Feedback: Attempts to ban AUOB gathering will not be successful

Colliery pipe band and silver band championships were held, with banners depicting Keir Hardie and champions of socialism from every corner of the extensive Scottish coal fields.

Speakers included communist miners’ leaders such as Mick McGahey and Abe Moffat and luminaries from the Labour Party.

These parades marched through Edinburgh to reach the park. A great day out for all mining communities. Celebrated by all the citizens and an event eagerly enjoyed by all. Any attempt to ban the parade and gathering proposed by All Under One Banner is simply absurd and doomed to fail. I will parade with pride.
Willie Archibald
Peebles

BY constraining the All Under One Banner march on October 6, Historic Environment Scotland (HES) are themselves engaging in a political act and a biased one at that. True political neutrality would have been achieved by HES openly welcoming events promoting the political persuasions of all.

However, on Wednesday they stated that: “As a non-departmental public body (NDPB), HES must remain politically neutral at all times and we do not permit political events of any nature to take place within our properties in care.”

Really? This doesn’t seem to have bothered London’s Natural History Museum (also an NDPB) when agreeing to be the venue for the Conservative Party’s Black & White fundraising ball last February (winners included a £15,000 bid for dinner with Ruth Davidson). Or the Imperial War Museum (oh look, that’s an NDPB too) where another prize was dinner with the defence secretary in the Churchill Rooms.
Frances Roberts
Ardrishaig

ONE has to agree with Boris Johnson at times. In his now newly termed “Super Canada-style Brexit”, a move away from Canada+++ and “Titanic Brexit”, he castigates the UK Government over “catastrophic failure” in office on Brexit.

The Unionists north of the Tweed had better take note. Johnson’s attack is indeed an attack on himself as he was part of that government until recently! When one considers that at this juncture there is still no firm proposal on the future, let alone on leaving, it is symptomatic of a terminal decline at the heart of the Anglo-Westminster establishment!

Corbyn in his six tests on Brexit states that any proposal on trade must bring the same benefits as being in the single market and customs union. That can only be if we remain. Labour is wallowing in absurdity as well!

The Anglo-duopoly parties at Westminster are so rutted within and pulling apart that chaos can only follow where the macro decisions are yet to be made. As Nicola Sturgeon pointed out, the appointment of a food czar to ease food supplies post March 2019 and beyond can mean food rationing! What a mess! Yet, the UK press remains silent on the implications.

Boris Johnson is right for once! Westminster has presided over “catastrophic failure” since David Cameron put party before country.

Holyrood might as well now start to make contingency plans for indyref2. We voted to remain in the EU’s single market and customs union.

We cannot rely on the fabled benign “pooling and sharing” from the south about which Gordon Brown spouts from time to time.

We take our mandate now from the Scottish electorate. No more catastrophic failures imposed on us by Westminster!
John Edgar
Kilmaurs

I WOULD like to respond to Alasdair Galloway’s Long Letter in Friday’s edition (September 28).

I was against the European Economic Community (EEC) in the seventies; we were taken into the organisation by Ted Heath – fishery unimportant was his dictum. When Harold Wilson became prime minister, his fulfilling of a manifesto pledge was to ask voters in a referendum – 1975 – if they wished to remain. The response from the SNP was “not on anybody else’s terms” and I campaigned for that.

I recall at one meeting in Edinburgh it was Liberal and Labour for staying and Tories and SNP for leaving – the Tory gentleman was quite a nice chap – but nothing is forever. As part of the debate the Liberal spokesman stated that in the EEC they got longer holidays with better weather, and was displeased at my reaction. I also put in a resolution at the SNP conference in Edinburgh in 1978 for us to oppose membership, but lost that.

Some years later Gordon Wilson thought we should remain, as it would not show us in isolation in a cold, hard world, and this was backed by the SNP. At the time I was expressing my disagreement and Jimmy Halliday, a former SNP chairman, said: “We would have exactly the same amount of independence as every other country in the EEC”, so I changed my mind (I liked Alasdair Galloway’s comment from John Maynard Keynes).

