JEREMY Corbyn tells us he’s not opposed to a referendum, as if he had a democratic right to be, but thinks there should be a choice which would include a federal process in the future (Corbyn says PM ‘not likely’ to use force to prevent referendum, October 18).

Absolutely not!

We don’t need vested-interest interlopers muddying the waters and setting down conditions to what is a fundamentally basic question of whether we Scots should be governing ourselves; a simple matter of our democratic right as an ancient and historic nation.

And certainly not hypocrites like Corbyn who would strive for the rights of Palestinians and others, but not we Scots.

READ MORE: Jeremy Corbyn hints at support for indyref2 and says PM could change his mind

Isn’t it time Labour in Scotland woke up to their democratic deficit, began to serve the interests of those Scots they would have elect them, and desist from pandering to their British political mandarins whose interests lie solely in gaining power at Westminster to maintain this failing status quo?

As for this PM, let’s stop pretending that Britain is in any way a democracy when it is riding roughshod over our fundamental democratic rights.

We’re living through the latest incarnation of how Westminster control fails Scotland. What part of this doesn’t Corbyn and Labour in Scotland get?

Jim Taylor
Edinburgh

I AM beginning to feel that no day is complete unless yet another deliberate scheme is announced by Westminster to undermine and impoverish Scotland. Today it is the news that the carbon capture project has been given to the Humber (‘Complete betrayal: UK Government snubs carbon capture project, thenational.scot, Oct 19).

Several years ago this technology was invented in Aberdeen, a pilot project for Peterhead was planned – with cooperation from the oil companies to allow use of redundant pipelines and oil wells – but Westminster refused to back it. This at a time when Scotland alone in the world knew how to do this and selling the technology could have brought in huge sums to the economy.

Then Longannet became scheduled for closure, and it was suggested that carbon capture could give that site a new, profitable, green future, but no, it was rejected again and instead Longannet closed and jobs were lost.

READ MORE: Tory minister says carbon capture snub is 'good news' for Scotland

Once other countries had realised the potential and were learning how to use the process, Westminster instituted a competition for £1bn for a site to run the pilot. There were, I believe, four entrants to the competition, but when all but Peterhead withdrew, the competition was cancelled.

Three times blocked in the country that invented it, but a fourth opportunity arose recently, for which Peterhead put in a bid. But the Humber has been chosen. In other words, there is no way Scotland is going to be allowed to run the pilot of the technology invented here – so just sit down and shut up.

What is it about the constant efforts by Westminster to impoverish Scotland that our Unionists don’t get? Or is this exactly what they want to see, to justify their “too wee, too poor” mantra?

L McGregor
Falkirk

SOMEONE once stated that satire died when Tony Blair was made peace envoy of the Middle East. Well, it appears that satire has many lives. Douglas Ross claiming he and his party better represents the working class is one recent example to point out. However, the stand-out satirical act of the past month goes to former PM Gordon Brown.

We learnt in September that he was appointed as a World Health Organisation ambassador, stating recently that failure to give unused vaccinations to the developing world was “criminal”. During the Labour conference we were informed of his Labour leadership role “to settle the future of the Union”, as Kier Starmer put it.

READ MORE: We must show unbreakable resolve after ‘attack on democracy’, Gordon Brown says

In the wake of the despicable murder of David Amess, Brown said it was an “attack on our democracy” and “we must not allow our democracy to be diminished because a terrorist attack has occurred”.

Here’s the context: Gordon Brown was a senior member of the Labour Cabinet (Chancellor no less) that came into office in 1997 when UN sanctions on Iraq were already embedded. Labour continued to support what can only be described as economic terrorism until 2003. Dennis Halliday, the UN Assistant Secretary-General and Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, resigned his post in 1998, citing that the sanctions were “genocidal”. His replacement, Hans Von Sponeck, resigned two years later stating they were a “violation of the Geneva Convention”. It is estimated that up to 500,000 children died as a result of the medieval sanctions imposed on Iraq.

In 2001 and 2003 the respective bombing and invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq took place. The Johns Hopkins University in 2006 did a careful study into the death toll: an estimated 700,000 dead in Iraq alone.

How can Brown talk about supporting world health, deciding the sovereignty of others and upholding democracy when he was instrumental in denying those rights to millions? If corporate media, especially the BBC, actually held truth to power rather that protecting power from truth then insufferable satirical figures like Brown wouldn’t exist in the first place!

JC
Fife

SOME are protesting that the number of Scottish members in the London Parliament is likely to be reduced from 59 to 57. That is still more than the 45 we got in 1707. Maybe we should increase our representation in London from “n” MPs to one ambassador (or High Commissioner if the Commonwealth continues)?

David Stevenson
Edinburgh