JACKIE Baillie, a candidate for the Labour party’s deputy leader, gives three reasons why the Labour party must continue with the disastrous policy which has done such damage to the Labour party in Scotland, ie denying the right of the Scottish people to have another independence referendum.

She claims that it would be against Labour “values” to accept the right of the Scottish people to have such a vote. This claim flies in the face of Scottish Labour history. The Labour party was put together by people who supported the right of the Scottish people to self-determination, and the Labour party in Scotland supported the claim of right.

She also claims that work on a referendum would damage public services and provisions, although she offers not a scrap of evidence for this remarkable assertion, which has no rational basis.

READ MORE: Jackie Baillie rules out indyref2 in Scottish Labour deputy pitch

She also claims that if “we” do not support the “ends” then “we” should not support the means. Now that is an interesting statement if we can work out exactly what it means.

She does not define who “we” are, she appears to be speaking on behalf of all Labour party members and supporters, but she can hardly do that since we know that there is not a clear unified position on this in the Labour party.

By connecting “means” with “ends” in this way her statement could be read as “the ends justify the means, or if I do not like the ends, I can reject the means”.

Well the “means” in this case is the exercising of democratic rights. The logic of Baillie’s stated position is “if I do not like the plans and objectives that people want to implement, I will then object to people having an election in order to prevent this”.

This is the position adopted by every dictator in history. It is an appalling rejection of democratic principles by someone who has made a living by means of our democratic system.

Andy Anderson
Saltcoats

LAURA Webster’s interesting article, “Plan for Scotland’s first ocean fish farm” (March 3), highlights a topic rarely mentioned in the media, ie Scotland’s exceptional potential for the development of aquaculture.

With climate change it is apparent that sea levels will continue to rise and valuable fertile land round our coasts will be lost, and in its place there will be an increase in the area of shallow coastal waters.

READ MORE: Plan for Scotland’s first ocean fish farm welcomed

Perhaps the Scottish Government should “encourage” our universities, which have a proven track record in aquaculture, to undertake research into ways in which Scotland can benefit from climate change.

In the future it may well be that there will be an increased dependency on aquaculture, but finding and developing new solutions takes time and time is running out – climate change waits for no man. I would suggest that the time to invest is NOW!

Thomas L Inglis
Fintry

DISCOVERING that the faith and trust you have placed in an organisation has been misplaced is disorientating and upsetting, and that is how I felt when it dawned on me that the BBC had been misleading people for years. While I already had my suspicions, the tipping point came in 1992 when some 25,000 people marched for devolution in Edinburgh. On the BBC 6pm news that evening there was not a mention, and there was just a brief piece on the later news after many people had complained as I did. Since then the deception, distortion, misinformation and selective delivery of news has just become more noticeable to me, to the point where mostly I ignore it. My news providers of choice are now Channel 4 or Al Jazeera.

I have complained often about BBC news content, or lack of it, and I think now I have been blacklisted as I seldom receive a reply. This actually suits me, as like all government departments no fault is ever admitted by the BBC. Unsurprisingly, I found the long letter from BBC Scotland’s chief apologist, Ian Small, unconvincing and rather condescending towards Gerry Hassan. Mr Hassan is a writer, academic, and research fellow at the University of Dundee, and I will trust anything he says way before any BBC spokesperson.

The BBC always has been, and always will be the propaganda arm of government, and thus is incapable of regaining the trust of the many sceptics like me. I find that very sad.

Richard Walthew
Duns

WEE Ginger Dug’s description of Scotland’s status as “a toilet for nuclear waste” (March 3) is just about spot on. It’s an outrage! Normal English language adjectives simply fail to do justice to the impudence. “Cheeky” and” shameless” are weak under-statements. I’m told that the sense of both of these is combined in the German “unverschaemt” (a good European word).

Douglas Hunter
Ancrum, Roxburghshire

THERESA May publicly acknowledged that the Conservatives had acquired the label “the nasty party” and pledged to improve that image. Alas, to quote her, albeit in a different context: “Nothing has changed”!

If anything, it has morphed into the thoroughly nasty party, featuring Johnson, Cummings and Patel.

James Stevenson
Auchterarder