Failings of the EU won’t disappear if we turn our backs and run away

Gerry and I both joined the SNP in the 1960s and the primary aim of the SNP was “self-government for Scotland”, ie the restoration of Scottish national sovereignty by the establishment of a democratic Scottish Government freely elected by the Scottish people and whose authority will be limited only by such agreements as will be freely entered into with other nations or states for purposes of furthering international co-operation and world peace.

Gerry Fisher and I and many others signed up to that aim, and it was based on that aim that Jim Sillars based his successful campaign “Independence in Europe”. Maybe Jim Sillars now thinks his campaign now should be “Independence Not in Europe” or some other such nonsense.

There are many things about the EU which we may not like, but these failures will not disappear if we turn our backs and run away. Surely we have all seen the disgusting and pathetic mess that English politics has fallen into, where Europe is ignored or sneered at and England’s parochialism holds sway.

Well, Gerry – and any others who may agree with him – I have faith in the people of Scotland that we will not be inward-looking and turn our backs on our neighbours in Europe and the British Isles. We must become independent. We must lead the campaign to make the EU more democratic. We must fight climate change and find a way to cope with the pressures of migration in the world. With all these problems, we need the Gerry Fishers and the Jim Sillarses. We need everybody.

George Leslie
Fenwick

GERRY Fisher asserts that a country cannot remain a sovereign state and be in the EU. The National also receives letters maintaining that the EU should intervene in the Spanish/Catalonian situation which it does not do although it might like to. They can’t both be right, can they? The EU is a club that you choose to join and then obey the rules. It does not rob a country of its sovereignty.

Susan Grant
Tain

I WONDER if the National Organiser of the Scottish Republican Socialist Movement (Letters, February 23) has ever heard of Scottish feudalism?

Far from being a self-determining socialist republic off the Scottish mainland, St Kilda was in the feudal ownership of MacLeod of MacLeod of Dunvegan for most of its (recorded) history. Everything belonged to the feudal owner except perhaps the odd spindle, comb and personal clothing. In 1726 following a devastating smallpox outbreak MacLeod forcibly resettled Hirta (only one island was suitable for habitation), it is said, with rent defaulters and ne’er-do-wells from Skye.

READ MORE: St Kilda was a great example of a socialist republic

Even owning and having nothing, the residents had to pay rent, and for meal delivered by the factor on his annual visit. They paid rent in feathers among other products. Of course they paid no taxes! They were not on the electoral roll as most of the male non-property owning population was not on the roll until after the First World War; the women, of course, not until 1928 by which time the loss of a young, fit population was pointing at the inevitable evacuation. I may also mention the long-standing and deep influence successive church missionaries had on the islanders’ lives. Far from being free and communistic, their whole existence was controlled and confined.

All this said, Alan Stewart seems absolutely happy (with a wry aside) to claim a socialist republic for a society in which women had no say. It is self-evident that cannot be a socialist republic!

Linda Henderson
Nairnshire

I WAS interested to read the letter from Alan Stewart, who claimed St Kilda was a great example of a socialist republic. In truth, the inhabitants lived in what would be considered today, and even then, abject poverty. For example, tetanus had resulted in infant mortality rates as high as 80% during the late 19th century and about 10% of the population died from influenza in 1926.

In addition to a succession of crop failures in the 1920s, investigations into the soil where crops had been grown showed that there had been contamination by lead and other pollutants, caused by the use of seabird carcasses and peat ash in the manure used on the fields. In light of this I do not think that this is the kind of independent Scotland I have in mind.

Brian Lawson
Paisley

WHILE I was reading the article by Stewart Ward “BBC denies failing to contact pro-Yes groups” (February 23) I was struck with a severe attack of alliteration. The article claimed the BBC contacted Scotland in Union for its Debate Night programme but ignored Yes groups; the BBC denied this. I thought “Cock-up, cover-up, conspiracy, or Conservative?”

Jim Lynch
Edinburgh

READ MORE: Here's the timeline of BBC's claim to have contacted Yes groups