IT’S absolutely shocking that a member of the public was told to remove their T-shirt with the slogan “Scotland is a country not a county”, when they were there to sign the book of condolence for Scotland’s greatest politician and First Minister in the Scottish Parliament.
What on earth goes on in this so-called parliament if political statements and politics are not allowed to be discussed? Was the security guard so vigilant when MSPs were getting their photos with almost every campaign going from cancer research to trans rights? What about the MSPs and staff wandering around the parliament complete with rainbow lanyards – have they ever been told to remove them?
READ MORE: Fury as Scottish Parliament security 'ban Alex Salmond tribute T-shirt'
The Scottish Parliament had the chance to be Scotland’s voice, but not with this attitude. Who decides what is and is not political – is it really up to a security guard? Scotland’s Parliament has shamed itself and Scotland by this latest incident.
Alex Beckett
Paisley
I DO not know if I am sad or angry at the news that Scottish Parliament security stepped in to have a woman’s T-shirt removed because it displayed the final quote from Alex Salmond. To be honest, I think I am both sad and angry. In an action worthy of a Monty Python sketch, the T-shirt had to be removed because it was deemed “too political”. Would a T-shirt with a picture of Alex also be “too political” I wonder?
Thousands of us, led often by Alex, spent years our lives, sacrificed careers and precious time with our families to campaign for the establishment of the Scottish Parliament. We fought long and hard to get to 1999 when Winnie announced our parliament, the people’s parliament, was reconvened. Now we hear it has a “dress code”.
READ MORE: Read Kenny MacAskill's eulogy for Alex Salmond in full
Both the parliament itself and those elected to it have proved a massive disappointment. 25 years on and the dream of a real, fully independent, grown-up parliament remains just that – a dream. I can see no prospect of the current leadership of the SNP advancing the situation a single inch. Our bandwagon stalled in September 2014 when Alex resigned and handed over the reins to a set of folk now obsessed with making devolution work and administering the political status quo.
I was intending to visit the parliament and sign the book of condolence but I now refuse to take part in this farce. To make matters even worse, the parliament has apparently set up a second book of condolence within the public entrance to Holyrood, an area where you can sign this second-class book without offending the dress code.
Our MSPs, especially the SNP ones, should hang their heads in shame. Sadly, at times Scotland’s Parliament acts like it is running a county not a country.
Sandra West
Dundee
SO let me get this straight.
According to Mr Sawar, Labour’s cuts to virtually every public service are not a continuation of the Tory austerity policies, and somehow the further £6 billion real-terms cut to the Scottish devolved budget is all the SNP’s fault.
Mr Streeting is all for the NHS in England but will be privatising even more of the NHS in the urge for more “efficiency” while ignoring the fact that shortages at virtually every level of NHS health career across England actually create the delays and inefficiencies. Yet, the evidence on his own Department of Health spreadsheet demonstrates that privatised areas of NHS England have created no savings and in some cases are costing more. In other words, they are less efficient.
READ MORE: Lack of scrutiny of the Labour Party is evident in BBC Scotland output
Mr Lammy wishes us to believe what we are seeing in Gaza is not genocide, even though it has been Zionist policy since 1948 to drive Palestinians out of “their state of Israel” by whatever means. So, Mr Lammy, to save your blushes let’s call it mass murder and be done with it.
We have a defence minister still trying to pretend we have a military capability, though to do what he clearly has no clue, as the military sees the impact of years of Tory lies on defence issues impact on its ability to recruit personnel, now running at 10% less than is need to keep current under-strength numbers stable.
We have the Chancellor flying kites of her proposed Budget to all and sundry while keeping our elected representatives in the dark then telling us she did not and, any way, it is what all UK Governments do.
READ MORE: Chancellor left red-faced as Stephen Flynn calls out energy bill claim
Last but not least, the biggest chancer of them all, the stummer’s stummer dictator Starmer, deaf to anyone who points out he has no clothes, his Tory approach is not working or his Chancellor is an economic illiterate of the first degree.
Please tell me just how an incoming Prime Minister and his Chancellor did not the understand the fiscal hole created by the Tories was so big, and they were “surprised” despite the fact that umpteen reports on the state of the UK’s fiscal health had been in the media for months – plus they had had a Treasury briefing as soon as the election was announced, as part of the election process.
There is only one answer, they are lying through their teeth in the hopes folk will forget the absolute clamjamfry they are creating as we sit shivering with cold in January 2025.
Peter Thomson
Kirkcudbright
I MUST inform Russell Findlay that I pay for my own paracetamol and always have done! Larger items, when required, I collect from the local pharmacy free of charge, in line with Scottish Government policy! I shudder to think what those on low incomes and requiring multiple medications will do if Findlay’s Tories ever had their way!
Mr Findlay comes across as a noxious individual, like all Tories, of either hue!
Drew Macleod
Wick
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