The late Dr Robert McIntyre, president of the SNP when I joined, always said we should have “a statement of principles”, as distinct from fixed policies as these would tie us down. The reaction to the White Paper in 2014 shows how right he was. I read all 600 pages – it took me about eight weeks – and found very little I disagreed with. So far with the Growth Commission report I am struck by how well other small nations are doing.

We cannot micromanage independence, and various attempts to do that have failed and will continue to fail, and we could argue about that to Doomsday – which looks as if it has arrived early. The SNP are not the fount of all wisdom and knowledge but the only way to actually get independence is via the party.

I would sincerely hope that the SNP would form the Scottish Government for the first two or three parliaments, to make sure it is bedded in and not subverted by other sources. We know power corrupts, so I hope we could then have power sharing.
Jim Lynch
Edinburgh

THE system of proportional representation used for Holyrood elections was imposed, or rather inflicted on Scotland by Westminster when our government was partially devolved, and is worthy of reforming when we become independent once again. Then we would hopefully not have to put up with a repeat of the present position of the two main (Unionist) parties being represented by regional list members unidentified sufficiently prior to the election date, and who account for more than 80% of each of their total numbers in the chamber.

This grotesque system would not be tolerated at Westminster, so why at Holyrood? Your readers will no doubt after only a little thought uncover the answer.
J Hamilton
Bearsden

FANTASTIC article written by David Pratt highlighting the fact the Scotland team are planning on playing in an apartheid state (Scottish Football fans should worry about Palestinians rather than kilt pins, September 28). I think it’s absolutely disgraceful and I cannot understand why they are not refusing to play. If Argentina can do it, surely Scotland can?
Debbie Thornton
Oban

HATS off to David Pratt for his exceptional article. How heartening it is to read a mainstream piece on the Israel/Palestine situation which doesn’t pander to the Israeli propaganda lobby or run scared of its censure.

As Mr Pratt points out, Israel is an apartheid state and, like South Africa before it, deserves to be treated as such.

I would hope that the SFA and other sporting bodies read his article and do what’s right by refusing to give credence to an Israeli regime which flouts international law, cruelly oppresses another people and cold-bloodedly kills those of them who protest.

With this piece I believe Mr Pratt has emulated those great truth-telling journalists on the middle east, Robert Fisk and Jonathan Cook.
Frank Rodgers
Glasgow

NICOLA Sturgeon recently rebuked Jeremy Corbyn’s plan for a green economy on Twitter, stating that the SNP were the real leaders in cutting carbon emissions and supporting renewables.

Unfortunately trouble is now brewing for the SNP to put their money where their mouths are in the waters off the west coast of Scotland as the fight to save Scotland’s kelp forests intensifies.

As a green-minded SNP member, I was dismayed to see our reps on the Environment Committee abstained on Mark Ruskell’s amendment to ban (as they have done in England and Wales) the mechanical harvesting or “dredging” of kelp from our sea beds. The Bill passed thanks to support from other Greens and Labour on to the third stage but the choice remains for the SNP.

Why is this so important? Kelp forests are known to researchers as “blue carbon” because of their ability to sequester tonnes of carbon from the water column. They protect against coastal erosion and provide nursery and spawning areas for a variety of fish and crustaceans.

Currently kelp harvesting supports a small local economy where it’s picked by hand under strict controls. As yet there is simply no evidence to prove that dredging (essentially dragging a huge mechanical claw across the seabed) is sustainable, so we are on the brink of authorising an environmental catastrophe.

Would we be happy to sit by and rip down swathes of virgin pine forest?

The Bill is backed by fishermen, conservationists, local industry, scallop pickers and currently the Scottish Greens and Labour Party.

I strongly urge all SNP members who care about the environment to speak out and join me in the call to back this Bill. Get writing to your MSPs before it’s too late!
Finlay McFarlane
Leith, Edinburgh

ESSENTRA, a company listed on the London Stock Exchange that made a £21 million profit in the first six months of this year, is closing its Kilmarnock factory – 51 people are to lose their jobs.

Texas Instruments is to close its factory in Greenock next year – more than 300 people will lose their jobs.

25,000 people complained about a recent Big Brother episode. So when the hell are we going to start complaining about something important like job losses?

We did it before in the 70s and 80s and we are going back there – where is the fight?
David Ritchie
North Ayrshire