Blair is deliberately obscuring the reality of our place in this Union

Even without a campaign to forensically examine and promote the eminently logical and sensible arguments for Scotland’s independence, the polls tell us that already half the electorate desire and would vote for it. Were independence to have been put at the heart of this General Election, who doubts that after 14 years of the most draconian Tory government – and with the prospect of yet more Tory-style austerity with the incoming Labour administration following Tory mantra and fiscal rules – the clamour for independence would be even greater?

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What is holding back independence is not devolution, but the inaction of our so-called “independence first” Scottish governing party that’s obviously bottling the issue and strangling it on the alter of being nice, meek and not wanting to rock the sinking boat.

However, what really angers me about Blair’s intervention is that he and his establishment friends deliberately obscure the fundamental truth of Scotland’s place in this Union. They now deny that we are the “partners” they claimed us to be in the 2014 referendum; don’t we all remember the tissue of lies Labour’s Blair, Brown, Darling, Robertson et al told us back then?

The fact is, the Treaty and Act of Union did form the union between the nations, but at no time during this process did Scotland become a shire of England. Of course the background to the event was not democracy, despite the pseudo-parliamentary illusion in place at the time. And shouldn’t we remember the expressed antipathy to it at the time, which was quelled by the British Army?

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Scotland remains a legal and historical nation in its own right and with a Claim of Right acknowledged by the UK Parliament itself; albeit in reality a nation tethered substantially against its will through disproportionate English power and democracy deficit to the UK.

Let’s be quite clear, it’s not devolution that has “worked” as “designed” to keep Scotland within the UK, rather it’s the wholesale denial of Scotland’s nationhood by the UK establishment – using the BBC and other media to espouse its propaganda – and democratic and sovereign right of Scots to decide for ourselves whether we wish to remain part of this Union, or resile from it and be independent.

Tony Blair, his so-called Labour party, and the rest of the UK establishment talk a good game about democracy, but theirs is a fascist control over Scots’ rights, not the expression of democracy they like to claim it to be.

The naked truth is that Scotland is a richly resourced prize this UK Union is reluctant to give up willingly. Playing the weak and meek “child” will never persuade our overbearing “parent” to relent. We’re on a trajectory of the status quo persisting. We’re not throwing down the gauntlet.

Which means Blair and his henchmen continue to win, and Scotland continues to lose.

Jim Taylor
Scotland

THE impartiality of Question Time has been commented on. I watched the programme from Edinburgh with Forbes, Noon, Ross, Sarwar and Anderson. Throughout the programme I noted which guest was interrupted or talked over by Fiona Bruce. I don’t claim that the following results are 100% accurate but they are generally what I heard.

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Noon – no interruptions; Anderson – no interruptions; Sarwar – three interruptions; Ross – eight interruptions; Forbes – 19 interruptions. Moreover, Bruce talked over Forbes several times, preventing her from making her point, particularly during the oil and gas question, in one case inviting the audience to agree with the point she (Bruce) was making.

Fiona Bruce cannot be said to be impartial in her dealings with the people on the show from Edinburgh. Since I rarely watch Question Time now I cannot comment on whether this was a one-off aberration on her part.

In the past I would have contacted the BBC with my comments but I have had too many of their “We are right, you are wrong, and there is nothing you can do about it” type of answers, hence this letter.

Sandra Durning
Glasgow

I AM probably not alone having campaign material from my Labour General Election candidate telling me how they are going to “save the NHS” from SNP incompetence.

Of course, being Labour, there is no explanation of the how.

For example: How can a Labour MP “save NHS Scotland” when it is the sole remit of Holyrood to run NHS Scotland?

The only way a Labour MP can “save NHS Scotland” is to ensure they lobby Mr Starmer’s incoming government to put additional funding into NHS England to increase the proportion in the current Barnett Formula calculation which goes to Scotland.

Yet wait and ponder.

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Mr Streeting is not talking about a real-terms increase in NHS England funding but rather “opening up more of the NHS provision in England to the efficiencies of the private medical sector”.

Analysis tells us that Mr Starmer’s proposed economic plan is no different to the outgoing Tories’ current plan, austerity with bells on.

Where are any Labour MPs from Scottish constituencies going to find the additional funding NHS Scotland actually needs (the only part they have any influence on) as UK public finances are squeezed yet again?

Maybe Mr Swinney should ask Mr Sawar just how are Labour going to save the NHS, next time he is bleating about the state of the UK’s best-performing NHS: Scotland’s, as run by the SNP.

Peter Thomson
Kirkcudbright