THE lack of ideas or new thinking by the Unionist parties has been clearly on display since the EU election results.

The uniformity of the derisive comments about the SNP successes is frightening. It exposes a narrative where the major parties borrow from each other to diminish the SNP and refuse to address the reality of their own failures.

Add to this the repetitive nature of the responses to SNP proposals for future referenda – “once in a generation”, “Nicola Sturgeon is obsessed with independence”, “the Scottish people don’t want it”, “Another independence referendum will be divisive”. This is without any reference to 30 council areas out of 32 voting for the SNP.

In contrast to all that negativity, the Yes movement is enlivened by debates on new Green Deals, land taxation and land reform and on new currency initiatives.

As part of these debates, the Campaign for a Clean Scottish Currency will launch Andy Anderson’s book on clean currency on Sunday, June 9, at 2.30pm in Renfield Centre 260 Bath St. Glasgow G2 (free tickets from Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-clean-currency-for-a-prosperous-scotland-tickets-61758100140).

It is very apparent that the reality in Scotland is a political powerhouse of new thinking. The potential of the Green Revolution and climate change thinking includes the possibility of change which also modernises and cleans up financial systems and encompasses new social norms for health and well-being. Land reform and different ways of taxing land are also part of this political ferment and we are lucky to have people like Andy Wightman as part of the Scottish Yes movement.

The economics and currency of a new Scotland are important discussions for our future prosperity. We need to persuade those who lack confidence in an independent future that we have the talent and ingenuity to carry those important tasks. We are, after all, the land of Adam Smith and he, like us, believed in fair and equitable systems of salary and taxation.

We have much to celebrate about our efforts and the maps of EU voting patterns surely reveal the different country that Scotland has already become.

Our major task is to hold our nerve, keep calm and keep debating new and exciting possibilities, for this in the end is what will take us decisively to independence.
Maggie Chetty
Glasgow

I HAVE never needed to be “constantly connected” and therefore the impact of 3G and 4G has passed me by.

Fast forward to the recent spat on security issues around 5G in the Westminster Cabinet coupled with the report (The National, May 15) that 5G was to be “rolled out in Glasgow and other cities in Britain”, this all made me start to wonder. Alarm bells rang when I heard all the reports about the launch of 5G on Thursday, May 29. While this level of enhanced speed may have some benefits, when delivered by fibre, but only by that medium, there are big unanswered questions about the impact of its wireless mode.

A quick perusal on the internet reveals there is a significant level of concern about the how the 5G’s electro-magnetic radiation impacts on living entities. There are very serious concerns that it is harmful to virtually all forms of life, from insects to human as well as plant life.

I understand the signals can only travel a relatively short distance, so if implemented for wireless transmission, there will be a plethora of new antenna all over the place. This will mean no escape from the signals.

What consultation has there been with citizens and wider society?

Just what is the driver? Is it enhanced profits for the few? Is it licence fees for a Government to cut taxes for the rich?

It is certainly not sustainability and wellbeing.

We really need to have the facts widely known and have a wide-ranging dialogue in our society about whether we NEED this, or is it just a WANT?
Willie Oswald
Blanefield

ALTHOUGH it has been in a political union for 300 years, Scotland has always retained its identity as an independent country in terms of culture, tradition and being the mother country to millions throughout the world.

Scotland has many unique features that are widely known and easily identified.

Is there anywhere on Earth that a tartan-clad pipe band would not immediately be identified as Scottish?

On the political front, the fears and worries of Scottish independence doubters have long been exploited by the Unionist mantra that Scotland is too small, too poor and too stupid to become independent, but this is rapidly losing any vestiges of credibility due to the initiatives taken by the Scottish Government on smoking, cheap alcohol, tuition fees, nursery education, school meals, personal care, prescriptions, retention of the NHS in public ownership and the actions of the Scottish Government in mitigating highly detrimental policies such as the bedroom tax, removal of disabled benefits, etc, being implemented here and now.

The continuous barrage of Unionist propaganda is finally being countered by credible statistics in Holyrood and personal anecdotal evidence in the areas where these Scottish Government measures are seen to have been effective in improving the lives of local people.

The Labour Party’s Scottish arm in Holyrood is being undermined by its perpetual demands for the Scottish Government to use its limited resources to neutralise Tory Government policies imposed on Scotland, many of which have not been opposed by the Labour Party in Westminster. People are becoming more aware that the Labour Party in Westminster regularly joins with the Tories in voting down SNP motions and amendments that oppose the very same antisocial policies for which their Scottish arm is demanding mitigation.

