Sir, – In her campaigning event in Exeter, when asked about the possibility of another Scottish independence referendum, Liz Truss answered: “It was agreed it was once in a generation.”
“Agreed by who?” was begging to be asked but there was no such query from the interviewer.
Her statement is a good example of the blatant lying popularised by Donald Trump.
Deliver a lie often enough and to a receptive populace it becomes the “truth”.
Truss trumpeted that Nicola Sturgeon was a mere attention seeker that she would ignore, and received a raucous response of clapping and cheering from her audience (in Exeter? Really?)
This to Scots might at first seems laughable, but the laughter dies away to leave a chill.
The audience reaction was disappointing and worrying.
Truss seems to think that such fomentations are fair game; she’s reminiscent of a high-heeled hopeless despot.
Ken Gow, Bridge of Canny, Banchory.
Move over M90, rail needs the route
Sir, – The problem with restoring the direct railway line from Perth to Edinburgh (Letters, July 30) is that its route over the eastern Ochils was used for the M90.
However, the age of carbon-intensive motorways is over; if the M90 reverted to single carriageway, the southbound lanes could convert back to a railway line.
Malcolm Pye, Colthill Road, Milltimber, Aberdeen.
SNP need to reveal vision for Scotland
Sir, – How I wish whoever becomes our new PM or following a general election, very likely, the new Labour PM would have the courage to grant the Scottish Government the powers to hold a second independence referendum.
This would force the SNP leadership to change from continually moaning about how unfair it is to ignore the will of the Scottish people, the downtrodden victims of injustice, to actually set out their vision of how a new independent Scotland would function.
To the diehard disciples of independence, such matters would be of secondary importance to the overwhelming relief of being free of Westminster’s clutches.
To the committed unionists nothing would change their mind. But if a vote were to be held a third group might make the difference between Yes or No.
This Aye Maybe group to which I belong will make our judgment on whether this vision, based on thorough analysis as opposed to wishful thinking, is better than the status quo.
Just being free from England is no sensible reason for independence. Even if we became independent, our neighbour will still be our biggest trading partner, where many will move to find employment and our most talented footballers will become millionaires in the Premier League.
Ivan W Reid, Kirkburn, Laurencekirk.
Thatcher statue a grim reminder
Sir, – Jim Hunter’s clear exposition of Margaret Thatcher’s real legacy in Friday’s P&J laid bare the disastrous effects of her so-called “achievements”.
He succinctly demonstrated how her actions set this country on a downward path from which we may never recover. Sadly, we are now reaping what she sowed.
The Sunday Times recently carried a photo of Mrs Sunak taking a selfie with Margaret Thatcher’s statue in Grantham. I wonder if she used the moment to check if the statue had feet of clay?
Colin D Young, South Headlands Crescent, Newtonhill.
Johnson deserves praise for PM role
Sir, – It would appear that many continue to underestimate the achievements of Boris Johnson and his time in Downing Street. In his three years in office he has faced more challenges than many people have in a lifetime and each time he has delivered.
Firstly he broke the deadlock on Brexit, which finally after such a painful process allowed the UK to leave the EU. He was then faced with a pandemic but had the foresight to invest in vaccines which allowed the UK to be one of the first vaccinated countries, which then allowed the UK to lift restrictions earlier than other countries.
Many will have Johnson to thank for saving their livelihoods through his agreement that his government could borrow vast amounts of money to provide furlough and other business support to ensure our economy could survive the impacts of the devastating virus.
If a pandemic was not bad enough, the next challenge was a global cost of living crisis in which again he stepped up and agreed to provide generous support for individuals facing rising fuel and utilities bills.
He has also led from the front in supporting the Ukraine in its fight against the invasion by Russia. Indeed, the UK has been the Ukraine’s biggest ally and to the people of Ukraine Johnson is their hero.
Closer to home in Scotland, rather than appease the SNP with more powers, as has been the case with many of his predecessors, Johnson has stood firm and instead focused on the SNP’s poor record in government.
As Johnson prepares to leave office, he can do so with his head held high and perhaps all those who criticise him need to ask themselves could they have done better if they had been faced with all these challenges in such a short period of time?
Mhairi E Rennie, Finlayson Street, Fraserburgh.
First thoughts on Lionesses’ victory
Sir, – Can someone please explain to me the difference between “first” and “very first”? According to the commentators the English women’s football team didn’t win the Euros for the “first” time, but for the “very first” time. Eh?
W A Ross, Broomhill Avenue, Aberdeen.
Our new emissions plan a lot of hot air
Sir, – Scotland’s emissions are so low at 0.15% of the world total that they simply don’t register. Yet we are embarked on a plan to reduce them further, at hideous personal cost to the individual.
What is the purpose behind this? If it is to set an example, then what measures are being taken to inform the big emitters such as India, China, Taiwan, and the USA of our actions, and what do we expect from them in return, and how do we monitor that?
If we are just doing this on the quiet, then there is obviously no point at all to it.
Malcolm Parkin, Kinnesswood, Kinross.
SNP in no position to lecture anyone
Sir, – Another day and yet another blinkered nationalist (Douglas Black, Letters, July 30) spouting the same old condemnation of our UK – people in glass houses should not chuck bricks.
