ON Monday, the Prime Minister of the UK set out his vision for “unleashing Britain’s potential”.

The perilous essence of Boris Johnson’s cause celebre was plain for all to hear. His jingoistic speech promoting British economic invulnerability, exceptionalism and embracing the othering of Europeans will continue to fuel the present rise in ethno-nationalism.

Ever since the question of EU membership was made l’ordre du jour, bigotry and xenophobia – like a long-dormant virus trapped in ice and permafrost – have been resurrected in many parts of the “United” Kingdom. And without proper quarantine of the ubiquitous anti-European Union diatribe, that virus will continue to advance.

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Johnson has become a throwback to those Georgian-era mothers who would tell their children about the nasty little man Napoleon Bonaparte and the horrors of Revolutionary France. They would warn their offspring they must behave or Boney, eventually the bogeyman, would come and get them in the night.

Westminster exaggeration of British political and economic power has enriched the fallacy that Britain can not only afford to leave the EU but also flourish outside of it. And no doubt Johnson’s vacuous imperialist rhetoric about Britain’s economic invulnerability will be seen by many as being “positive” and “energetic” about the future and even “inspiring” to the more gullible.

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With so many people in Britain being sustained on a daily diet of political elitist hawkishness, too many still think in terms of “empire” and of world domination. And on Monday this notion was reinforced on national television by Johnson’s speech from the historic city of Greenwich. Consequently, it isn’t hard to understand why the majority of England persist in their believe that the French and the Germans have more to gain from them than they do from the French or the Germans.

There is widespread belief that Britain’s two equally sovereign kingdoms positioned on the edge of Europe have been held back economically by membership of the EU. This opinion does not stand up to the slightest of scrutiny. But what can and will stand up to any analysis is the inevitability that there will soon be no United Kingdom. As the days, weeks and months pass, it will become ever more apparent to one of those kingdoms that there is no benefit from remaining attached to an isolationist and ethno-nationalist experiment.

It’s just a matter of time before the three-century-old dominance of Westminster over the people of Scotland is completely and utterly extinguished.

Mark Saunders
Port Glasgow

AS inhabitants of the British Isles we are all British, with some degree of shared history and culture. But what is it about Britishness that is holding some of us back from seeking a better future for our country?

Is it the nostalgic British looking back to “the good old days” when world maps showed large areas painted pink and “Britannia ruled the waves”, the last days of a declining empire? That empire that was built largely on slavery and oppression and the arrogant colonialism that so often left havoc in its wake.

Or maybe it is the deference to the British establishment with all its pomp and ceremony. A facade masking an ultra-rich, privileged elite which feeds off a populace where many struggle to make ends meet in a very unequal society.

Or could it be the Britishness of the “Mother of Parliaments” with its archaic voting system that has delivered a far-right, populist, elected dictatorship? We have a Prime Minister whose “puppet master” Cummings is pulling the strings, aided and abetted by Farage and his merry band of Brexiteers, and a House of Lords stuffed with hereditary peers and a large number of failed politicians and their cronies, with a few judges and bishops thrown in for “good” measure. If that is the best we can aspire to we really are down the rabbit hole in Alice’s wonderland!

How much better to have a wider vision of a better, brighter future for our nation, which most of our children and grandchildren now seek. One where we can build a fairer, greener and more prosperous nation, with Scottish inventiveness and ingenuity, and our wealth of resources used to deliver prosperity for all our citizens. An independent Scotland able to play a full part in the family of nations, along with our European neighbours and the rest of the world, working to build a safer, greener, and more just and peaceful world. Surely that is a better goal to strive for! LET SCOTLAND FLOURISH!

Cecilia Rees
Lochgilphead

WITH regard to the mass walkout by journalists from No 10 on Monday, I wonder if all of the media, TV and press, have the courage to boycott all of the Government’s briefings until Cummings reverses his decision? I doubt it.

George McKnight
West Calder

TO my knowledge, no-one who has been on the AUOB YES marches has accused our First Minister of betrayal with regard to a 2020 indyref as suggested by Jim Sillars.We do not march for impossible purposes either, but to give impetus to the rest of the Scottish population.

Jim Sillars is hanging by a very shoogly peg just to get his name and picture in the paper. His accusations against the Yes supporters are an insult and laughable at the same time.

Alan Magnus- Bennett
Fife

JIM Sillars could cause a row in an empty house. An exceptionally gifted orator, he has fallen out with most people in Scottish politics over the decades. I always think of something said, frequently, by wee boys when I was growing up, “It’s ma ba’ n ah’m goan’ in” and that was the end of the fitba’ game. In response, it behoves me to say, “Jim, away n bile yer heid”.

M MacIver
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