Here in the UK, we have a government that was elected on a one-word slogan: Change. I hoped it would be true to its word, but it didn’t take long to disappoint. We have the same old behaviours: freebies from wealthy backers; taking from the poor and weak so they can boost the rich; even the minister in charge of rooting out corruption in our financial system found to have been gifted a flat in London by a backer of her aunt Sheikh Hasina, the autocratic and now-ousted ruler of Bangladesh (“City minister Tulip Siddiq refers herself to sleaze watchdog”, heraldscotland, January 6). You couldn’t make it up.
And then there’s Brexit, the greatest act of economic self-harm in my lifetime, sold to the British people on a pillow of lies. It’s now widely recognised that withdrawing from the European single market has been enormously harmful to our economy, but will this Labour government rejoin? No; apparently we made a bad choice and, like naughty children, we’ll just have to live with the consequences.
The rest of the world has noticed the decline of both the UK and the US. They see our unwavering support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, with America particularly complicit by its continuing supply of the weapons that rain down on women and children shivering in squalid tents; and they compare that with our support for Ukraine, subjected to a brutal attack by Russia. The rank hypocrisy of the positions taken by the US and its faithful poodle have been noted by the growing powers in the global South and East.
Gibbon thought the Roman Empire fell because of a decline in civic virtue, the code of conduct that emphasises the welfare of all. That resonates, as true now as it was for the Romans.
Doug Maughan, Dunblane.
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Musk not our biggest problem
LET’S face it, the only reason Elon Musk gets any airtime and anyone listens to him is because he is stinking rich. If he was in the same situation as 99.99% of society, those who control our so-called democracies and their compliant media wouldn’t give him the time of day in exactly the same way they ignore the wishes and needs of the electorate.
What annoys me most is the suggestion that Mr Musk’s wealth allows him to interfere in politics and political policies; surely anyone with half a brain has worked out that that is what already happens. Why else would we be living in a society and a world where the top 1% has more wealth than the other 99%?
We are currently suffering the catastrophic effects of Brexit which was promoted by the Establishment simply to allow the continuation of offshore tax havens. Our politicians are up to their knees in slime, billions of pounds spent on useless PPE disappeared into the pockets of their pals and those who contribute to party funds. To top it all it’s not even our government but His Majesty’s Government, a government ultimately beholding to a family that is not subject to the same rules and regulations as the rest of us. A family that if one goes back a couple of generations one finds is not even British but derives its wealth from status from something that happened centuries ago.
Yet people worry about Musk.
David J Crawford, Glasgow.
Labour has hoodwinked us
SOME of your readers claim to be concerned that the SNP has “hoodwinked” the Scottish people and others accuse the party of unashamed populism. If anyone has hoodwinked anybody it’s got to be Keir Starmer and the Invisible 36.
I say 36 as the poor MP representing Grangemouth had a very short honeymoon indeed and aside from sounding off about it, he’s also, possibly anticipating that he will be a one-term MP, courageously spoken out about some of the other “savings” perpetrated by Liz Kendall, Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer on society’s most vulnerable. I have suggested on X that he might like to join another party but haven’t had an answer yet.
Accusations of populism aside, I would suggest that the Budget more accurately reflects the Scottish people’s values than the slash and burn policies of the Conservative Party and the soundbite politics of Nigel Farage & co.
Marjorie Thompson, Edinburgh.
Big questions on independence
SO John Jamieson (Letters, January 8) is amazed that so many unionists miss the point of why he votes for the SNP? After many well-written letters from him it’s fair to say we do know why he votes SNP but don’t necessarily agree with his premise. I’ve never dismissed the Nationalists and can see why they dream of independence. Dreams are dreams, not reality. Realising a dream takes a lot more than the SNP has managed to achieve after over 17 years in Government.
Having voted against Brexit I’m terrified of the implications of independence without absolute clarity on some potential wee post-independence issues like currency, national debt, credit rating, border controls, national security, trade with UK.
In fact, it never ceases to amaze me that Nationalists don’t seem to think these matter because everything will be fine.
Well, everything won’t be fine until these absolutely critical areas are agreed and in the event of a referendum we have pre-contracts in place. Anything else would be economic suicide and leave us terribly exposed to bankruptcy if world markets slump again, or worse, if there’s a war.
John Gilligan, Ayr.
Elon Musk (Image: PA)
The end game on Palestine
THERE has not been since October 7, 2023 a “war” in Gaza, but a relentless onslaught by powerful armed forces on a beleaguered group of resistance fighters, an assault being carried out simultaneously on the civilian population of the ghetto in which the targets have been trapped. This resistance, despite their inefficient rockets, have no air force or proper air defence, and are being attacked by the United States of America, the world’s most powerful military force, by means of an Israel whom America has armed and funded to ensure no possibility of its defeat.
Having successfully corralled and frustrated for decades the so-far most effective, but still very much weaker, Palestinian resistance in the shape of Hamas and its allies, the attack on a small corner of Israel on October 7 was surprising in that it was able to take place at all, but not in terms of its long frustrated and barbaric ferocity. Nevertheless, the barbarism committed against Israeli civilians on this one occasion, was hardly comparable to the over 70 years of expulsion, house demolitions, killing of countless civilians and imprisoning of thousands more, the theft of land and humiliating destruction of identity and livelihoods, meted out to Palestinians since 1948 by America-Israel.
A small state like Israel, having forcibly established itself among hostile neighbours, with whom they refuse to negotiate or compromise, could only have survived as part of an America-Israel project. Arab states have failed repeatedly against the might of America-Israel and now seem ready to abandon the Palestinians. The rest of the world, including, shamefully, the government of the United Kingdom, have voiced pious sentiments about a two-state solution while complicit in America-Israel’s determined destruction of any possibility of this.
Since there seems no prospect of any American government accepting responsibility for this shameful mess and using its power even at this late date to try to effect a just Israeli Palestinian settlement, perhaps it is time for fellow travellers like Keir Starmer and his British colleagues to accept that “Israel’s right to defend itself” means that the whole of Palestine belongs to Israel and there is no question of the Palestinians being entitled to any fraction of it. Perhaps then Keir Starmer could use his diplomatic skills to persuade co-operative Arabs states to cope with the forthcoming Palestinian diaspora.
Ronald MacLean, Beauly.