IT saddens me intensely that Scotland is unable to counteract the problem of severe UK propaganda resulting from mainstream media (MSM) due to misleading or even absent appropriate coverage. MSM in the UK is abhorrent but highly successful, and one has to admit they are good at it. It results in a severe battle for Scotland in our fight for independence.

It is so good to have The National as effectively the only paper fighting from Scotland’s arena in a never-ending, one-sided lengthy and difficult conflict which has the danger of sickening the average voter. I know how damaging that can be.

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I was born in Uganda and schooled in Kenya during the dreaded Mau Mau uprising. In my formative years I learnt and absorbed the atrocities. Listening on my crystal set in 
the dormitory under the blankets to news programmes from different nations – but principally at that time, Voice of America – I knew that my trusty school-issue pick axe helve (given to all pupils) was under my bed in case the Mau Mau invaded the dormitory!

At that time the colonial authorities fought the Kenyans with gulags. I think there were at least three in Kenya, where the authorities created their own atrocities against those inmates conveniently hidden and isolated from the world, tortured, starved or shot and killed. And what now? No apologies on behalf of the colonial authorities that I have heard – not even from a recent three-day royal visit with its complacent speeches politely listened to by the Kenyan officials on parade during the well-turned-out and disciplined Kenyan forces in attendance. They were astoundingly smart.

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So, in Monday’s edition of The National, correspondence from Bruce Moglia setting out the ins and outs of Scotland’s legal position, covering international law as being entirely different to UK domestic law, raised my heart. A letter that had at last some forthright, simple, distinct meaning surely acceptable to those discerning Scottish politicians, readers, the wavering future voters that I would sincerely hope has some useful meaning for your paper’s readership. But will the mainstream media cover that? Not on your nelly!

Importantly, Bruce also brings into play the input resulting from Salvo suggesting any Scots that have a genuine desire for independence should go to salvo.scot for some intriguing input. I did a long time ago and isolated my mind from all the MSM crap that exists out in the UK. That way, I sleep better at night.

There remains one worry for me, as a late octogenarian. It is that positive arguments for independence at long last result in the long overdue break-up of the UK, so that each nation can go their own way like so many other countries worldwide, but I will not live to see it. It must happen sooner or later. As a nation, Scotland must take part properly worldwide and not be held back. It must go its own way successfully for the benefit of its up-and-coming younger generation.

WD Mill Irving
Kilbirnie

I HAVE believed in Scottish independence since I first read about the aims of the SNP in 1965, when the SNP rated one paragraph in a book about the 1964 General Election.

Things have changed a lot since then, and things will improve after the initial disruptions caused by independence. In this increasingly chaotic world the last thing we need is to remain tied to is a Westminster government that might have to dance to Trump’s tune and which is as anti-democratic and self-centred as that demagogue.

David Black
via thenational.scot