruction from the Israeli government on how to deal with the SNP motion last week. I was struck by the phrasing in Steph Paton’s passionate piece in the same issue, “to equivocate on the obvious truths before them”.
READ MORE: Labour MP Harriet Harman quizzed on SNP Gaza motion rejection
In his letter (Feb 26), Richard Walthew refers to Israel’s army as being “questionably named the Israeli Defence Force”. I couldn’t agree more. Given that their “day job” is the oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank, impeding their movement with road blocks and closures, carrying out arbitrary detentions and random shootings, never mind their rampage of atrocities in Gaza, I would think that in a world where truth held any sway they should be classed as a terrorist organisation.
Robert Moffat
Penicuik
I WATCHED Peston on Monday night and listened to Tory Tugendhat blaming the SNP for the debacle in Westminster last week, and this in a week which denied the SNP a “new” debate after the nonsense of last week. (Although the Speaker had ‘promised’ them one!)
They are supposed to be discussing Islamophobia in the Tory party. One only needed to hear the Baroness Warsi interview on Channel 4 last week.
Time for the SNP to leave Westminster, permanently.
Paul Gillon
Leven
THERE has been much debate recently about football, rugby, etc being broadcast free to air. Sadly, nothing has happened to achieve this. Looking at the TV schedules in Tuesday’s National I was very disappointed to see that BBC One and STV (ITV) were showing English FA Cup games in the evening – viewing times of two hours and 30 mins and two hours and 50 mins respectively.
In Scotland we have our own independent association, the SFA, so why are we importing televised matches from another country? Would France, Germany etc put up with this? No, so why do we have to tolerate this situation?
Sports played in Scotland should be given priority and if anyone wishes to watch English or any other national association games, they could choose to pay accordingly. At the moment, Scots have no choice! This is not acceptable.
Angus Ferguson (Killie fan)
Glasgow
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