Letters to the National June 6 2015

Indeed, the decision of Glasgow council to permit the Orange Order to take over George Square today is wrong and is only going to fan the flames of bigotry. Let those who march and parade in their Orange sashes in praise of their hero King Billy, to celebrate the great Protestant victory at the Battle of the Boyne, know this: William of Orange was not fighting for the Protestant cause.

He was an ally of Pope Innocent XI and his successor Pope Alexander VIII in their struggle against Louis XIV of France under the Treaty of Augsburg. In fact half of his army and military equipment was financed by the Catholic Church.The Boyne victory was celebrated as a great Catholic victory and a Te Deum was sung in St Peter’s in Rome, and in the Catholic cathedrals of Vienna, Madrid and Brussels.

The whole of Catholic Europe, except France, rejoiced in William of Orange’s victory. As for those Irish Protestants who fought on William’s side, how did he reward them?

He forbade them from practising their Presbyterian religion and ordered them to pay tithes to the Anglican Church of Ireland, the Irish version of the Church of England. This caused such despair among the Presbyterians that they left Ireland in droves and migrated to the USA.Thereafter the Presbyterians dropped their bigotry towards Irish Catholicism and when the first Catholic Church was built in Belfast it was Protestants who supplied most of the money to build it: about half the congregation at the first mass were Protestants. In the United Irishmen’s rebellion of 1798 Catholics and Protestants fought side by side for Ireland’s independence.

This terrified the British ruling class, and William Pitt the Younger gave the Governor of Ireland the order to split up the Protestants and Catholics no matter what the cost. The Governor, Brigadier General Knox, replied: “Simple, I will use the Orange Order to create division”. Thereafter the Orange Order was used as a tool of the British ruling class to divide and weaken the working class.

That is the true “heritage” of the Orange Order and probably few of those who march in the parades, bang the drums and play the flutes are aware of it.In closing I must state the Catholic Church has played its part in religious bigotry.

Henry Whittaker
Castlemilk, Glasgow

YOUR photo caption saying “Scotland wants to remain part of the EU” in Friday’s National reflects the policy of the Scottish Government. However, there are many individuals and parties in Scotland who support Scottish independence and favour immigration but are opposed to an EU which acts as a “Bosses’ Europe”.

In the 1975 referendum on the EEC in Scotland the majority of trade unionists, Labour members, smaller left parties and the SNP campaigned for a No vote, to leave the EEC.

The Labour party conference voted two to one in favour of withdrawal. A Labour movement campaign against the EEC was launched in Glasgow at a packed meeting of 600 people.

The SNP in 1974 called the Common Market a “dangerous experiment in gross over-centralisation” and called for “a free-trade agreement on the Norwegian model”. Only in 1998 did the SNP adopt the Independence in Europe policy.

Solidarity, the SSP, the Communist Party, several trade unions and many European left parties believe the EU cannot be reformed.

We consider it exists to represent multinationals’ interests and actually damages the social infrastructure, living standards and environment of the people of Europe.

If TTIP is adopted and environmental laws or a nationalised NHS are deemed against trade rules, will the SNP maintain a pro-EU stance?

Before we vote to stay in the EU we should have an open debate where positives and negatives are clearly discussed.

Gordon Morgan
Glasgow

FOUR residents who voted at the 2015 General Election in the constituency of Orkney and Shetland are involved in legal action against their MP Alistair Carmichael. I am one of the four.

I am not in the SNP but I am a member of the Scottish Green Party (SGP), which I joined last year having been disillusioned with political parties for over a decade.

I found in the SGP a vision of a new way of conducting politics that I could identify with. As Maggie Chapman says, “creating a better Scotland from the ground up” .

I believe that most of our political representatives, regardless of party, are honest people. I may not agree with their ideas but I have always been able to have a reasonable discussion with them.

Diverse views and opinions are healthy for society and lead to more representative government.

The shock of the Carmichael revelations left many of us in Orkney and Shetland stunned. Silent, dignified protests have taken place in Lerwick and Kirkwall.

