THE Westminster English government, so described because it did not receive Scottish endorsement in 2019 and more so because it has abandoned any pretence of acting in support on major issues of the wishes of the Scottish people, has demonstrated in high relief what Scotland’s status really is to the present United Kingdom.

Westminster is obliged to do a “trade deal” with the USA. As we have recently witnessed, such negotiations exclude consideration of the commercial, industrial impact on matters of concern to the Scottish people. Westminster is adept at finding and exploiting any quid pro quo useful to encourage “agreement”.

It is beyond argument that the presence of Trident is an abomination to Scotland. It is now by Westminster acknowledged as the front line of any future hostility between the USA and presently an unidentified aggressor. The attraction of such a front line needs no description, its status denying a position which would otherwise be occupied on the east coast of America.

The future development of its base is contrary to the wishes of the Scottish people, made abundantly clear, not least by democratic means. These will in due course be completely ignored and the “deal” will be decided upon by Westminster action alone.

Such an outcome can be affected or prevented only by an expressed assurance that an independent Scotland will require its ultimate removal, a position which has for many years been made clear by the majority of Scottish people, and which would be implicit in the programmed future of an independent Scotland. This time Westminster promises will be insufficient!

Scotland is not an appendage of Westminster despite its despotic antics, domestic and international, now being regularly demonstrated.

John Hamilton

Bearsden

“IT is perfectly normal, if a treaty isn’t working, for it to be renegotiated” are the words of Lord Frost, quoted by Paul Gillon in his letter (Jul 22). But the even more important part of the story is in brackets “(whether the EU agrees or not).” Lord Frost, who fixed Brexit, seeks to make alterations to the treaty unilaterally, much to the irritation of the EU.

This applies to the Treaty of Union, as Paul says. It is the lesson of international game that the Scottish Government must learn and start to play forthwith. Action is much better than words. They must stop hedging themselves about with self-created problems and see what adult autonomy feels like.

The very fact that such a thing as a Scottish Parliament exists is a negation of the Treaty which states “that the United Kingdom of Great Britain be represented by one and the same parliament, to be styled the Parliament of Great Britain.” However hedged about with caveats, the Scottish Parliament does exist and therefore the Treaty clause III is removed, quite apart from all the other older omissions and alterations. Why should Scots not now make unilateral decisions about their future too?

There is talk of steps to remove Trident. Have we written to President Biden yet asking his co-operation in removing this blight as we, like his ancestral country and the one he presently heads, wish to be free and democratic? Why do we not apply now to join the EU and when they demur argue that we too are suffering from the irrational and unilateral decisions of the UK and in any rational view are independent but are just waiting on the paperwork? If you don’t act independent, you don’t get independence.

Iain WD Forde

Scotlandwell

THE recent installation of Ruth Davidson as a Baroness made me wonder about the whole process of peerages. I seem to remember the concept of life peerages is a relatively recent innovation dating from the late 1950s.

It would appear that a nudge and a wink from the current Prime Minister to the Queen is all that is now required. The person to be ennobled does not even have to actually meet and greet the reigning monarch. Just wrap yourself up in an on-loan, hopefully dry-cleaned ermine cloak, promise you will obey the unelected current Queen and her dysfunctional weans and hey presto you are a Baroness, and able to lord it over lesser mortals, who will pay you £300 a day in expenses.

More importantly you can vote on laws which will impact on their everyday lives. You will be in the company of the equally unelected 26 Church of England archbishops and bishops who also sit in the House of Lords.

Maybe I was looking out the window dreaming of an independent Scotland in the early 1970s while a Paisley Grammar School history teacher was trying to inform a class of teenagers on the creation of peerages pre-1950s and I missed the chapter on the medieval manufacturing of Earls, Barons Dukes and the like.

I can only assume that titles were doled out back then by the monarch for services rendered, helping to keep the peasants in poverty and fighting in various wars. Not much has really changed then.

Brian Lawson

Paisley

I WAS on holiday in the Orkneys and am now Edinburgh and have been made welcome everywhere by sensible and mask-wearing Scots. I applaud the common decency in Scotland that is beyond the comprehension of Tory MSP Stephen Kerr and other members of the Nasty Party.

Thank you Scotland.

Bill Randall

East Sussex

SO, naive, deluded Liz Truss thinks that Douglas Ross will be the next First Minister of Scotland. Can you imagine it? You just can’t, Colin.

Ruth Marr

Stirling