I FEEL that the article printed on page 19 of Wednesday’s National (Eurozone welcome for Croatia’s join bid, July 10) deserves greater prominence, since it effectively destroys a major plank in the Unionist propaganda machine.

One of the Unionist mantras is the claim that were Scotland to rejoin the EU, it would be forced to adopt the euro. The fact that neither Denmark nor Sweden are in the eurozone is dismissed by the assertion that these EU countries predate the forming of the eurozone in 1999. However, Croatia joined the EU in 2013 when, to quote the article, “it decided to keep its own currency, the kuna, and move to the eurozone at an appropriate time”.

It is clear from the article that it is Croatia, and not Europe, that will decide when that appropriate time is to occur.

Donald MacRae
Paisley

SOME National readers might think that agriculture and the rural life is not that important when we discuss climate chaos or global warming, and that vegetarians are just “hippies” for the 21st century.

However, if you look at it more scientifically then it becomes clear that we all misuse our planet at the expense of the next generations. We all need to think about what kind of different place the new Scotland could and should be.

For example, one cow produces 550 litres of methane each day and that is about the same CO2 equivalent as a family car. 14.5% of all the world’s greenhouse gas emissions is from meat production – the same as all our transport together: cars, busses, lorries, ships and aeroplanes!

So our (Holyrood) government could encourage the conversion of our farming to organic vegetables for local consumption. Maybe even start with soups available free to everyone in local schools? It is an emergency after all.

Just getting the facts in perspective is only the first part of the solution.

If we ate crops directly without wasting them in conversion to edible meat, we could get more protein and calories and cause less pollution and greenhouse gasses.

Norman Lockhart
Innerleithen

AT one of Mrs May’s last PMQs the issue of Universal Credit was yet again raised. PMQs was followed

by “Urgent Questions”, when the SNP MP Neil Gray asked for a ministerial statement on Universal Credit fraud recently uncovered by the BBC.

A ministerial statement duly followed and the House of Commons was informed that the first prosecution had taken place. It is worth bearing in mind that this fraud is estimated to be costing the taxpayer in excess of £100,000 a month. Consistently during the statement the minister advised claimants to attend their local job centres, however it may be worth bearing in mind that this Conservative government has closed in excess of 100 job centres, resulting in access/availability issues for many claimants.

The public are nothing short of aghast at the level of fraud in what is a new benefit system, a system that has been trying to roll-out since 2013, yet has consistently demonstrated the total incompetence of the Department for Work and Pensions in Westminster. The roll-out of Universal Credit is destroying families and individuals and having a knock-on effect on our local authorities, with large rises in rent arrears affecting local services for us all. The country is currently in political paralysis with many on Universal Credit being left to suffer in silence, while the Conservative road show rolls out!

Catriona C Clark
Falkirk

MOST of us have increasing doubts about the BBC’s willingness to report accurately on independence matters but I was genuinely surprised that the BBC’s news website made no mention whatsoever of last Saturday’s march through Ayr. No images, no comment, nothing at all.

If it hadn’t been for The National’s front page being shown in the BBC’s daily newspaper section, no-one using the website would have known anything about the march! I fear a precedent has now been set and that the BBC will ignore most future marches and pretend that they are not happening.

I often wonder who makes these decisions. It couldn’t have been a simple error of omission, otherwise it surely would have been rectified by Monday or Tuesday. It has to be deliberate, by the BBC’s equivalent of the Thought Police.

I often wonder, too, what the BBC Scotland news presenters make of it all. Are Gary Robertson, Hayley Millar, Brian Taylor and the others not embarrassed by the BBC’s poor work, or is it they who are making the decisions about what is included on the website?! Their ongoing silence on the issue is deafening. I could even feel sorry for them, unable to express themselves openly due to stern diktats from above! Apart from their salaries, they surely cannot be happy doing what they’re doing.

Marshall Adair
Ochiltree