A BIG thank you to Mike Small for an insightful piece of writing (Nebulous Britain? If only that was the worst insult you could hurl, Sunday National, December 23).
It is one of those historic ironies that if we want to hang on to what was good about the old UK before Thatcher and her toxic brainchildren started hacking away at it, you have to look to us here in Scotland for an ethos of social justice, compassion, equality and security.
We Scots cannot help our English friends and neighbours because as part of the UK we are numerically too small, even before we face a Westminster Parliament and regime which ignore us on principle and reflexively reject anything we propose, regardless of the merits.
Nor can we help them much as an independent state, not without interfering in their internal affairs. We can help a bit more than we can as an artificial part of the UK polity, because as one of 28 EU member States we can contribute to putting pressure on Westminster regimes to act in ways that will benefit the people of England and ourselves rather than in the interests of excessively rich and powerful Tories and their party.
As an independent state we will also be able to rein in the Great British Meeja Machine – which, consciously and unconsciously, supports the toxic BritNat, cringe-making and cringe-reinforcing propaganda narrative. We will be able to do so not by imposing censorship, but by obliging it to reveal that its origins lie outwith Scotland.
Edward Freeman
via thenational.scot
READ MORE: Nebulous Britain? If only that was the worst insult you could hurl
LETTERS from Michael Clarke and Bob Cotton (Sunday National, December 23), raise once more the question of a national anthem for Scotland. May I throw a contender into the ring? March of the Soldiers of Robert Bruce. This was supposedly used before the battle of Bannockburn and also in the war between England and France when Scots mercenaries fought alongside Joan of Arc. It is a military march developed from Hey Tuttie Taiti, a drinking song, and I know of no suitable words to sing to it as a national anthem.
It is highly regarded by people in other countries, and even as an Englishman it brings a lump to my throat when I hear it played on YouTube by the Heeresmusikkorps 1 Hannover of the German Army. There are a number of other performances on YouTube, including bagpipes. It would be something for official occasions and not perhaps for sporting events, which could still use Flower of Scotland.
Robert Mitchell
Stirling
READ MORE: Letters, December 22
HOW can the EU stand by and see one of its members, Spain, bully and suppress the nation of Catalonia? How can they allow this new Spanish Inquisition to ride full tilt over the democratically elected government and people of that nation? How can they condone the imprisonment of democratically elected leading members of the Catalan Government, for two long years, with no sign of them being released in the near future? This disgusting state of affairs should show up as a flashing red warning light, to those who want to join this dodgy EU after independence.
Let’s take a leaf from oil-rich Norway and wealthy Switzerland, who trade with the EU and with anyone they want to, something they can do without interference from Brussels. They remain on friendly and trading terms, but wisely don’t join the club. Most of the member states of the EU have nations within their artificial borders who seek freedom and independence, and like Spain have denied them same. So this is the main reason they can’t criticise Spain, or try to help Catalonia, as they are in the same business as Spain: the business of bullying smaller nations. The United Nations should also intervene, but the bullies have seats there as well, and the newer members don’t seem to have the will, or the inclination, to censor Spain or any other bully in their midst.
The answer for Scotland is independence, and friendship and trade with the rest of the world. Only after independence can we take our rightful seat in the United Nations, and help nations like Catalonia to do likewise.
Iain Ramsay
Greenock
READ MORE: Catalonia's four jailed independence leaders end hunger strike
SO much sense in John McLeod’s Long Letter (December 21). One-size-fits-all politics is all current Conservatives understand, and that is their great weakness – along with unfettered greed, class snobbery and a short attention span.
They look at UK as an entity and like the state broadcaster are unable to understand complex dynamics involved. They crave crises in the idea that people will take the side of the politicians that caused them. Apparently Jeremy Corbyn would continue Brexit if PM. The chaos of course would (try to) be mitigated by state intervention and not really be his fault (but it is).
Nicola’s intervention is far too constructive and will be considered as irrelevant as that of any “foreign” politician.
David Gardiner
via thenational.scot
READ MORE: It's time for open and honest discussion about why the backstop is needed
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