We may now be approaching the point where Scots decide that the future of our culture, tradition, moral and political objectives can only be maintained and pursued in an independent country.
John Jamieson
South Queensferry

IN reply to Councillor Andy Doig’s query about why the Scottish Ladies national side’s match at Hampden the other evening was only shown on BBC Alba, when he said he thought it would be shown on both BBC1 “Scotland” and “S”TV if it was the man’s game, he could not be more wrong.

I moved home to Scotland four years ago and was absolutely shocked and dismayed to find our national team’s matches were almost never on BBC1 “Scotland” or “S”TV. They are almost always thrown on to a satellite channel, with the football fans in Scotland subjected to having our “auld enemy’s” matches beamed live into our living rooms, recently even completely meaningless friendly matches, even when our own national side are playing at the same time.

It is alas the same absolutely outrageous situation when we have very important domestic matches on in midweek. There is almost always no highlights program on whatsoever, but we are still subjected to some absolutely meaningless English domestic fixture in one of their cup competitions, played to a half-empty stadium, with both sides full of reserve players.

To add even more insult to injury, at a reasonable guess, at least 95% plus of football fans in Scotland support a Scottish team, but if they wish to watch the highlights on the Saturday night, if it is on at all and not pushed to BBC2 on a Sunday, they have to endure 90 or so minutes of the dull as dish-water, arrogant, clueless Gary Lineker, who incredibly is paid more by the BBC from our licence fee money than what the whole of Scottish Football gets from them each year, drones on about yet another instantly forgettable nil-nil draw full of, in the vast majority, mediocre players being made rich beyond their wildest dreams. It, of course, gets prime spot, pushing our highlights program into the wee small hours. It is quite simply an absolute disgrace that it is allowed to happen.

If this does not tell us what they think about us, in our own land, then nothing does.

To get back to Mr Doig, I can only say it’s a miracle they even showed the match as it is only those “Rebellious Scots”, after all.

The BBC HQ in Glasgow should be taken down brick by brick and made to build Hadrian’s Wall higher, if you ask me – after all, their workers have been shown the door.

Is it any wonder people think the English are arrogant when we are treated like this, when in reality it is a wonderful land full of lovely people but ruled by a landed gentry, mostly descendants of robber barons, slave traders and sweat-shop owners, now topped up by crooked bankers, who make the whole world look on them with disdain?
Iain K
Argyll

YOUR correspondent, Cllr Andy Doig (May 30), asks why the Scotland v Jamaica women’s international football game was broadcast on BBC ALBA on May 29. The answer is that the rights to the game were secured and paid for by MG ALBA, our partner organisation with whom we jointly manage BBC ALBA, not by the BBC.

MG ALBA, working with BBC Sport, agreed that coverage on the BBC was also made available to listeners and viewers via BBC Online and the BBC iPlayer – https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p079vsj2/womens-football-internationals-2019-scotland-v-jamaica.

The match was also available on BBC Radio Scotland. BBC Sport and BBC ALBA will similarly collaborate on live coverage of the forthcoming World Cup games, against England, Japan and Argentina, which will be at the heart of an exciting season of women’s sport content available across the BBC’s services.
Ian Small
Head of Public Policy and Corporate Affairs, BBC Scotland

THE table of election results published in the The National on Tuesday, May 28, can be used, in conjunction with other data, to calculate the results for all parties that stood on a Remain policy in Scotland. These were SNP, Greens, LibDems and Change UK. This exercise allows some interesting conclusions to be drawn and suggests a policy for the imminent future of Anglo-Scottish relations.

In exactly half of the 32 areas, more than 60% of those who voted did so for one or other of these parties, and in another five, between 59% and 60% voted similarly. In fact, there were only five areas in which the Remain vote fell below 55% and in only one of these – the border area of Dumfries and Galloway – did it fall below 50%. As it was almost impossible to ascertain the policy of the various independent candidates, votes cast for these have not been included in this calculation, but it would seem likely that at least a few would have favoured Remain. There were, no doubt, also some Remainers among Labour voters who, out of loyalty to their usual party or support for a candidate of the calibre of David Martin, still held their noses and voted Labour.

Some polls have suggested that a very “hard” Brexit or a “no-deal” Brexit would increase the above figures to nearer 70%. That of course depends on what happens under a new Tory leader, but it is hardly likely that the support for Remain would be reduced in such circumstances.

Given that a total share of the vote of 40%-44% is usually considered to be a good result in a UK General Election, these are remarkable figures and they indicate how great an affront to democracy it would be if Scotland were to be forced to leave the EU by the sheer extent of the pro-Brexit vote in England. That must not happen.
Brian Patton
Foulden, Berwickshire