MY school curriculum of the 1970s did not include the history of the Ukraine so I had to rely on the internet of 2022 to bring me up to speed with its many centuries of conflict, human misery, invasions, border changes, genocide, famine, political turmoil and corruption.
Interesting current facts include a criminal justice system which maintains an average conviction rate of more than 99%, equal to the conviction rate of the Soviet Union, with “suspects” often being incarcerated for long periods before trial. It is the poorest country in Europe while maintaining the third-largest military in Europe after Russia and France.
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In the east of the country, in the Donbas region, at least 13,000 people, both soldiers and civilians, have been killed in the recent past. Pro-Russian rebels in the area stand ready to light the blue touch paper and let battle between the Russians and Ukrainians commence.
Added to this political powder keg came the recent visit from bumbling Boris Johnson, complete with promises of more financial and military aid.
Boris met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyon and has generously committed money from the UK’s Good Governance Fund to help “support stable governance and energy independence”. Apparently some of the £88 million announced will go towards efforts to support anti-corruption initiatives and reduce Ukraine’s reliance on Russian energy supplies. I suspect those UK citizens currently struggling to pay their energy bills might view this as rather ironic.
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The thought of The UK Government, which took full advantage of the Covid pandemic to ensure billions of pounds were funnelled into some very dubious pockets, supporting anti-corruption initiatives in the Ukraine is laughable.
It seems Boris and the UK Government have learned nothing from their disastrous involvement in Iraq, Libya and more recently Afghanistan. If there are many millions of pounds available, perhaps they should be spent alleviating the suffering the UK and its American allies have left behind in these countries. Perhaps some could be directed to the hospitals and maternity wards of Afghanistan, where dying infants now share incubators and where the starving population are selling their children and their organs to buy food.
In the words of Dwight D Eisenhower: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
Brian Lawson
Paisley
HAMISH MacPherson covered a key point in our history with the Siege of Dunkeld, where the Presbyterian Cameronians under Cleland stopped the Jacobites on August 21 1689 (Marching out of the Army List and into history..., Feb 1). This was 20 days after the Relief of Derry, on August 1, which likewise halted the Jacobites in Ireland.
How many of our schoolchildren are ever taught about the Siege of Dunkeld? Attitudes to the Williamite War in Scotland are interesting. We happily sing Killiecrankie and Bonnie Dundee in praise of the Jacobite leader Graham of Claverhouse. Dunkeld is unknown to the general public (Claverhouse, himself a Presbyterian, was boosted by the Episcopalian Tory Sir Walter Scott).
Bizarrely, it is the Irish Williamite War which is known about in the West of Scotland – Boyne Water and Derry’s Walls. This is because, as historical research now shows, some 20% of 19th-century Irish immigrants were Protestant. (Scotland’s share of Irish migrants came mainly from the province of Ulster). They imported their own heritage to Scotland. A strange situation: only possible in a country where its own national history isn’t taught.
Tom Johnston
Cumbernauld
JUST a quick and possibly misplaced thought on David Pratt’s article on Russian dirty money followed on the next page by Jane McLeod’s article on venture capital investment in Edinburgh in Thursday’s edition of The National.
David Pratt states that “Kremlin-linked oligarchs have found a safe and sound hub for their cash right here in the UK.”
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I presume (although could be wrong) that much of that dirty money is channelled through what is labelled venture capitalism. My question, therefore, is how do we ensure that venture capital is not tainted by dirty money from whatever source when it finds a home in Edinburgh, the capital of an independent Scotland? Will it be any different from the money-laundering cesspit of London’s financial services?
Jane McLeod states that “Edinburgh has all the fundamentals to be the next tech hub and attract significant venture capital investment, jobs and economic growth.” How do we guarantee that dirty money is not part of that investment? Maybe someone can explain that to me.
Alan Hind
Old Kilpatrick
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