IF Boris Johnson said it was Wednesday I’d need to look at the calendar to check if that was the case. And does anybody really believe that Boris Johnson will be in any position to make serious determinations about anything for very much longer?
So why are we still getting assailed with the floundering concession that “Boris will say no” to a referendum. In the very unlikely event of him still being Prime Minister, there is no legitimate way he can say no if the SNP wins a significant majority on our right to choose next May.
READ MORE: Why are we letting the Unionists dictate to us what constitutes a mandate?
That would be a Brexited UK, desperately looking for friends in a world full of Scotland’s friends, denying the UN Charter to which it is an original signatory, denying the Scottish Claim of Right which passed through Westminster unopposed in2018, and denying the final paragraph of the Smith Commission which determined our present constitutional position but which also stated formally and firmly that that agreement did not prevent Scotland from choosing independence if that was the desire of the people of Scotland.
Any refusal to agree a Section 30 would not survive legal challenge. And they know that. As do the politically aware people on our side. What we face is bluff and an attempt to confuse our process to a referendum.
So let’s get our shoulders to the wheel, make the case for independence, achieve a huge independence result next May and smash the opposition at a referendum next autumn.
Dave McEwan Hill
Sandbank, Argyll
EXCELLENT essay by George Kerevan regarding BiFab and all its complexities (Forget the virtue signalling and say to hell with bogus state aid rules, October 25).
I wholeheartedly agree with his fully expounded sentiments including his reference to US Fluor corporation plus British-owned Lamprell – the latter UAE-based offshore construction firm in dire financial straits since at least two years ago. Especially when it was considered for joining the consortium in Saudi Arabia in the gigantic purpose-built fabrication facility under the auspices of the Saudi Government in the Eastern Province.
READ MORE: George Kerevan: Forget the virtue signalling and say to hell with bogus state aid rules
Generous unfair local subsidies are of course a by-word in the industry, especially in the Middle East and the Emirates in particular, where NPCC – the construction arm of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company – have traditionally built Saudi Aramco’s mammoth offshore platforms but not for very long. NPCC is scheduled for relocation in its entirety to Saudi Arabia.
Roderick MacSween (ex Saudi Aramco)
via email
HOW I agreed with George Kerevan’s article on Monday. I am afraid that the Scottish Government is just not bold enough when it comes to developing our renewable energy. He points out that the successful Danish wind industry is majority owned by its government, making nonsense of the argument that EU subsidy rules stop Scotland from doing the same. He also tells us that Denmark is building an artificial island so that it can crack seawater to create hydrogen right beside the source of its renewable energy, so no transportation costs involved.
It looks like our nation is going to miss out on jobs and wealth which are there to be grasped – yet again! Is there no chance that George could stand for election as an MSP to inject his forward thinking into our economy?
Susan Grant
Tain
THE ridiculous situation that Fife-based BiFab is not able to tender for supplying hardware to wind farms just off the coast, as indicated in George Kerevan’s article, cannot be justified in financial or environmental terms.
BiFab cannot compete largely because the competitors are government-subsidised or tax evaders. Even if the equipment costs more from BiFab, there are benefits of manufacturing in Scotland, with good jobs retained and created including in downline businesses they would support, and these employees recognising the importance of buying goods produced in Scotland creating more jobs and tax income – this is referred to as the “multiplier effect”. Instead, foreign tax-evading companies and their super-rich owners will benefit. It is also strange that when many are concerned, rightly, about bad animal husbandry conditions used in food imports resulting from a potential USA trade deal, they seem not to be so aware or concerned about the conditions foreign human workers may have to endure.
The other ludicrous aspect of this situation is the huge environmental cost of this hardware being produced using highly environmentally damaging methods and transporting them half way round the world, adding to global warming, when the goal of the wind farm is to produce green energy. It would be laughable if the world environmental emergency was not so serious. It is much more important than any concerns over bending a few badly thought out trade rules.
Jim Stamper
Bearsden
AS Michael Gove and his colleagues sat down to a subsidised and very cheap gourmet meal in a Westminster dining room, they decided that now was the time to spend a substantial amount of money on setting up a propaganda unit to “love bomb” the Scottish population.
Emphasising the benefits of remaining part of “The Union” was the priority.
It is ironic that one example of this strength of “The Union” is that there is no money to provide meals for the children of impoverished families in England. They have other priorities for that money.
Douglas Stanley
Ayr
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