WHILE the world reeled in shock after Trump decreed a ban on refugees and Muslims on Holocaust Memorial Day, our UK Prime Minister went straight from holding Trump’s hand to signing an arms deal with Turkey.

Even before last summer’s coup, which was used as an excuse for a wholesale clampdown on human rights and democratic freedoms and the mass arrest of opposition MPs, Erdogan’s government was using the army to pulverise the predominantly Kurdish towns of south-east Turkey. Photographs of Cizre could be mistaken for pictures of Aleppo.

Turkey is also attacking the areas liberated by the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Defence Force in Northern Syria – areas where the Syrian Democratic Forces have been promoting secular grassroots democracy. Yet Theresa May signed a £100 million deal for BAE Systems to help build Turkish fighter jets, she discussed security co-operation, and the government hopes that the UK will become Turkey’s main defence provider.

We can’t let our horror of events in the US blind us to the gruesome role that is being played by our own government.

Sarah Glynn
Dundee

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EXPECT PLENTY OF JEERING IF TRUMP'S VICTORY GOES AHEAD

THE petition against the state visit is gathering pace. If the Government does not respond, and we now have heard that a “committee” in the Foreign Office” took the decision, then perhaps Buckingham Palace might intervene?

One would imagine that protests would be loud and visible during the visit with jeering directed at both heads of state (unless of course the public are forcibly kept away and ‘suppressed’ as happened when a state visit by a Chinese premier took place).

If Buckingham Palace remains silent, then perhaps we should consider dissolving the monarchy as an institution after the present head of state passes on?

John Edgar
Blackford

ONE of the key steps in Norway’s path to independence in the 19th Century was the creation of a separate monarchy when the King of Denmark, presumably exercising his royal prerogative in a positive and visionary way, appointed his younger son to be King of Norway.

This was in due course followed by a Norwegian Constitution, which led to a virtually unanimous decision to vote for independence, much to the chagrin of Sweden, which by that time was the dominant neighbour. Could it, should it, happen in Scotland? Who better than Princess Anne to accept the Crown? May it please Her Majesty to make that choice in her lifetime.

Catriona Walker
Aberdeenshire

PRESIDENT Donald Trump, totally inexperienced in foreign affairs, has probably just created another 10 thousand volunteers for Daesh, al Qaeda, and other terrorist groups.

Prime Minister Theresa May still refuses to condemn him because she is so desperate to show the European Countries that the UK can manage without them. Mrs Merkel and the others must be laughing out loud at our hapless Tory Government.

Mike Underwood
Linlithgow

WHY would a Republican want to visit a queen, stay in a palace and ride about in her carriage? Has he no scruples?

Richard Easson Dornoch THE hurried and submissive visit of the UK Prime Minister to the US President has only resulted in bungling Brexit walking hand-in-hand with chaotic Trump to the glorification of adding the title “Great” to the United States and to a faltering Britain.

Far from Theresa May’s visit being a popular political coup, it has rapidly become a solitary political coo, helping to further isolate the UK from the EU to the delight of the increasingly right-wing little Englanders.

Interestingly the brilliant and incisive ITV political commentator Robert Peston refers to Britain in modern post-Empire terms unlike BBC TV highlighting Great Britain.

The late great and forthright Labour politician Tam Dalyell, a staunch Unionist, nevertheless was correct in stating that delivering a devolved parliament for Scotland would inevitably lead to the break up of the United Kingdom. The disillusionment of being governed by a Westminster Parliament that few people in Scotland voted for along with being dragged out of Europe surely makes this now a certainty. If not this ancient Nation of Scotland will remain a minor part of a declining British state that clings to the mythical “special relationship” with an increasingly unstable USA.

Grant Frazer
Newtonmore

THE ban on immigration from seven countries by President Trump is not only unconstitutional but utterly nonsensical.

Mr Trump claims that “This is not about religion – this is about terror and keeping our country safe.”

However, of those from the Muslim-majority countries of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, none were involved in the 9/11 attacks in the US. Indeed, the major contributor to this attack, Saudi Arabia, is not on the list, and neither is Egypt.

Indeed, 80 per cent of terrorist attacks in the US have been undertaken by US citizens.

This a Muslim ban, nothing more and nothing less, truly contemptible and reprehensible. Mr Trump should wake-up to the mass protests and court rulings, and reverse this executive order.

Alex Orr
Edinburgh

WHEN the meagre tax and benefits were reluctantly given as a result of Smith, I and many others warned that they were nothing more than a poisoned chalice and a trap set by the yoons. And so it’s now proving to be just that. Like the Greens, we in the SNP want a totally new tax system. For myself I would tear up the present tax books and start again and my starting point would be that the fairest way would be to tax income, and by this I mean all income, though I would make a small exception if the investment income came from a Scottish company investing in Scotland.

So I would ask Patrick and his Greens to consider this very, very carefully. If you want a re-distributive tax system then the way to get it is most certainly not by jeopardising the position of the SNP Government and bringing about fresh elections.

So please think very wisely when you come to vote later. We all want the same thing, a fair and compassionate independent Scotland, please keep your focus on that.

Charlie Gallagher
Sullom, Shetland