THANKS to Gordon Macintyre-Kemp for a thoroughly well expressed article in yesterday’s National (Dismantling of devolution will be straw that breaks the Union’s back, July 22). He exposes the Johnson government’s delusions and their real aims.
The delusions about power are prevalent throughout a large section of Britain, where “England” is used when “Britain” is referred to. The comment on one of the news programmes on Wednesday about the England Olympic team sums it up.
READ MORE: Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp: Dismantling of devolution will be straw that breaks the Union’s back
As Brexit is used to undermine Holyrood, it’s time the Scottish Government recognises that we cannot afford to wait until the Covid pandemic is over before we hold indyref2. It looks as though Covid is with us for the foreseeable future and certainly until the developed world realises that until we help countries in Africa and the Indian sub-continent to vaccinate their populations, Covid will incubate there, ready to spread globally whenever it gets the opportunity.
We need to be planning for indyref2 as soon as possible. That means we must be able to introduce our own currency and our own central bank within the shortest possible time frame after independence day.
Ideally we need to be able to negotiate the detail of independence with rUK, but we must not let this delay independence.
The National’s pages demonstrate that we have sufficient home-grown expertise available to help. Mike Russell’s eight-page booklet makes good reading and should persuade those unsure that independence is necessary. However, it lacks even an outline of the steps needed and their sequence to take us to the point of having the infrastructure in place to allow us to declare independence. I don’t expect everything to happen tomorrow but I do want to know that planning is in hand to smooth the path when we win indyref2.
Catriona Grigg
Embo
NO banner headlines, but a significant decision has been announced by the The Parliamentary Ombudsman (TPO) at Westminster which could have implications for millions. The millions are women born in the 1950s who received little or no notice from the DWP regarding significant rises in their state pension age. The rise was something those women affected are not complaining about – the complaint is about the notice afforded to them.
This announcement by TPO clearly indicated complete inadequacy by the DWP regarding communications to those going to be affected by a rise in their state pension age and a complete lack of action by the DWP as far back as 2005 in taking any mitigating measures to correct such a massive change for the women affected.
READ MORE: DWP failed women over state pension age changes, Ombudsman finds
Other failings by the DWP were highlighted in the TPO report, and the SNP leader at Westminster Ian Blackford took the opportunity at the last PMQs of this parliamentary session to ask the PM to reflect on TPO’s judgement of maladministration by the DWP regarding the WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) women, and called for justice.
Mr Blackford’s call will have been echoed by many other MPs in the House as there is cross-party agreement on the injustice.
Justice is necessary because many of the women affected have been plunged into poverty, claiming benefits for the first time in their working lives, and many have had to continue working, carrying health issues. It is nothing short of a scandal on a massive scale, massive because 340,000 women in Scotland alone are affected.
The Holyrood parliament has absolutely no jurisdiction on pensions, so over to you Prime Minister for justice.
Catriona Clark
Falkirk
REGARDING the piece by Craig Meighan “SNP and Greens urged to set big solar energy target” (Jul 19), I remain puzzled about the big emphasis on wind and solar. Both have minor drawbacks inasmuch as when the wind “dizny blaw” and the sun “dizny shine” they are fairly ineffective.
READ MORE: SNP and Greens urged to set big solar energy target
Now wave power suffers from neither of these drawbacks as the tide never stops going ootanin, giving a considerably more reliable output. Sadly I haven’t seen much in the way of coverage, apart from Professor Salter’s Duck of the 1970s and the occasional mention when something new is installed in the Pentland Firth.
Wind and wave sounds to me like a better bet than solar, given our track record on Scottish sunshine (although the current weather seems to be contradicting the above!)
Barry Stewart
Blantyre
IAN Blackford’s attitude to the revelation that Boris Johnson had apparently placed a lower value on the lives of over-80s when deciding on lockdown was in marked contrast to that of Iain Duncan Smith and others who have defended the PM.
It is slightly chilling to hear that any section of the population could be considered as “above life expectancy” when weighing the pros and cons of government policies.
John Jamieson
South Queensferry
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