JIM Taylor’s reply to me (June 28) is a classic example of what is missing in parts of the Yes movement – intellectual rigour. He did not so much write “truths” as provide opinion, and muddled opinion at that, where the wish was clearly father to the thought. Most of his letter is not a reply to me, but a diatribe against Westminster rule, something I voted to remove in 2014, but failed.

Jim has allowed his animosity to the sovereignty of Westminster to cloud his judgment: thus failing to understand that Schedule 5 of the 1998 Act is inferior in law to S28(7), which states clearly that Westminster has the right to make laws for Scotland – the assertion of sovereign power which trumps all. Also, I think the Scottish Government, if it was foolish enough to go to the Supreme Court, would find it difficult to argue a breach of Schedule 5, when the powers are merely being delayed, not denied, on perfectly sensible public policy grounds that time is needed to produce all-UK standards for trading in a borderless state.

Our approach to those standards, and our final acceptance of them, will be important in the next independence referendum, because with 64 per cent of our trade with rUK, their existence will make it easier for the Yes side to tell business there will be no change or uncertainty in trading with their southern customers.

If I may, I would caution Jim and others about continuing to play the card that Scotland voted to Remain in the referendum, and that therefore renders the result invalid as far as we are concerned. Two can play at that game, and I can recall on several occasions in the past when Shetland was a card played by London in our referendums. The fact is that the question on the ballot paper was about the UK leaving or remaining within the EU, and Leave won, and having its win recognised is an important principle. If it is not, then we shall be wide open to the Shetland argument when we win next time. The lesson here is always think ahead, and don’t make a case to suit present purposes that can boomerang in future years.

I note that Jim places great faith in the EU attitude to Scotland. I wonder why, then, when we could have done with that organisation’s support in 2014, it lined up with the Westminster Government by telling us to get stuffed, with no possibility of seamless membership if we voted Yes? As for an independent Scotland having “decision-making” powers as a member state of the EU – not on fishing, or public procurement contracts, to mention but two issues of importance.

I could, but won’t, elaborate on the Viking and Laval judgments of the European Court of Justice which placed capital above labour, and dealt a blow to trade unions. Nor will I mention at length the disgraceful treatment of that small country Greece, where recently, with further austerity insisted upon by the EU, police tear-gassed pensioners protesting about another cut in their income.

Finally, it will come as a surprise to those in the majority in 2014 to learn, from Jim, they were not voting for the status quo, and the continued existence of a UK where sovereignty resides at Westminster. Any I met during the campaign seemed clear that is what they were voting for.

Jim Sillars
Edinburgh

“THE Labour Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing.” Harold Wilson’s famous words had an ironic resonance on Monday when Nia Griffith, the shadow defence secretary, revealed the party’s pro-Trident policy.

At least now we know. Having driven a horse and cart through every moral and legal limit by endorsing the world’s most powerful machine for the mass killing of human beings, the party has revealed its utter lack of moral principle. It stands for nothing.

The rationale behind this moral nihilism is the most fatuous imaginable. “It is an important part of being a tier-one nation and being in the UN Security Council”. So we have the H Bomb because it’s our admission ticket to the Big Boys’ Club. Other states will know what they must do to join the nuclear gang.

He adds that the world today is a more uncertain place than ever before. I have news for him. There is only one world and we share it with every other human being. If it is uncertain for us, it is uncertain for everybody else too. So they too may respond by deploying their “independent deterrent” just like we do. We all race along merrily in a handcart to Hell, and it’s curtains for the human comedy.

This is not merely moral nihilism. It is utter insanity.

Meanwhile, in the real world, 122 states at the UN have drafted a treaty banning nuclear weapons. The nine nuclear rogue states are boycotting this – naturally.

The UK Party’s pro-Trident stance puts Scottish Labour in quandary. They must decide either to maintain their rejection of Trident or do whit they’re telt by the imperial British Labour Party. Will they follow the moral crusade, or abandon principle like their British comrades? Does it matter any more? Thank God in Scotland we have parties of principle like the SNP and the Greens.

Brian Quail
Glasgow