Vote for Scottish Labour if you want a broken nuclear future

Scotland has two nuclear plants – Hunterston B in Ayrshire which ceased generating in January 2022 and Torness in East Lothian, which will stop generation in 2028, two years early, due to a rising number of cracks in its core – 46 so far. Cracks can lead to a reactor meltdown and release of radiation into the environment.

Yet Anas Sarwar, the inept English Labour northern branch supervisor, insists that Scotland must invest in nuclear power to cut bills. No kidding.

If he becomes first minister, he’ll no doubt approve the proposed nuclear plant at Ardeer in North Ayrshire that the current administration has rejected.

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The private sector is running a mile from nuclear power because of its out-of-control construction costs, the propensity for plants to develop cracks and the intractable problem of what to do with tonnes of radioactive waste.

Scotland doesn’t need nuclear (power or weapons). It generates the bulk of renewable energy within the failing UK, renewables that are being siphoned off by our greedy southern neighbour with the profits lining the bulging pockets of private corporations while Scots not only freeze but pay a premium for having their own energy sold back to them. Come on, Scotland. Let’s get out of here.

Leah Gunn Barrett

Edinburgh

WITH the BBC’s appointment of Hayley Valentine as the new director of BBC Scotland, can we now expect to see regular appearances of Nigel Farage on Debate Night, as well as frequently in Reporting Scotland news bulletins?

Ms Valentine is a former executive producer of Question Time and director of Mentorn, which infamously proposed the BNP’s Nick Griffin be invited on to the BBC’s Question Time panel. Ms Valentine also has the dubious credit of being the launch editor of The Nine, which saw the initial viewing figure of 750,000 drop to only a few thousand before it was axed.

With her declaration that she will defend the BBC’s coverage of the 2014 independence referendum against accusations of bias “until my dying day”, one has to question whether in selecting Ms Valentine for this ostensibly pivotal role at BBC Scotland, the BBC and director-general Tim Davie are intent on seeking to justify shutting down BBC Scotland altogether.

Certainly, if the genuine aim is to build BBC Scotland into a TV channel that at least half of the population would wish to watch regularly – those not satisfied with watching BBC news and current affairs programmes, that is – then it would appear Ms Valentine is not only a poor choice but a choice that could result in many more journalists at BBC Scotland looking for other jobs.

Should Nigel Farage’s introduction to the Debate Night panel come to pass, Stephen may come to regret the enthusiastic smile with which he greeted the egocentric populist puppet of the far-right.

Stan Grodynski

Longniddry, East Lothian

FOR my sins – and because clearly I’m a raving masochist – I sat through all four Tory contenders’ pitch to be leader of their awful party at their party conference. Predictably, there were many tropes related to defending British culture and identity. In reality, without actually saying it – because they never have the brutal honesty to do so – their pronouncements were excluding ethnic minority communities – particularly Muslims and Black people – throughout the UK, and anyone in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who has the temerity to not feel British!

In the circumstances, I thought a wee bit of homework was in order when it comes to us Scots. In the Scotland Census 2022 under the section “ethnic group, national identity, language and religion”, I was really struck by the results for national identity. A whopping 65.5% said Scottish was their only national identity whereas a mere 8.2% felt both Scottish and British! Amazingly, the figure for those that said their only national identity was British was significantly higher at 13.9%! Who the hell are these folk? Someone needs to tell the press and media in Scotland and throughout the UK that almost two-thirds of us don’t identify with their precious Britain at all! Mind you, don’t bother, yet another inconvenient truth for them to ignore!

The BBC Scotland headquarters in GlasgowIt is depressing though that almost 14% of folk in Scotland only feel British and not Scottish at all. That is a fair chunk. Clearly, the famous Scottish cringe is alive and well among some!

Apart from some ethnic minorities in England – again particularly Muslim and Black people, who I wouldn’t blame for not feeling English or British given how many of them have been treated so badly in that country over the years, and really disgracefully at the recent far-right riots – can you imagine 14% of white folk in England just feeling British and not English? Naw, that ain’t happening!

The big conundrum here, though, is that around 15%-20% of the 65.5% that are proud to feel only Scottish and forget being British still aren’t on board when it comes to Scottish independence. Whit are ye like! Seriously, these are clearly the target voters for the independence movement.

Aye, nowadays it seems to be aw aboot identity. Being an auld punk, it’s a case of “identity, it’s the crisis can’t you see!” as Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex famously sang. Interestingly – and I didn’t know this until doing my homework – her mum was a Scottish-Irish legal secretary and her dad was a Somali-born dock worker. Clearly very un-British in the eyes of Robert Jenrick and those of his ilk! No doubt I can imagine Poly Styrene’s response to Jenrick, et al, would be, as in her famous song, “Bondage Up Yours!” Quite!

Ivor Telfer

Dalgety Bay, Fife

THE early release scheme has been subject of media interest, speculation and anxiety. Earlier this year, the UK’s prisons were jammed full and, under stress, the Scottish Prison Service along with the prison service of England and Wales developed a system where prisoners were released under certain restricted conditions of tariffs and offence types.

Last Wednesday, the results were released, revealing that 10% of released prisoners reoffended and were inducted back into prison, taking the prison population above the maximum advocated capacity of 8007 to 8394.

The implication is that the early release policy has failed. That must be challenged – it is not perfect but it shows the way.

