THE ability for President Trump to cause further bedlam both within the UK and our “allies” in Europe, whilst providing a guiding light to the likes of Rees-Mogg, Boris, and most worryingly, the resurrection yet again of Farage is staggering. Oh yes, Farage is hovering in the background, and his bombastic influence was evident in the Sun interview.

But, listening to Trump and May yesterday afternoon, you have to wonder what she promised him to cause such a turnabout in his speech vis a vis his “belief” and “support” for May and the UK. Perhaps it was first dibs at the ripe pickings of the NHS post-Brexit in a privatisation deal, or a chicken tender that will necessitate a rise in the use of chlorine.

Whether he flips and flops, or doesn’t recognise “truth”, there is no clear UK strategy to deal with him and the USA: whether that should be to develop and strengthen this illusionary special alliance, or to tackle him and his rhetoric that legitimises a rapid slide to right-wing politics and policies that target and threaten the weaker sections of society within the USA.

At the same time this provides subliminal encouragement to authoritarian-isolationists here and further afield, either governments or opposition parties. These “see” threats to their borders, citizens, livelihood, culture and basically their country’s “blood line”. In response, they find easy targets in vulnerable sections of their own society, whilst denying responsibility – morally, politically, financially, or historically – for any “migrant”.

Then consider the protests current and due against Trump. For many, rUK is a country in freefall. Whilst football brought some notion of a cohesive love-in in England, such demonstrations are not merely expressions against Trump. They unleash the frustrations of so many in relation to the wider problems that best rUK, brought to a head by Brexit. If it is bad now, worse is yet to come. The Conservatives will hang on to May before hanging her out to dry, probably post March 2019. This will allow them to blame her for every failing post-Brexit and seek a new leader, and a UK General Election. Who will want such a poisoned chalice? Many egotistical ideologues. Worse, there is the probability of a continuing hung parliament. Oh, and even more worrying, with the hint of picking up disgruntled Tory voters, there is the potential for Farage and a few cronies to seek election, with the worst possible scenario: being incorporated into some coalition government. Freefall is a polite term. Scotland has to be gone before the crash landing.

Selma Rahman
Edinburgh

THE problem with defence in a time of relative “peace” and a lack of overt state-on-state aggression is that expenditure appears less than necessary and hard to justify. This is fine if peace remains, but if for some reason someone (usually some form of megalomaniacal leader diverting attention away from some internal issue or perceived slight) makes an aggressive move on someone else’s territory, it takes time to mobilise forces.

Nowadays it takes significantly longer (decades in some instances) to equip those armed forces, so defence expenditure has to be significant in order to prepare for the worst.

The time has long gone when we could simply call on the clans to supply all their fighting men armed with swords and billhooks at a moment’s notice to repel invaders. While fighting was all about manpower this was simple, but nowadays it is all big technology and even if we don’t have it, the other potential sides do.

And with the potential for significant collateral fallout even if we remove Trident and Englandshire starts or is involved in a nuclear war, we will still be harmed.

Recent events in Wiltshire show the devastating and long-term effects of state-sponsored aggression, and that is without a war being declared. To counter the conspiracy theorists it is invariably the simplest answer (Occam’s razor) to a conundrum that is right.

Nick Cole
Meigle, Perthshire

IT’S still happening. Looking for a copy of The National in a local supermarket, I discovered one hidden behind one of the Unionist tabloids.

Another customer told me he was experiencing the same problem in a nearby village.

Clearly the Unionists who are sinking to these laughable depths are motivated by fear. They know that the Yes movement is thriving and posing a serious threat to their precarious Union.

With the latest opinion poll showing that support for independence is now running at 47% (an increase from the 2014 referendum) it would take only a 4% swing to have an independence majority.

The National is clearly to be congratulated for the obvious part it is playing in raising support for our cause.

Billy Scobie
Alexandria