A crowd fund has been set up to help us because, being ordinary people, we do not have large financial sources to draw upon. No political party is involved in our campaign. Any funds we do not use will be distributed to Scottish food banks.

We, as voters, place our trust in our political representatives and expect them to conduct themselves with honesty and integrity.

It is important for the effective functioning of a democracy that its citizens hold to account those who betray that trust.

Fiona Grahame
Sandwick, Orkney

THE £177 million budget cut imposed on Scotland by public school-educated millionaire inheritee George Osborne is simply the opening salvo of a savage and brutal programme the Tories intend to inflict on Scotland.

Already Scotland and the UK have been subjected to five years of heartless Tory austerity, allegedly to get the deficit down. However under Osborne’s stewardship the deficit has risen from £811 billion to £1.2 trillion.

Tory cuts are in fact ideological. Tories don’t believe in the public sector and want to sell everything off to corporations.

The consequences for working people of these policies has been horrific. When Cameron came to power, 300,000 people used foodbanks. Today it’s one million and by the end of this parliament it’s predicted to be two million.

George Osborne, however, did not see fit to impose austerity on his paymasters in the City. Already these greedy fatcats have seen their collective wealth double under Osborne’s stewardship.

Osborne is already paying back the £40 million donated to the Tories by hedge funds. He is selling off the rest of the Post Office for a fraction of its worth all to Tory donors. This will mean the end of a six-day universal service.

With £12bn in cuts still to come, Osborne has shown the Tories simply don’t care about working people, the sick or the disabled.

The Tories are cold-hearted 19th century robber barons. They only care about their own Henley Regatta-attending class

Alan Hinnrichs
Dundee

WALTER Kirkhope raises an important and valid point in asking the editor of The National if there is a place for a regular article in the newspaper in the Scots language (Letters, June 5).

To my support for that, I would add the same request for my own language, Gaelic. In an otherwise good publication, it is a glaring omission that the linguistic content is 100 per cent English, particularly when we have two other native languages.

If you want to call yourselves “The National”, you should back that up with regular articles or columns in our other national languages.

Ruairidh MacIlleathain
Inverness

FOR those readers of The National who love the smell of newsprint in the morning but who, like me, find themselves south of the Border, the reports that more libraries across the UK are now subscribing to the “Voice of the New Scotland” come as welcome news.

I have just discovered to my delight that the print edition can also be consulted in the British Library!

Of course, you can always take out a digital subscription as I do, but it’s not the same as having your very own printed copy – apart from anything else you miss out on the ability to fold it up carefully with the banner headline showing for all to see as you proudly march along!

Please, therefore, can I urge The National, as a matter of urgency, to extend its circulation beyond Scotland?

I say this not only for my own benefit and that of like-minded members of the Scottish diaspora (who, I am sure, will hoover up copies with relish!) but also for the enlightenment of the other inhabitants of these islands whose knowledge of Scottish affairs, as became evident during the referendum and the election, leaves much to be desired.

Dr Robert Henderson
London

I TRUST the “Fresh Faced 56” will demonstrate their commitment to a fairer, more equal society by donating their £6,700 annual pay increase to an appropriate charity? Gift Aided of course.

Archie B McArthur
Edinburgh

THESE spats between Alex Salmond and Anna Soubry are becoming too common. I’m sure I can see Richard Curtis in the Strangers Gallery taking notes.

Obviously Hugh Grant to play Salmond but who would you cast as Soubry?

Ian Richmond
Dumfries and Galloway

Followin the new announced policie frae Creative Scotland, Ah wis awfie pleased tae read the bits scrievit in the Scots leid in The National the day, an especially the wee bit by Harry Giles (Leids fae Orkney tae Drumchapel maun floorish, The National, June 4).

Although Ah’m no a natural Scots spikkar mysel, baith ma parents came frae the Borders an Ah unnerstaund it gey weel. (Ah had the misluk tae hae been brocht up in England.)

Ah’d like tae see mair o it in print -- so whit aboot a reglar daily column in Scots in yer braw paper?

WJ Donaldson
Edinburgh