Some experienced commentators cited that due to the “dog-eat-dog” nature of our current society, early releasees may find safety “back inside”, and this was possibly the original cause for their incarceration.

Looking at society as a box with an input (police and courts), storage (prison, rehabilitation and social care) and output (back into society) is obviously a simplistic overview, as it does not consider education and metal health etc.

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If the input is increasing beyond capacity, simply building more storage is an easy answer, but it has a delay in implementation. Building will take several years – maybe as little as five years – meaning that the prison population will require more prisoners in the existing capacity.

As capacity increases, rehabilitation capacity reduces, also meaning potentially increased reoffending.

Reducing the input (courts sentencing) that requires prisoners to be directed to prison would provide an immediate effect. It is a tough challenge, though, with a need to support the early interventions prior to prevent behaviour liable to cause collars being felt.

If support services received the investment that would be used to build the new prisons and the staff needed, and this was directed to the early interventions, as well all know, “a stitch in time saves nine”, this would change our society for the long-term better.

It should be noted that the UK is just behind the US in prison population per head of population – not a good league to be near the top of.

Alistair Ballantyne

Angus

THE current crisis in the Middle East cannot be seen in isolation. Washington and its vassals Westminster and Tel Aviv have increasingly seen war as a way to offset economic decline.

With the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, Tel Aviv and Washington have abandoned all pretence of following international law.

Israel is permitted to conduct indiscriminate killing of civilians and practice a medieval siege cutting off water, electricity and food to Gaza. All in contravention of the laws and customs of war.

When those being attacked resist, Israel then ludicrously claims to be the victim. This is then echoed by a compliant media in total contrast with public opinion. Western public opinion is strongly against war in the Middle East and is deeply hostile to the genocide.

It is not just in the Middle East that Washington and its Westminster puppet are encouraging conflict.

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Recently Keir Starmer went to lobby the senile Joe Biden to allow Nato long-range missiles to be fired on Russia from Ukraine. This is madness. Putin has already made clear this will be regarded as a declaration of war by Nato. This could lead to nuclear armageddon.

A peace proposal that would have ended the war was on the table two years ago. Both parties had agreed to it but this was sabotaged by Boris Johnson at the behest of Washington. Arch-neocon Victoria Nuland has admitted as much.

Keir Starmer is a fully paid-up neocon warmonger. He intends to gut the living standards of the UK population in order to fund this war drive. His Chancellor Rachel Reeves is already asking departments to find 10% cuts. All to pay for war in Ukraine and the Middle East.

The US economic decline can be seen by the fall of the US dollar in relation to gold. There is an inverse relationship between the price of gold and value of the dollar. In 2024, gold has gone up by 3% and 70% since 2019.

This depreciation of the dollar has to be seen in conjunction with massive debt that the US government owes. This stands at an unimaginable $35 trillion. The interest on this alone is $3 billion. A fall in the currency value would make government and corporate debt impossible to repay. In order to arrest the situation, Washington is prepared to use any an all military means at its disposal. The consequence of this could be a nuclear war that will end all life on Earth.

Alan Hinnrichs

Dundee

IN Kelly Given’s excellent analysis of the way Israel is cossetted despite the aggression perpetrated on its neighbours (Oct 3) she did not state an obvious line of inquiry. What does it profit the US, UK, and Europe to have this continual fire burning on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea? Surely, given the huge Arab population across Libya, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, peaceful development and commerce would beneficial to both sides. Who are the backers of Israel, not the politicians who implement such backing, but those who profit from the chaos and mayhem that is the hallmark of Israeli policy and aggression?

The immigration of European Ethnic Zionists into Palestine in the late 1940s, given sanctuary from the horrors of World War Two in Europe by compassionate Palestinians, soon turned into a programme of sponsored displacement, land grabs, destruction of livelihoods and murder, this supported mainly by US interests.

For example: How can a New York “Jew” fly into Tel Aviv on Monday and be given a house in the West Bank on Wednesday, saying “If I don’t take your house, someone else will” to a Palestinian family who may have lived there for centuries and this not be seen as a crime? How can US citizens “buy” land in the West Bank and Gaza sight unseen, be given title, and this not be seen as illegal land appropriation? How can bands of “settlers” go at night and destroy olive groves and water supplies and commit arson and murder and this be tolerated – is this not terrorism?

We are quick to condemn the resistance to such acts of terror, but who profits from their continuing and why are our politicians complicit in this deliberate destabilisation of what we know to have been prosperous and, in the main, peaceful countries in the Middle East? US-backed Israel is proxy for US intervention, but who is profiting?

David Neilson

Dumfries

The continuing invasions into surrounding countries by the psychopathic IOF with the oft-repeated excuse “the Israelis have the right to defend themselves” has to cease. Stop. Come to an end. NOW

The psychopaths in the White House and the psychopaths in Downing Street must listen to the voices of the people who were stupid enough to vote them into power. Because the power of the people is greater than the people in power.

The West won its power, not by the superiority of its power, but by its superiority in applying ORGANISED VIOLENCE. Westerners find it convenient to overlook this fact: non-Westerners NEVER do. Which is why we have resistance in Israel, Lebanon and every other country where settler colonial conquest exists, fuelled by our capitalist system.

This new colonialism is a threat to the whole world, it is threat to justice everywhere and a threat to justice everywhere is a threat to each one of us. None of us are free till we are ALL free.

Margaret Forbes

Blanefield