In truth, the SNP are the “clowns”, they are a million miles from perfect and in no position to lecture or condemn anyone. They have far too many skeletons rattling around in their cupboard and have turned their MPs into clones by banning them from criticising the party in public.
They are also incapable of producing a sustainable economic plan for their “independent” but-ruled- by-Brussels Scotland, and after 15 years of shameless failure in Holyrood have proved beyond reasonable doubt that they are full of arrogance and absolutely useless at government.
In their obsession to concoct a voter majority for IndyRef2 the SNP have been relentless by manufacturing grievances against our UK (the place where every migrant and their dog wants to live), and also in their unsustainable squandering of taxpayers’ money bribing and hoodwinking the public.
Any future referendum will have to adhere to their very own legislature – “a two-thirds majority must be achieved before change” says the SNP constitution.
As they get older, more and more young Scots are getting wise to grovelling nationalism and recognise that teamwork and co-operation between all UK devolved regions, where everyone works and takes personal responsibility, is the way forward for Scotland.
Scotland’s taxpayers and future generations are entitled to much better than mafia democracy from the super-dodgy Scottish Nationalist Party.
George Emslie, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen.
SNP torch-bearer needs to face facts
Sir, – I have just finished reading the latest offering from your arch SNP apologist, Ron Campbell (Letters, August 1).
As ever, it is difficult to take some things seriously, particularly his claim that we have the best performing NHS in the UK.
I trust that Ron is fortunate enough to keep good health and is not currently reliant on the NHS for treatment or investigation, otherwise he would have a very different experience.
He goes on to extol the virtues of Police Scotland and the allegedly low crime rate.
One quick look at your newspaper on the same day his letter was published paints a very different picture.
He laughably describes the education system in glowing terms, suggesting that he has absolutely no recent experience of what is really happening in that sector.
His assertion that we have a fairer and more equitable taxation regime conveniently ignores the fact that Scotland applies the highest tax rates in the whole of the UK.
No doubt Ron, who usually likes to have the last word, will dismiss my response to his letter as a diatribe, his favourite word to describe any view held contrary to his own.
Mike Masson, Oak Tree Avenue, Banchory.
Shameful Starmer response to strikes
Sir, – One Monday morning one of my fellow drivers told me his life was now complete, he had read letters by Professor Hugh Pennington (who voted to stay in the Union in 2014) and me (who voted for Scottish independence) in the p&j letters page on the same day.
At the risk of making his day even brighter today, Prof Pennington often writes letters in the P&J with which I very much agree and regularly puts my fellow independence supporters right on matters of fact, such as was the case in the newspaper on Saturday.
It was indeed, I believe, Nye Bevin who was a Welshman and right from the outset the Scottish NHS was completely independent and able to set up its own rules and regulations. Prof Pennington did indeed chair an inquiry into I believe an e. coli outbreak at a butcher’s shop if I am correct.
You have to wonder what both Bevin and Clement Attlee or indeed later leaders of the Labour Party in opposition such as John Smith or Neil Kinnock would make of a Labour Party leader being a knight of the realm and telling his MPs not to go to a picket line to support workers on strike?
Every single group, thus far, railway workers, Royal Mail delivery staff, council workers who are able to withdraw their labour or strike, but thankfully not supermarket staff or HGV drivers, have been key workers who battled on through the pandemic.
But when they want a decent pay rise the Labour leaders have for the most part been posted missing.
Thankfully, for once, the Scottish Labour Party leader got it right and showed his boss how to do it and joined a picket line and hopefully Sir Keir Starmer will realise that being a “government in waiting” does not mean ignoring legitimate concerns of key workers.
If you do, then you might just find out the hard way why they were key workers.
Peter Ovenstone, Orchard Grove, Peterhead.
Starmer joins in the madness
Sir, – I thought I’d seen all the madness there was to see in British politics with the antics of Boris and his equally mad colleagues Nadine and Jacob.
But no – it seems the Labour Party and Keir Starmer, in particular, want to get in on the act.
Why a Labour Party leader would want to sack a member of his Shadow Cabinet for joining a picket line is beyond belief.
Maybe it’s because he is the boyfriend of his biggest rival for the leadership. Maybe he actually believes Labour can survive without the financial support of the unions.
He obviously has forgotten how the Labour movement started. The late, and great, John Smith would be turning in his grave.
UK politics, or more precisely, English politics, is becoming a laughing stock. The rest of the world must be in disbelief.
Let’s hope Scotland can extricate ourselves from such mayhem and begin to build a fairer, more collaborative and constructive environment for our future generations without the interference of the primary school playground behaviour of our so-called leaders in Westminster. I live in hope!!
George Gray, Morven Place, Aboyne.
TV chefs set bad example
There seems to be a plethora of cooking programmes on our television channels at the moment and it hasn’t escaped my notice that many do not follow basic Health and Safety rules.
One such rule relates to the wearing of hand jewellery such as bracelets and watches, but with one exemption being wedding bands.
Their end product may be attractive and tasty but, surely, when popular programmes are beamed out to possibly millions of viewers, would it be asking too much to ensure decorative germ-collecting hand jewellery is removed to prevent food contamination and possible illness to consumers?
TF.
Conversation