LESLEY Riddoch’s article about freeports and the decision by the Scottish Government to meekly back them with their own rebrand green label was enlightening and commendable (Westminster is trying to hold us hostage and using our cash to do it, Feb 17).
Like many other bemused observers/readers, I have followed this Brexit freeports story for a while and wondered what this political concession was really all about. Lesley’s article lays bear all the ins and outs of the usual political skulduggery and manipulation that is being deployed.
Michael Gove’s conniving part in this conspiracy, classified under a levelling-up banner, is no surprise whatsoever, and the Scottish Government must be aware of a lotta the stuff that Lesley is highlighting.
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The levelling-up money offered to bidding Scottish councils really concerned me at the time it was initially mentioned in the House of Commons, as one could see what Gove and his Brexit associates were trying to do – marginalise the Scottish Government and try to play their cynical little game of “divide and conquer” by compromising many interested parties who had no choice but to bid for money they needed for their own communities. The main problem is that they are dealing with clear political enemies of the Scottish Government/SNP.
The strategy of undermining the political standing of people in the Scottish Government, and associates elsewhere, is under way and I reckon it has been for a while. I share Lesley’s concern that the accountable people within the Scottish Government and the SNP are not “streetwise” regarding such levelling-up blackmail tactics attached to a Tory/Brexit policy that the majority of MSPs actually oppose. I appreciate there are occasions when our leaders have to compromise for the greater good of our sovereign country, Scotland. I can only pray that the FM and senior members of her government are aware of these concerns and are geared to counter these cynical political incursions with venom!!!
Timing is key to dealing with these connivers effectively and taking Scottish voters with them in the process.
Bernie Japs
Edinburgh
IT was not unexpected to note Jacob Rees-Mogg pontificating that there is little evidence that Brexit has damaged UK trade. The delusions of the government’s new Brexit opportunities minister know no bounds and fly in the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Last week, Westminster’s Public Accounts Committee said trade had been “suppressed” since the UK cut formal trade ties in January 2021, due a combination of Brexit, Covid and global economic problems.
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The MPs said it was not possible to separate out the precise impact of each factor, but it was “clear” that Brexit had had an impact, with businesses experiencing additional paperwork and border checks when exporting products to EU countries.
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which comes up with economic forecasts for the government, said at the time of the Budget in October that both imports and exports with the EU had been hit by Brexit and that both were on track to end up 15% lower as a result of the UK leaving the EU.
It pointed to research from the Centre for European Reform, which concluded that in October 2021 the UK’s trade in goods with the EU had been 15.7%, or £12.6bn lower, than it would have been without Brexit.
Mr Rees-Mogg may continue to live in a fantasy world where all in the garden is rosy, but in the real world British businesses are being forced to face up to the harsh realities of Brexit.
Alex Orr
Edinburgh
WITH her calculated parting shot on bile and hatred, Sarah Smith achieved some revenge on the SNP. One of our MSPs and also an MP had to withdraw retaliatory tweets on the subject. Not for the first time, the First Minister had to upbraid more than just a few indy-minded knuckle-draggers. The Tories made hay. Not much evidence of civic nationalism in Scotland, they shout; just the blood-and-soil variety. Brian Wilson, a man well known for his bile and hatred towards independence, appealed in his Scotsman column for a higher level political discourse. Irony is not yet dead. it seems...
The weirdest apologist for Smith was our own Pate Kane (A post-indy Scots public media would be less prone to collapse, Feb 19). He reports that during the course of a 2018 London soiree in “a perfect flat” where enlightened debate took place and where “delicious wine” was consumed, Sarah Smith showed “a genuine curiosity” about indy and did not “express a preference either way”. Moreover, according to Pat, there was never any damning evidence in her broadcasting to support the accusation of anti-SNP bias. I suppose we shall have to agree to differ on that one.
Unlike Pat, I’m very pleased to see the back of Sarah Smith. In saying so I hope I’m not full of bile or hatred or misogynistic towards anti-independence female broadcasters, only a BBC licence-payer who wants to see some objectivity in BBC Scotland’s news reports. In respect of this and other issues, why is it that some some commentators (not necessarily Pat Kane) frequently say we grassroots indy people need to calm down a bit? Anger, as Andrew Tickell pointed out more than a week ago, has its rightful place in politics. Indeed, I think it’s the only way to be when you consider how we’ve been ruled by a succession of corrupt, war-mongering governments we never voted for.
Incidentally, I’m afraid to say l find Pat quite gnomic when he speaks of a “left-green” indy . I wonder what someone who rarely, if ever, mentions class division, exploited labour or distributive justice means by “left”.
Alastair McLeish
Edinburgh
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