IT is a great pity that the Speaker of the House of Commons fell into the trap laid for him on Wednesday by the Labour Party. If anyone had heard the interview with David Lammy on the morning’s Today programme they would not have been very surprised at the evening’s shenanigans.

Despite being prompted in several of the interviewer’s questions, Mr Lammy omitted to acknowledge the SNP at any time, instead referring to Canada, Australia and New Zealand as being allies in the quest for a ceasefire.

Without mentioning the SNP, he did manage to criticise the way in which their motion was written, saying that so many important things had been left out. He sounded particularly pompous but I remember a phrase often used by a former colleague – nobody loves a smartarse. From my point of view, he did neither himself nor his party any favours.

The chaos of Wednesday evening was, for me, absolutely shocking. When the Deputy Speaker put the matter to the vote, the baying of MPs was so loud that, although I could see her lips move (on the TV), I could not hear the question.

It seems to me that the character of the Westminster House of Commons has reached a new low and the sooner Scotland is able to govern itself the better. I think that our country has so much more to offer than being attached to the English millstone, which is only dragging us down. Roll on Independence Day.

Monica Wells

Deskford, Moray

TORY economic chaos continues to blight the lives of millions.

More than half (55%) of Scots on Universal Credit ran out of food last month. That is according to research done by the Trussell Trust.

The Centre for Cities undertook research to find out the effect of Tory economic incompetence on incomes. It found that Scottish workers were on average £23,370 worse off.

It compared wage growth between 1998-2010 and 2010-23 to reach this conclusion. The Scottish decrease is more than twice the £10,200 figure in England.

Scotland has been hit far harder by being in this so-called Union.

But the Tories and their corrupt donor class have not yet finished. The UK has the worst state pension in the Western World. It is not available to workers until they are 66. That is already set to rise and the plan by the financial oligarchy is to raise the age of entitlement to 71. This is yet another way in which Westminster wants Scottish workers to pay for its greed, lies and ineptitude.

Meanwhile, the Trident alleged nuclear deterrent has failed not one but two tests. These rusting abominations are unsafe and leaking. They are held in Scotland and the Westminster colonial overlords have no intention of removing them or cleaning up their mess.

The majority of people in Scotland support a ceasefire in Gaza. Westminster has ignored this and completely backed the Zionist slaughter of Palestinians.

This shows Scotland is under colonial Westminster rule. Scotland has no influence and is completely ignored by Westminster. This intolerable situation needs to end.

Alan Hinnrichs

Dundee

YET again, during Wednesday’s mega stooshie, speakers who sought peace and the laying down of arms were deemed to be antisemitic. This seems to me rather weird as people indigenous to the east Med/west Asia area are Semitic. Whereas much of Israel’s population are migrants to that country.

It looks like the old, “I’m pointing out that you are bad so therefore I must be good,” stance. I want all the people of these lands to live in peace and freedom. I also await Kid Starver telling us all the difference between a ceasefire and a humanitarian ceasefire. I am holding my breath and hoping I do not implode.

M Ross

Aviemore

THE report in The National on February 22 of the failure of our so-called nuclear deterrent was very concerning. Apparently each missile costs £17 million, with each submarine holding 16 of them at a cost of £272m!

Add to this the price of the four new subs – latest estimate £80 billion – and the overall cost is staggering. Fortunately, this weapon was not armed but imagine if it had been; a dangerous nuclear bomb could be lying at the bottom of the deep ocean and very difficult to retrieve, assuming it hadn’t actually exploded.

Or worse still, if it had been fired at a target where tens of thousands of human beings would be wiped out, with the associated obliteration of buildings and infrastructure.

This would be many times worse than the attacks on Japan, as each missile has multiple warheads and each is far more powerful than those 1945 weapons.

We see the destruction in Ukraine and Gaza caused by conventional weapons; we simply cannot contemplate using nuclear ones. This would be madness, resulting in mutual assured destruction. With independence, getting rid of these horrendous weapons must be our priority!

Angus Ferguson

Glasgow