I HAVE recently found out to my detriment that Covid is still around. Yet we don’t witness many masks or sanitisers as we go about our daily tasks, unless of course we are visiting NHS establishments, so perhaps we should spare a thought for those very workers still wearing masks for hours daily as they care for us all.
But having been in isolation, hameldaeme, for close on two weeks, questions began to arise. Questions associated with “have I got enough in the cupboard?”, “can I last till I am ‘negative’ and able to go out for supplies?” How are families struggling through the cost of living crisis, existing from week to week, then hit with Covid, managing? Covid has no respect for who catches the virus.
Many households will become dependent on family, neighbours and friends for essentials, and will be so grateful. But what if you have no finances – a scenario that could become painful and desperate, especially if you are on a pre-payment meter for you home energy?
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The daily struggle will be exacerbated, as will the Covid effects. So, perhaps the UK Chancellor in his Spring Budget in March could spare a thought for those in this scenario who desperately need assistance. Covid thankfully is off the top of the agenda, but it is still affecting many, it is still disrupting households and it still needs to be respected, as I have found out.
Catriona C Clark
Falkirk
AS one who disagreed with Nicola’s gender politics, it never for one moment caused me to doubt her integrity and huge standing and ability to lead the only party capable of delivering independence.
This seismic shock now feels like a death in the family.
Some of her detractors may be personal friends of mine and I was always shocked by their vehemence. When I asked one how he expected to gain independence without
Nicola and the SNP, his baffling reply was, “Just keep attacking her and the SNP”.
Character assassination has always been the snidey common weapon of lesser creatures trying to promote their own egos and dead-end paths. Evolution has seen many blind alleys. Devolution has been one of them and revolution may be the only way forward to cure poverty amid plenty on the road to independence.
As a Scottish republican socialist at 86 years of age, I never expected to see a Scottish Socialist Republic and world peace in my lifetime. I did, however, see the real politiks in achieving Scottish independence, only to be shattered by the, understandable, resignation of so great a world figure.
Yes. That is what she was and is. The SNP should stand by her and refuse her resignation. Scotland has need of her yet and the ramifications of that has gone far beyond our border.
Like any other country, Scotland has had its share of class and national traitors. The Wallace was betrayed and became our great patriotic folk hero. The great John Maclean was betrayed by Labour and Great Britain’s Communist movement. He resigned from the Social Democratic Federation, led by the aristocratic Hyndman, who wrote “Merry England” and who supported the First World War and a stronger English Navy.
Maclean went on to become the Soviet Consul in Scotland, based in South Portland St, near the Sheriff Court. The British State refused to recognise the office and refused to deliver the Royal Mail to the consulate.
British intelligence chief Sir Basil Thomson, who was head of security in Scotland at the time, instructed his agents to put it about that Maclean was “insane”.
This was gleefully pursued by the British Nationalist left who opposed his formation of a Scottish Workers’ Republican Party, a few years before the SNP were born. He was accused of being paranoid by those paid to watch him 24/7, repeatedly jailed with hard labour and he was sacked from his teaching job.
He died of pneumonia and malnutrition at the age of 44. He gave his only coat to a black comrade in that fateful winter. Just because you are paranoid does not mean that they are not out to get you, ‘mon Nicola.
The 100th centenary of Maclean’s death on November 30, St Andrew’s Day, this year, will meet with the same backstabbing as always.
I do hope the Scottish Government, whoever is in the lead, and the local councils will step up to the mark here by helping to commemorate the great man and all he stood for and at least recognise him as a historic Scottish and international figure, as Nicola Sturgeon undoubtedly is.
Donald Anderson
Glasgow
I MUST say it was very disappointing news about our esteemed First Minister’s resignation, but unsurprising! However, I must register my utter contempt over Scottish Tory Party leader Dross, fronted by the BBC as usual, with crass comments made against Nicola Sturgeon that were bordering on the extreme.
They tie in with some of the most despicable social media comments ever witnessed – full of vitriol, misogyny, hate and extreme bitterness against our First Minister and the SNP.
These brief observations, following her resignation speech, just epitomise the poisonous nature attached to the “politics of hate” in this country and Nicola Sturgeon briefly touched on this fact in encouraging people and politicians who should know better to “tone it down” and show more patience and respect in constructive debate.
As for Dross? He is a political nobody and should be nowhere near leading any political party, with values and behaviour that are “fit for the gutter”. The difference is night and day when one compares this minion of a politician with our First Minister.
Bernie Japs
Edinburgh
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