SO the Right Honourable Sir Keir Starmer, Knight Commander of the Order of Bath’s great plan for Scotland is to have our duly elected First Minister sitting on a “Council of the Nations and Regions” with the mayors of English regional authorities!
Downgrading our devolved government to the status of a region of England where our First Minister will have to compete with English mayors for table scraps from the government in London is an insult to all of Scotland. Starmer goes even further and sidelines our First Minister with the intention to use the Westminster-controlled “Scotland Office” to promote Scotland through UK trade and diplomatic networks.
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I have no respect for the right-wing Labour Party that evidently has no respect for me or my country.
To paraphrase Burns:
London powers wha mak Scotskind your care,
And dish us out your bill o’ fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
If ye wish her gratefu’ prayer
Gie her her independence.
Ni Holmes
St Andrews
ON Sunday evening last I watched an Alastair Sim film from 1959 called Left, Right & Centre. The plot concerns a by-election in the fictional North England constituency of Earndale, which to simplify the story is a two-way contest between Labour and Tories. The Labour candidate Stella Stoker (Patricia Bredin) and the Tory Robert Wilcox (Ian Carmichael) find themselves hopelessly attracted to each other and fall in love! Note how the character names establish their working-class and upper-class backgrounds!
It is, for the most part, a rather silly film but no Alastair Sim film is totally without merit and this has some amusing moments, none more so than the mix-up of visiting guest speakers owing to confusion at the local railway station!
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The faceless Tory bigwig from Conservative HQ is taken to a meeting of the Labour Party faithful and the top union leader from Transport House is taken to address the Tory supporters! Both address the wrong meetings and both get standing ovations!
Sharp political satire, yes, but more pertinent to now than to 1959, as Starmer adopts a deeper and deeper blue Tory mantle!
The scenario may have seemed very far-fetched in 1959 but as Starmer shape-shifts into complete Tory mode it is a scenario that is bang on the money in 2024.
Drew Macleod
Wick
IS Callum McGregor living in a parallel universe? I’ve just read two articles in the Sunday National (Jun 16), “Midfielder vows to prove doubters wrong after Germany humiliation” and “Celtic captain refuses to pin blame on Porteous after Red-Card error”.
I’m not alone when I ask “what were Stevie Clarke’s tactics on Friday night” because the 11 Scottish players were running about like headless chickens. The entire team hadn’t a clue and, right from the off, Germany made it clear what their tactics were – “attack, attack, attack”, and boy were they good at it. Scotland had nothing to offer in whatever “tactics” Clarke had planned.
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We then get to the red-card incident!
I challenge Callum McGregor to look at a replay of the video, in real time, and see the tackle by Porteous . It doesn’t take VAR to confirm it is a penalty kick and a red-card, particularly when the video is played slowly and you see the feigning of injury by Porteous .
All this from a player who has a record of red-card incidents in his senior career.
I watched the Hungary v Switzerland game on Saturday. The pundits are expecting to take four points from these teams. Well, I’ve got news for the pundits and the Scottish team, Mr McGregor in particular: you’ll be lucky if you get one point from either of these teams. They will run and play you off the park.
Remember, Stevie Clarke put out his “best” team on Friday, but his first choice Ryan Porteous cannot play and I predict a “thumping” from Switzerland.
Stevie Clarke made his name in Scottish football with Kilmarnock and that’s the extent of his “football brain”. He is out of his depth and I’m confident he will be booted out after the Euros.
We don’t have anyone waiting in the wings and Clarke will get a bumper pay-off having been found out he isn’t up to the task, then the circus to find his replacement will start all over again.
Scotland has had some great managers and some real duds, but Stevie Clarke is the worst I’ve ever seen. He’s reached a real low, and I’m measuring him against Vogts, Strachan, Ally MacLeod and a couple of others.
I would love Scotland to do well at international level but it just isn’t going to happen in its present set-up.
Jim Todd
Cumbernauld
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