ECONOMICALLY inactive is a new term thought up by the Home Secretary, responsible for law and order. As the supply of workers from the EU dries up, the government has identified “millions” in the UK who are economically inactive and could be harnessed.

If these people do not want, for various reasons, to take up employment, will they be forced to? If not, do they lose access to healthcare etc?

A “big round-up” to direct people into training and economic direction could follow. Some form of “national economic dirigisme” to force people to do productive “economic” work. If you take time out to be a stay-at-home parent or guardian, is that going to be allowed?

A sort of enforced YOP re-education/training scheme will be ordained by the weirdos in No 10. Will there be official people with armbands who will accost others in the street and ask if or why they are not economically active? Or will vans roam the streets with slogans on the side saying to hand yourself in to the Job Centre or face being “transported” internally to retraining by the snatch squads!

If anyone does not meet the minimum salary requirement cut-off of £25,600, will they have to take up extra employment to meet the shortfall?

Your country needs YOU to be economically active. Enlist at your nearest centre or be conscripted – such notices with the visage of Dominic Cummings could soon be everywhere!

John Edgar
Kilmaurs

ONCE again the McCrone Report of 1975 is being looked at. This oil dosier, hushed up by successive Westminster governments, proves how the great riches from the North Sea were squandered and stolen from generations of Scots. There

is little doubt why post-imperial Brexit Britain wishes to retain a troublesome Scotland; in a word, REVENUE.

It was not until 2018 that John Jappy, a retired and highly respected senior civil servant at the Scottish Office in Whitehall, following years of campaigning and reviewing released government documents, was vindicated by a brief Treasury announcement.

He made the following statement: “After 30 years of denial, the UK Treasury finally admitted that Scots had subsidised the UK by £27 billion. Even before the oil boom, Scotland contributed much more to the UK economy than its other partners. This was kept top secret.”

Today tax revenues continue to flow into Westminster way above the ever-decreasing Barnett Formula grant, yet Scotland is still perceived, in England, as a subsidised region and a drain on the UK economy. These revenues flowing into London includes Scotland’s world-renowned food and drink sectors, the ever-expanding renewable energy sectors, the booming tourist industry and not least of all the oil.

Therefore is there any wonder why the ruling Westminster establishment wishes to keep Scotland in the Union at all costs?

Grant Frazer
Newtonmore

BORIS Johnson talks of taking back control from Brussels, but then is quite willing to pass over key strategic sectors to the Chinese. First Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei is able to bid for the sensitive 5G contract, with concerns about potential spying, and now the proposed HS2 rail link to Birmingham.

The reckless way that such key assets are sold off is in marked contrast to France, Germany and the USA, who determinedly protect such assets. This raises very serious questions. Questions like who paid for Boris Johnson’s £15,000 festive vacation on an exclusive private island in the Caribbean? The person shown on the official House of Commons list denies it.

Such luxurious free trips give rise to the perception that Boris Johnson is for sale to the highest bidder, perhaps with Dominic Cummings operating as auctioneer!

The Russian dossier on the Leave campaign, conveniently stuck in the Prime Minister’s in-tray before the election, raises still more question. Boris Johnson, while Foreign Secretary, enjoyed the hospitality of Russian oligarchs. Not surprisingly he was seen by many as a serious security risk.

No wonder he is desperate to avoid scrutiny and probing interviews, and is so hostile towards the media. He has so much to hide.

Andrew Milroy
Trowbridge, Wiltshire

MR Cotton (Website comments, February 20) promulgates the myth about “militant atheists” and eugenics. First, I don’t see many atheists running around with rifles, machine guns and bombs, as religious militants do. Atheists’ only weapons are the pen, the typewriter and the word processor – as I am using just now.

Secondly, while the Nazis did indeed introduce eugenics, they were certainly not atheists – contrary to the propaganda put about by the Church. In fact, the belt buckles of Wehrmacht soldiers bore the legend “God with us”.

Alan Jardine
Kintore