WHERE is our outrage? Why are our politicians standing by and watching one of their number being bullied by a politician whose party hasn’t been voted for in any numbers in Scotland for more than 50 years?
A politician who could in Scotland convene a meeting of his supporters in a telephone box.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon requests role for Scotland in COP summit planning
Boris Johnson’s machinations to exclude the First Minister of Scotland from attending the United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow in November is an insult to ALL Scottish politicians of every persuasion. Have Scottish politicians sunk to such a low level of tribalism that they don’t even have the integrity shown by journalists when Downing Street tried to only select the journalists that they perhaps thought would present their governance in a favourable light? To our journalists’ eternal credit they stood in solidarity with each other and in defence of a free press.
But what of our Scottish politicians? Boris Johnson acts as if he were some British Viceroy of Scotland and Carlaw, Leonard and Rennie’s silence condone his behaviour.
Thomas Brotherston
via email
THE COP26 – green conference – is coming to Glasgow but our First Minister is barred from attending. World leaders will be at this event and listening to Boris talking nonsense and claiming any credit for green policies enacted by the SNP in Scotland.
Maybe there’s a role here for All Under One Banner to call as many independence supporters as possible to demonstrate outside the conference venue, bringing Saltires and banners proclaiming our independence. Even the BBC will have problems denying this happened if we can get enough people to demonstrate.
While the eyes of the world are looking at Scotland for COP26, let them get the message, loud and clear, that Scotland wants its independence.
Cllr Kenny MacLaren
Paisley
A VERY interesting article in The National yesterday by Kevin McKenna (Who are we to tell English Brexiteers that they are all stupid and wrong?, February 5). It does help to explain why decades of neglect and apathy shown to the people of the regions of England have made them feel alienated and disaffected enough to kick back at the elite and vote for Brexit.
However, the abiding mystery remains. What on earth makes them believe that Boris Johnson’s right-wing cabal have the slightest inclination to do anything to make their lives better?
Douglas Turner
Edinburgh
THE point is not that Joe Bloggs can’t name a single tangible benefit of Brexit when interviewed but that neither can Johnson, Farage, Gove or anyone of the Brexiteer elite.
The response to years of austerity by the Tories is to give the Tories more power. Labour have been absolutely useless in protecting their voters but still, if voting Leave wasn’t stupid, it sure as hell wasn’t smart.
Markus Mattila
via thenational.scot
I’VE always imagined the BBC’s Glenn Campbell to be a fair and impartial observer of Scottish constitutional affairs, however I was surprised when I read his pearly words of wisdom in yesterday’s online piece titled “Scottish independence: How Brexit has changed the debate over EU membership”.
In an otherwise fair piece he couldn’t help himself when listing the “hurdles” Scotland would have to overcome, saying: “the EU requires new members to sign up to joining the euro, although Sweden offers a masterclass in how to avoid actually adopting the currency.” What is missing from that statement is precisely why Scotland should be suspicious of BBC political commentators.
He should have said that the EU requires new members to sign up to joining the euro, in principle. The cunning Swedes are not on their own – there are eight countries including Sweden within the EU that do not use the euro, simply because they are not compelled to do so. They are Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland and Romania.
Mike Herd
Highland
FROM reading the letters page recently, one would think that we are living in a Stalinist state where no criticism of the supreme leader can be brooked.
Independence is a many-splendoured thing and is not limited to any single person or any one party. Many of your readers seem to think that it is acceptable to criticise a 71-year-old lady for expressing her feelings and opinion honestly, but not the elected leader of a political party who should be open to public scrutiny?
I can’t help but feel I was conned into voting for the SNP in the General Election and I won’t be making that mistake again.
Solomon Steinbett
Glasgow
WE need to get out of Westminster as it is patently obvious that their definition of democracy is to ignore Scotland and the SNP.
Our SNP MPs blocked from voting in a bid to secure an extra £4bn for Scotland’s NHS, and Labour leader hopeful Lisa Nandy suggesting that the SNP be barred from any TV debates etc. Don’t they all just hate the success of the SNP? Lisa hen, you keep on spouting your anti-democratic tosh as you are doing a good job for our independence!
Anne Smart
Milton of Campsie
SO Lisa Nandy thinks the SNP should be excluded from Question Time etc. Is that because everyone can then see how knowledgeable they are and how much good sense they speak, showing up the rest of them?
Winifred McCartney
Paisley
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