Readers of The National

Latest articles from Readers of The National

Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes

letters Let’s remember what we’re united behind ahead of key year

LET me say straight away that if I criticise the SNP, I am most certainly NOT doing it with a copy of any Unionist paper by my side ...

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The cost of Dreadnought is now many billions more than was first stated, the project is more than 10 years late in delivery and unlikely to enter commission until the late 2030s

letters Nuclear arsenal is no defence against crisis in UK’s armed forces

THE fallacy in Mr Cole’s argument for keeping the out-of-date, UK nuclear deterrent misses one key fact – it is irrelevant. (Letters, July 24)

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Former South African President Nelson Mandela addresses the crowd during a statue unveiling ceremony in his honour at Parliament Square, London

letters The war machine rolls on as our children are starving
NELSON Mandela famously said that history will judge us by the difference we make in the everyday lives of our children and it serves as a sober reminder of the treatment of children at present both in the UK and internationally ...

The people of Scotland have the right to self-determination

Letters It’s time to get the ball rolling on a citizens’ assembly

THE people of Scotland have the right to self-determination. The Parliament of Scotland does not currently have the legal authority, as determined by a UK Parliament with a minority Scottish representation, to hold a referendum to allow the people of Scotland to exercise that right.

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Some of our contributors are justified in saying ‘I told you so’ given the General Election result

Letters The SNP must wake up to the fact that Scots want competent politicians

JACK Bell of Glasgow (Letters, Jul 23) accuses me and other contributors of “doing the Unionists’ job for them”. I would contend that those doing the Unionists’ job sadly inhabit some of the upper tiers of the SNP leadership and have been greatly aided over past few years by some apparent supporters of independence, like Mr Bell, who refuse to see the reality of the current Scottish political situation brought into sharp focus by the recent UK General Election result.

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Vladimir Putin has been emboldened since the late 90s to invade numerous neighbouring countries

Letters Naive idealism does not stop aggression from nuclear-armed aggressors

I RESPOND to replies by Brian Quail and Tom McFadyen of July 21 to my earlier letter. I entirely agree that we should eliminate nuclear weapons and the sooner the better.

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The Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which is hosting this year's Games

Letters Scotland could once again have its own team competing at the Olympics

WITH the Olympics fast approaching I thought readers might be interested to know that Scotland has previously competed in its own right at the 1908 Olympics (in hockey) and the 1912 Olympics (in cycling), and even won a bronze medal in 1908.

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Russian Army soldiers ride their armoured toward positions at an undisclosed location in Ukraine

Letters Targeted strikes could starve the Russian front line of ammunition

ARE strikes on Russian targets a risk too far? Iain R Thomson raised this question in Monday’s National. First, it must be noted that the Russians are under no constraint and are daily attacking deep within Ukraine, killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure with an impunity that is criminal.

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Tommy Sheppard says we need an open discussion about the way forward, not just a lot of ‘I told you so’ responses

Letters Any indy strategy reliant on negotiations with Westminster will fail

TOMMY Sheppard is spot-on in his article in The National (Jul 22) when he says we need a brand new strategy for the road to independence, indeed the SNP leadership have needed this since Nicola Sturgeon’s legal strategy fell apart at the hands of the UK Supreme Court in November 2022. If the SNP leadership had addressed this positively in 2023 they would not have lost so many seats at the General Election, but better late than never.

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Dr Hilary Cass's review highlighted concerns about the support given to those with gender issues

Letters 'Equality' must not be used as an excuse for anti-citizen legislation

READER M Ross is right to say that the only rights are equal rights, and we all have the right to be different (Letters, July 18), although I find Caitlin Logan’s assertion about non-binary people in the context of recent discussion about sex and gender issues to be somewhat problematic, particularly as there seems a determined attempt

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