Roger Mullin

‘EVERY war is a war against children” said Eglantyne Jebb, founder of Save the Children.

HAVING just cast my vote to elect the seventh different party leader since joining the SNP 58 years ago in the days of Arthur Donaldson, and since yesterday on my 75th birthday I informed my family of my decision to stand back from an activist role in party politics, I thought some might be interested in what has influenced me to vote for Kate Forbes.

TWO years before her murder in Moscow in 2006, Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s book Putin’s Russia was published to huge acclaim. It includes the story of the horrors inflicted during the second Chechen war, a war conducted at the behest of Vladimir Putin. Attacks on medical centres and old people’s homes, rape, pillage, torture and other atrocities became part of Russia’s weapons of war.

SCOTTISH and Southern Energy (SSE) last week announced a major contract for all the fabrication work for the 114 offshore wind turbines planned for the Seagreen array off the east coast of Fife.

I AM optimistic about the future. This might seem a strange thing to write in the midst of Brexit chaos, with a UK government and parliament in gridlock, and huge global challenges. It is easy to feel pessimistic, even fearful, about what the future holds – so why the optimism?

BEFORE becoming a Member of Parliament, I undertook 27 international assignments, mainly in the developing world.