I HAVE to say I concur 100% with Thom Muir’s views (Website Comments, Jun 18) on Jackie Baillie’s damehood and the appalling honours system in general.

You have to ask yourself (as I often do) if these people who are “honoured” know anything of history, or is it that they lack conscience or a moral compass and allow themselves to be rendered mindless by the snobbery and elitism of having shiny baubles dangled before them?

READ MORE: Scottish Labour's Jackie Baillie made dame in King's honours list

Make no mistake! Nothing referring to the British Empire is an “honour". Far from it, Britain’s despicable and murderous colonial adventures should induce nothing but shame! Heaven knows there are many accounts detailing the genocide and mass starvation of indigenous peoples committed in the name of Empire, so the people who accept these loathsome honours really have no excuse!

May I recommend Legacy Of Violence by Professor Caroline Elkins? I thought I knew plenty about the horrors committed in the name of British imperialism but this book opened my eyes even further!

Drew MacLeod
Wick