THANK you to The National for highlighting the truly frightening and anti-democratic statement by Sunak on Friday evening. I was absolutely shocked by his rhetoric outside No10, as clearly you were too, but I was also shocked by the lack of pushback generally from the media in response.
Absolutely no-one should be threatened for doing their job, but where will this convenient narrative for the erosion of our rights end? For Sunak clearly there is no end point. He has been relentless throughout his catastrophic tenure, downgrading and removing our liberties as fast as he can. Protests with farmers are OK (because he approves), protests against war atrocities are to “be policed”.
READ MORE: Read Rishi Sunak's 'anti-extremism' statement in full
Evidence emerged less than 24 hours later of the police barging an elderly woman to the ground in order to get on with that self same Sunak-sponsored “policing” of the Gaza demonstration in London.
Sunak talks of the toxic consequences of division as if he and his party are immune. Has he listened to his colleagues recently? Or even himself earlier on Friday? Accusing the SNP of setting Scots against the English. His rhetoric. His division. He owns that statement. He should relax, however, on that point. Many SNP supporters would assure him that Gove, D Ross and U Jack are held in exactly the same esteem as he is.
At no point does it appear that any self-reflection or examination of his own behaviours takes place. He is, as you said, an autocrat. Dissent is to be stifled and “policed”. Can we hope for a reversal of our fortunes when he relinquishes office? Given Starmer’s silence on the matter, probably not, although his excuse is perhaps less obvious.
I Easton
Glasgow
HARDLY a day goes by when we are not reminded of the need to have the destiny of Scotland in our own hands rather than those of the increasingly dysfunctional, increasingly authoritarian UK state.
Last week, Rishi Sunak called a meeting of senior policemen at 10 Downing Street. Instead of telling them to take more effective action to rid their forces of sex assailants, racists and bigots, he asserted that democracy in the country is giving way to mob rule – a claim without foundation or evidence.
READ MORE: 'SNP want to set Scots against the English', Rishi Sunak says
Three days later, he held – at short notice – a ten-minute press conference, described in one paper as “rambling and contradictory”, to claim once again that extremists are threatening democracy. If any Prime Minister genuinely thought that democracy in the country was truly under threat, this would be a threat on the scale of the pandemic.
In those circumstances, the Prime Minister might then address the country properly, with evidence to support these claims and an explanation of the steps being taken to address them. Instead, we are left with soundbites from a weak Prime Minister, trying at one and the same time to appease the culture warriors on the right of his party and to gain some form of electoral advantage over the Labour Party.
Scotland really needs to escape this mess.
Gavin Brown
Linlithgow
SHAME on you, Mr Sunak, for peddling an age-old bias! We Scots are not anti-English. Most Scots have relatives who are English ... and it’s no problem!
READ MORE: Rishi Sunak hints at 'Union tax cut' during Scottish visit
What we are is anti-Westminster; anti never being respected as a nation; anti being treated like second-class citizens; anti being a cash cow; anti being mocked and derided in Scots characters in plays; anti being derided as Scots when we lose but lauded as British if we win; anti being ignored in the mass media when we beat England at rugby; anti highly edited news bulletins that misconstrue and decontextualise Scottish news; anti TV presenters who ignore, interrupt and deliberately skew replies/comments given by Scottish independence supporters; anti Scots who do their native land down at every turn; anti nuclear weapons in our waters; anti those who won’t accept Scottish legal tender; anti the lie that we are supported financially and don’t pay our way when all Scots know we pay through the nose at every turn; anti a concerted media attempt to make us “too poor, too small and too stupid” to go it alone; anti our lands being in the hands of historical grace and favour to those willing to take a foreign nation’s silver and bend the knee. And anti a whole lot more!
We are a proud NATION, not a colony to be exploited and denigrated at every turn to keep us in our place! Feudal rule won’t wash with us. We are not into barons, lords and hierarchical kowtowing. The people of Scotland are sovereign and demand respect.
E Ahern
East Kilbride
PERHAPS you could let me know if the Prime Minister has been booked to appear as lead speaker at the next CORGI convention due to his services to gas lighting?
I look forward to my illumination on this matter.
Peter Barjonas
Caithness
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