I WAS interested to read Stephen Gethins’ comments (‘’Work starts now’ for indy Scotland to rejoin the EU’, June 1) on “key issues” which must be addressed before joining the EU, while Angus Robertson and Lorna Slater were fawning before bureaucrats in Brussels (Robertson visit boosts ties with EU, June 1).
My interest was piqued because it takes some level of intellectual gymnastics to, as the article posited, “establish Scotland as an independent state and a full democracy” if we are honestly saying as part of an independence prospectus that we are willing to trade our new-found independence for new-bound subservience to a group of political masters even more remote than those we wish to decouple from in Westminster.
READ MORE: Work on independent Scotland joining the EU 'starts now'
What height of political and economic folly it is to alight from one interminable union with the UK only to, according to Andrew Wilson in his Sunday National piece last week (‘Growth Commission is still relevant to indyref2 four years on’, May 22), join three others – the UN, Nato and the EU – all of which require us to cede even greater levels of political and economic sovereignty.
Why, for instance, would we seek to regain political independence only to outsource our foreign policy to the UN, our defence policy to Nato and our legislative power to the EU?
And why regain economic independence only to outsource trade relationships to the EU and inflation rates to the European Central Bank?
At the advent of our biggest cost-of-living crisis in a generation, taking back the reins of our political and economic destiny is of critical importance. This act of self-determination will enable us to chart a new path which adequately and uniquely reflects the aspirations of the people of Scotland.
READ MORE: Andrew Wilson: Growth Commission is still relevant to indyref2 four years on
But neither I, nor many other Scots who voted for independence in 2014 and to the leave the EU in 2016, wish for our new-found independence to be subject to the whims of international bureaucrats further removed our supermarket shelves and spiralling costs than politicians in Westminster.
Ewan Gurr
National Organiser, Sovereignty
HARD on the heels of the school shooting in Texas where 21 people were shot randomly by an 18-year-old, who didn’t survive the visit to school, another event took place on Wednesday in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
This seems to have been a “targeted” attack, for an individual or individuals in a hospital office. The reason is yet unknown. However, as with many of these incidents four people were shot dead, four families devastated, many people traumatised by the event. The shooter saved us and him the media scrum of a trial.
Questions will be asked. Why did he do it? How did the shooter get in with a “long gun”, presumably a semi-automatic rifle, and a pistol?
What will the NRA (National Rifle Association) – Union for Gun Totters say in defence of their support of powerful weapons?
READ MORE: Michael Russell: Why is it only the US that tolerates carnage of mass shootings?
Previously, from a few days ago they said “throw a ring of steel” around the hospital and I suppose public buildings.
This is a fantasy process. I wonder what Donald J Trump and or Republican Senator Ted Cruz will vomit into the public discourse to explain the cause and what action should be taken, however, ludicrous. One thing I can unfortunately guarantee is neither ( Trump; Cruz or NRA ) will back the reintroduction of a ban on sale of military-grade weaponry to the public.
Look out for the next instalment of Gun Smoke coming to a TV near you.
Alistair Ballantyne
Birkhill, Angus
THE cross-party Scottish Republican Socialist Movement will be attending today’s “Our” Republic on Edinburgh’s Mound, at 3pm.
As a Scottish Republican Movement, we offer our qualified support. We do not support the improbable British republic, but the end of the British imperial state of which the Queen is titular head, albeit an expensive house pet.
Our opposition is in principle to all monarchies in general and in particular against the imperial crown. Scotland, Ireland and Wales have our own separate republican movements against our common enemy, the anglo capitalist imperial and nuclear state.
We, therefore, call on all like-minded Scottish republicans and sympathisers to join us against the current jingoism in support of a dysfunctional pampered family and for an end to poverty amidst plenty and callous greed. See you all there.
Donald Anderson
Glasgow
DOES no planner understand tectonic plate movement, fault lines, or possible dangers to the Continental Shelf due to changing weight distribution on the planet resulting from fast-rising sea levels? Tunnels between islands?
This is only one of many schemes the money boys will dream up to salt their billions in a fantasy world. I trust the Scottish Government will show more common sense.
Iain R Thomson
Strathglass
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