I SEE that we now have a solid band of Unionists right along our border. What I want to know is: are they willing to stand up for their averred principles?
Will they, for instance, go across the Border to collect their prescriptions, when each separate item will cost them £8.40? Then, if they have to use a hearing aid, they would be asked to pay £17.50, the charge levied south of the Border for each new battery.
The latest money-saving wheeze which is being implemented in England is to charge for the gluten-free food obtainable at the chemist for those people who, for health reasons, have to be on a special diet. The annual cost for that particular service is £170.
In the future many people who cannot afford to buy these particular food items, will become ill, and will, in the end, be a greater burden on the Health Service. Finally, will these same Unionist MPs be happy to pay the full fees demanded in England for their children’s university fees?
Every day I have to take five different types of medication for an ongoing medical condition with which I suffer – and never a day passes when I do not bless the Scottish Government!
Margaret Sutherland, Stirling
METHINKS Willie Rennie doth protest too much (Rennie attacks SNP on referendum tactics, The National, May, 21). “If the SNP continue to behave as they are, they could risk a growth in the Leave vote.” Unfortunately, Willie Rennie did not say in which country of the UK he was referring to.
This is the same Rennie who stated recently that he would not support a second independence referendum if Scotland voted to remain and the rest of the UK, aka England, voted to leave and that tipped the balance. He implied that for Scotland to leave the UK would be even more “divisive”.
So, there we have it! He denies Scotland a democratic mandate.
He and his party default each time to Westminster. He and his ilk do not need to tell the SNP how to “behave” in this campaign. The LibDems’ sleekit sub-text is the
1707 Union with English Votes for English Laws at Westminster come what may!
John Edgar, Blackford
IF Willie was not attacking the SNP no newspaper would print a word he says. It is the only way the poor soul can get into print. Everyone but Willie knows this is true.
Iain Lawson via thenational.scot
AS a lifelong feminist, my reaction to Muirfield golf club’s decision is to leave them to stew in their own juice (Protesters against men-only Muirfield golf club swing into action, The National, May 21)!
If they are left in a backwater, hosting no public tournaments and generally ignored, they may begin to realise how alien they have become.
All this fuss is simply giving publicity to the views of knuckle-dragging misogynists who love to come out of the woodwork at times like this.
Marion McLarty via thenational.scot
I’VE caddied for Muirfield members umpteen times during my 15 years at St Andrews. These old-fashioned, un-politically correct buggers are getting fewer as the years progress. They are telling the PC brigade to spin while they can. Personally I will miss them, even though they stiff you most of the time!
Colin Gerard, Leven via thenational.scot
SURELY nobody could really believe Colin Edwards’s suspicion that the BBC establishment think that Scots are thick. The suggestion is outrageous! And yet I am told that BBC Radio 4, supposedly one of their “grown-up” channels, has a soap called The Archers set in a posh English rural community where the only Scottish character just happens to be the village idiot.
Douglas Hunter, Ancrum, Roxburghshire
A FEW weeks ago the Greens “supposedly” supported independence according to Mhairi Black, now she wants to campaign alongside them again for independence (Time to get the band of independence activists back together, The National, May 21). Make up your mind!
This is pretty typical of the SNP’s attitude to smaller pro-indy parties; squeeze the use out of them when it suits and discard them at any point they can be a threat.
Declan Blench via thenational.scot
MHAIRI, you lost me at the point you said “when the SNP launch OUR new independence drive”.
It’s not yours, and it should not be run in a party political bubble. Many of us were not, and are still not, SNP supporters.
In my case I am in no party, and I fought as hard for indy as any SNP members, indeed harder than most.
Any campaign must be independent of party politics, not under the control of any one group and inclusive of all independence supporters. It needs clear criteria for the calling of a second independence referendum.
So, for example if (as has been widely rumoured) you require a 65 per cent Yes in polls over a year, say that clearly instead of the silly secretive game playing that’s going on. I’ll be first on the street, the first chapping doors and handing out info, but I won’t be dragged into an exercise which can only be influenced by the SNP, because I haven’t joined you and won’t be joining for very good reasons.
Deborah Shepherd via thenational.scot
THE excellent investigative article by Martin Hannan on Donald Trump’s mother MaryAnne MacLeod, was spoiled for me by an inexcusable inaccuracy (An inconvenient truth? Donald Trump’s Scottish mother was a low-earning migrant, The National, May 21).
I was in the process of admiring the research that was done to produce this piece when I read the part about the Iolaire Disaster, where he states that she sank in the Minch with the loss of more than 200 men.
The Iolaire was lost when she grounded on a notorious reef called the Beasts of Holm at the entry into Stornoway Harbour in the early hours of January 1st, 1919. I wish, when mentioning this dreadful event, that journalists get their facts right regarding it. This is not the first time I’ve written to a newspaper on this subject.
Iain Macdonald, Oban
THE pre-match advertising prior to Saturday’s cup finals lead me to believe the Scottish cup final would not be televised by the BBC in Scotland (Letters, May 21).
However, I was wrong, the BBC did us proud and I apologise.
M Smith, Troon
Letters II: Let’s think carefully about joined-up new rail services
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