THE blatant disregard by the UK of commitments already made by it in negotiations on a future trade deal with the EU has broken new ground, even for this government.
Months were spent negotiating the Withdrawal Agreement and the Northern Ireland protocol, preventing a hard border within the island of Ireland and providing assurances in the areas of citizens’ rights and Britain’s financial obligations.
The Withdrawal Agreement is not optional, but a treaty which was ratified by the current British Government and which it is now seeking to undermine through publishing legislation that will attempt to override it.
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To think that the government is prepared to shirk its responsibilities to two international agreements to satisfy rabid Brexiteer concerns is deeply troubling but not unexpected.
With the stakes upped and as we hurtle towards a potential No-Deal Brexit, it will be the UK and the businesses and citizens already adversely impacted that will be affected most.
The UK must abide by what it has agreed to do: to stand by the Withdrawal Agreement it negotiated, indeed renegotiated, and protect the interests of those in the UK.
Should it fail to do this and we end up with a No-Deal Brexit, the British people will only have the UK Government to blame for this.
Alex Orr
Edinburgh
THE most, if not only, impressive bit of Michael Fry’s latest litany on the wondrous merits of capitalism and its unregulated rampaging is the last paragraph about his subject, Mark Blyth, intending voting for Scottish independence, though how he might manage this while apparently residing in the USA is another matter (Why this high-flying Scots’s new book has made him the talk of Washington, September 8).
Professor Blyth has co-authored Angrynomics, which Michael Fry praises considerably in his column and justifies his praise by saying how it has had a rave review from the journal of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is not I’d hazard your everyday read, never mind that the IMF is not universally held in great esteem. In fact, for a number of countries and their populations, mention of the IMF is like prescribing a bad apple for your bodily wellbeing.
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My impression of it, right or wrong, off the top of my head, is of a giant loan agency that incurs for its desperate client user countries a trail of indebtedness that commits them to right-wing, anti-public-spending policies with long-term miseries for most of the population: the price for its short-term relief infamously too much.
Likewise with Michael Fry when he also recommends this book, Angrynomics, on its co-author, Eric Lonergan, being a hedge fund manager.
Need I say that I for one will not be phoning either Waterstone’s or my local library in a quest for Angrynomics. A quick look at events in America suggests that it isn’t where to look for good guidance on either politics or economics.
Ian Johnstone
Peterhead
THE Scottish currency proposed by Andy Anderson (Long letter, September 7) has major advantages. As the Scottish Government strictly controlled domestic currency, non-tradable on world money markets, its value would be based on the value of the resources of Scotland. So additional currency can be issued by authorisation of the Scottish Government to cover the costs of any activity to the extent to which it increases the value of these resources and without adversely affecting the value of the currency.
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For example, if new local authority housing, new infrastructure such as railways, roads, hydro electric schemes, tidal power schemes or hydrogen fuel production plants were produced, these would be valuable new resources. Similarly, training schemes for people working in green energy would effectively increase the value of the human resource. For all these, the Scottish Government could authorise the issuing of currency to increase the value of resources while improving the environment and providing good employment without adversely affecting the value of the currency.
Such advantages are so great that this Scottish currency should be introduced as soon as practical after independence is achieved.
Jim Stamper
Bearsden
ME and my wife and are almost 70, live in a village, and have followed Nicola’s advice to the letter but I am surely tempted to head into Fort William or Inverness for a well-earned break. But with so many tourists flouting or ignorant of Nicola’s sound advice, my wife tells me to stay safe and not go out. For how long are we to be prisoners in our own homes?
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So please, Nicola, how about picking certain times that only the elderly are allowed to leave their self-inflicted prisons? It would be great to walk about not scared of retribution. Let the elderly return to some sort of normality. We are not asking for much. Just one day a week would suffice!
Robin MacLean
Fort Augustus
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