THERESA May was at the dispatch box today in one of her final Prime Minister’s Questions, and an issue was raised that is affecting millions in society who are suffering – often in silence – yet Mrs May had no words of comfort.
This issue has heard numerous hours of discussion and questioning in the House of Commons, it has plunged many into poverty and increased use of foodbanks.
Amidst all the fix-it scenarios on Brexit from the Conservative leadership candidates, we have been deafened by their silence on this issue.
I refer to the roll out of Universal Credit, a tragedy for so many, coupled with Conservative austerity cuts and welfare reforms, inflicting suffering on the most vulnerable in society, with absolutely no justification.
The Conservative leadership candidates must step up to the challenge and address this tragic issue for so many, because more of the same would be adding salt to the deep wounds already inflicted and that would be totally unacceptable.
Catriona Clark
Falkirk
THE recent acts by Jeremy Hunt in denying to the First Minister state support for her overseas travel are a direct violation of the constitutional rights of the Scottish people, and in doing so, he is acting as a dictator.
READ MORE: Jeremy Hunt claims he would 'never allow' Union to be broken up
Upwards of half of Scots have expressed support for the legitimate aspiration of national independence – just as the English did in 2016 – and it is not in Hunt’s legal competence to withdraw the state support to our democratically elected representatives which we, the people of Scotland, have paid for with our taxes. No taxation without representation.
I do hope that he will be prosecuted for violating Scottish citizens’ rights and the articles of the Treaty of Union.
Linda Horsburgh
Dundee
FOLLOWING recent comments and actions of the Tory hopefuls (or should that be hopeless?) in their leadership contest, it is now abundantly clear that support for the Union can be equated with a belief in English superiority.
In stark contrast to this, I would say that support for Scottish independence is based on a belief in the equality of everyone living within our borders, regardless of nationality.
We should also take cognisance of Slovenia’s president Borut Pahor who said, in celebration of the anniversary of his country’s independence, that statehood “makes us an equal part of the global architecture”.
It is long time that we exercise our ancient rights and take our place as an equal member of the family of nations.
Solomon Steinbett
Glasgow
IT’S with no surprise that in answer to an open letter to the two remaining leadership contenders about the Scottish question, there has not been any.
What they seem to forget is that ignoring Scotland will not be a good idea – Margaret Thatcher tried that one and look where that ended.
The reports in the news seem clear, ignoring and dismissing Scotland, this attitude isn’t new, history plays out this same attitude – pitting people against people and if that didn’t work, buy off those in charge.
If the leadership hopefuls continue on this path, then the Scottish question can, for the Unionist parties, become the new European problem.
The way countless PMs have handled Europe has been their downfall. Do they honestly think ignoring the Scottish people will work for them? Haven’t they learnt anything about Scotland?
The Scottish Parliament was created to stop support for independence, and so that no one party could win an overall majority, but the Scottish people said otherwise.
The independence movement is gathering momentum and although the Unionists want us to believe otherwise, the Scots can show them differently.
I watched the indyref debate last night and couldn’t quite think there was something missing, and it struck me, in 2014 there was a passion in the argument that at the moment seems missing.
Will we ever see this return to our politicians?
Paul Gilchrist
Edinburgh
ON Tuesday, through social media, I was unfortunate enough to come across a clip from the Jeremy Vine programme where
Scotland was, in short, ridiculed.
First we had a former butler, yes, that’s correct, a former butler who didn’t know that we have devolution already and had to be told that Scotland’s resources included oil, whisky, fishing and renewable energy but all he could come up with was a monster in a “lake”, disgraceful, although the host seemed to think this was all jolly good fun. Then came a bout of shouting out random things like bagpipes, Irn-Bru and tartan.
READ MORE: This Jeremy Vine show clip about Scotland will make you VERY angry
The audience, who looked rather bemused by the whole thing, was then asked if Scotland could be independent – eventually one person called out “no” with no reasons given.
Then we had Carole Malone, a journalist on the panel, who proceeded to tell us that there is no interest in
independence which of course is clearly nonsense going by recent polls and especially if a certain person as anticipated moves in to Number 10.
This attitude to Scotland was also shown by the stereotypical performance by Jeremy Hunt with his fish supper and Irn-Bru.
When, for goodness sake, will the No voters in Scotland waken up to being ridiculed, being ignored and worse of all being treated as irrelevant?
Hector Maclean
Glasgow
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