Letters: Where are the calls for Michael Fallon's resignation over the failed Trident missile test?

I’M fell pit oot anent oor missile that gaed askew, an hoo oor meinisters in Wastmeinster dinnae seem tae tak it ower serious like. Fit wuid hae happent gin it launded in New York? Waur still, fit gin it haed gaed furder sooth an hit Florida? Disney World. Can ye jalouse the heidlines? “Mrs May murdert Minnie Mous!”
George T Watt
Dundee

I DON’T know what all the fuss is about. I thought the point of nuclear weapons was that you didn’t need pinpoint accuracy when you have wholesale mass destruction at your fingertips.
Peter Craigie
Edinburgh

---------------------------------------------------------------------

No say on Article 50 makes May’s promises empty

SO the Supreme Court has ruled by eight to three that Parliament, MPs and the subsidised ermine-togged unelected retirement home, must authorise the triggering of Article 50. Meanwhile, our ELECTED devolved parliaments and assemblies are to have no say, except that the Court has pointed out that this is a political decision and that it’s up to the PM to grant Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh a say in this.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but when she came to Edinburgh to meet Nicola Sturgeon and also in subsequent interviews, didn’t May say: “The devolved parliaments/assemblies will be fully consulted”? Some consultation.

I’m sure I’m not alone but I’m fed-up to the back teeth with the empty promises and commitments extending from 1707 right up to Gordon’s phoney Vow and all the (not) so fine words spouted by Smith.

It just seems that May and her establishment goons are still living in their alternative universe where Britannia rules the waves and more than half the world is coloured pink.

They also seem to ignore the lessons from history where every time they have ignored people’s honourable and justifiable requests wars have resulted, from the first shots in the battles of Lexington and Concorde on April 19, 1775, in the American War of Independence to the last destructive bombing in Newtownhamilton in Northern Ireland in 1998.

The common thread running through every conflict is that when the London establishment thought they had a God-given right to rule, it ended badly for them, as they found to their cost that the people of every conquered country are not British slaves, not now, not ever. Bring on indyref2 just as soon as Nicola judges it the most opportune moment to regain Scotland’s rightful place among nations.

Till then we all – and I mean all – independence-minded people must present one unified voice and leave party political bickering until after independence. Let’s get on with it.
Charlie Gallagher
Sullom, Shetland

THE UK Supreme Court ruling clarifies and reveals much. The trend of the present Conservative UK Government to try to use words with their own defined, though unstated, meaning – different to the established meaning – is a sinister sign that Westminster alone will decide if any future situation is “normal” (undefined). Their use of that word and other words in any parliamentary act should be considered to be a front/masquerade/charade/posture/pose/fake.

Behind yesterday’s ruling is a clear demonstration of the Westminster Government’s sheer lack of understanding of the 1707 Act of Union, or an arrogance towards and a disdain for Scotland or both.

Unremarked by the Conservative-leaning media, this appeal against the earlier English High Court judgment (Miller and Dos Santos v UK Government) will have incurred large court costs (of the order of £4 million, I guess) which the UK Government (ie UK citizens) is now responsible for. A proportion of those costs will appear in the next Westminster-produced GERS list which will surely produce yet more claims by Unionists as proof of Scotland’s profligacy. For readers who might have forgotten these examples of Westminster’s behaviour towards Scotland, GERS “accounts”, a hugely-biased guesswork application of economic statistics, were produced first in 1992 by the Conservative secretary of state for Scotland Ian Lang to try to imply that Scotland was living beyond its means and every new production produces exactly such unionist claims.

Some of the items included/to be included for those GERS “accounts” are monies Westminster rules are due from Scotland to help pay for London’s £8.77 billion Olympic Games, London’s £14bn Crossrail system, London’s £12 to 16bn Crossrail 2 consultation, London’s £6bn Thames Link system, London’s £800 million St Pancras Station upgrade, London’s £500m Bank Station upgrade, London’s £500m King’s Cross redevelopment, Reading Station’s £895m upgrade, the £33bn (and rising) London-Birmingham HS2 rail system, the £??bn Birmingham-Manchester and Leeds HS2 rail extension, the £60m London Thames Garden Bridge and even the £?? million/billion London sewage system! I might well have forgotten others.
Telford Moore
Monifieth, Angus

HAVE the Brexit leaders actually read Article 50? The Lisbon Treaty, which introduced the conditions for leaving, makes clear that complete isolation of the withdrawing state from the effects of the EU acquis, ie the relevant treaties, laws, protocols and directives, would be impossible if there is to be a relationship between the former member state and the EU.

Therefore, any negotiated agreement which breached these rules would require an amendment to the Treaty of Lisbon and perhaps others. Any such amendments would have to be ratified by a unanimous vote of the remaining 27 countries. This could take at least another year.

Ukip and others keep reiterating that German car makers won’t allow that to happen but UK people who buy German vehicles, particularly Mercedes and BMW, pay £10-15,000 pounds for the badge, so another couple of thousand on import duty is unlikely to put them off.

With regard to the Supreme Court ruling stating Scotland has no say in the Brexit strategy, the Scottish Government should appeal to the European Court of Justice.

Mike Underwood
Linlithgow