Scotland has been left tied to sordid spectacle of the UK

Starmer decided to use the occasion to show his “toughness”. He did so by boasting how Labour would impoverish – even further – children already malnourished under Tory austerity. This will be achieved by keeping the Maoist-style two-child limit for people claiming benefits.

This proved only how craven and cowardly Starmer and the British Unionist Labour Party are in the face of the financial oligarchy and media barons.

Uncaring, half-baked, full of banality and slogans, Starmer’s diatribe was aimed at the lowest intellectual level and worst instincts.

Starmer repeated lie after lie, absurdity after absurdity. These were nothing more than Tory talking points. All to appeal to the truly stupid and lazy who can’t be bothered to subject any claim to intellectual rigour.

The cost of mitigating the Tory Maoist two-child limit is £1.5 billion per year. Starmer and the Tories say this is “unaffordable”. However, the UK Government has spent £4.5 billion on the Ukraine war over the past two years.

Within the next year, as fixed mortgages come to an end, people with mortgages will be paying 25% to 30% more of their income on payments. This comes after 13 years of flattened wages. All of this due to economically illiterate, ruinous Tory austerity.

Starmer and the UK ruling class are setting up a massive attack on the NHS and welfare state. The propaganda will be that these social gains are “unaffordable”. The “free market” will be allowed to carve them up. All under the guise of “efficiency”.

The Westminster parties are shelving any semblance of either doing anything about the economic needs of the country or representing the concerns of the majority of voters.

The system within the UK could best be described as inverted totalitarianism. Participation has now been reduced to a pointless exercise. A meaningless vote for a single ideology once every five years. The population is under constant surveillance, has no rights and will face state violence if they resist.

Under Starmer there will be no change. No pay rises, taxes will go up, as will poverty, misery, Victorian-era disease and the collective fortunes of the 1%.

Thanks to the hapless, gormless careerists of the SNP and their criminal inaction on independence, Scotland is tied to this putrid, rotting corpse as well.
Alan Hinnrichs
Dundee

2014 – our one and only chance and we did not take it!

We have tried many times for another indyref2 since then, by winning election after election, mandate after mandate. With the majority each time we should already be in negotiations for our independence – even Mrs Thatcher agreed on that principle – but the UK Government has refused, just saying now is not the time. Northern Ireland is allowed to have one every seven years if it wants one – why not us the same? In any democracy, we should have had our indyref2 by now.

Went to the Supreme Court over it, UK law, and they ruled that we cannot hold a referendum again, without the UK Government’s co-operation. They also answered a question they were not even asked and claimed that England had sovereignty over Scotland! This is completely wrong as in our country the Scottish people are sovereign; in England, the people are subjects of the Crown. Our constitutional sovereignty means the people of Scotland do not have to ask permission of anyone!

The SNP cannot find a legal political solution to our position and the UK Government will never allow us another indyref2 again as they know we will win it for sure this time. So what do we do? Half the country wants our independence back. We are not going to go away.

Everyone knows a General Election is not a referendum, it’s a legal and democratic vote of the Scottish people of how they want governed. Even by winning another election next year to allow us to negotiate our independence, the UK Government has already told us it is not going to negotiate. This can’t be right.

They are really holding us, Scotland, as prisoners to the UK Government, and it’s very obviously not an equal agreement/treaty we are in, far from it.

Are we Scots just going to put up with this? We are Scottish citizens and proud of our country of Scotland!

If the SNP or political parties are blocked due to being part of the laws of the UK to any legal solution, then what can we do about it? We, the people, must form a movement, like a lot of other countries did to get their independence back from the British UK Government.

A People’s Movement, a Scottish People’s Liberation Movement, a Convention made up of all peoples, elected and diverse representatives from across Scotland (not governmental or political), of the Yes Movement and more, of Scots at home and afar, who will not allow England to hold our country as prisoners in our own country, Scotland – not a day longer.

A People’s Movement must then take our case to the UN and will pursue our inalienable right of self-determination as guaranteed under international law – this is the way to progress our journey to independence.
Michael Maclennan
Brora

I AM getting just a wee bit tired of responding to the utter garbage which buries truth and common sense regarding the A9.

Firstly, the road is not single carriageway between Perth and Inverness! There are various stretches of dual carriageway, particularly through the Drumochter pass, by-passing Killiecrankie and descending the long hill from Slochd Summit to the Kessock Bridge, and at least two sections where a central overtaking lane has been constructed, for the benefit of those who apparently cannot see 400 metres.

These permit the dissipation of queues of traffic which have formed as the result of compression on the single carriageway stretches, although, in my experience, the main cause of the bunching is the complete failure of some car drivers to overtake slower vehicles when the opportunity presents itself!

The speed limit, which applies the entire length of the A9 between Perth and Inverness, has done a great deal to cut down on rolling congestion in any case but I am still compelled to return to my previous comments, and you will forgive the upper-case rant because I can’t shout here: IT’S NOT THE ROAD!

Driving standards on this route are, historically, awful. I have even witnessed a raving lunatic in a Volvo 360 overtake a snow plough in a blizzard on the southbound section of the dual carriageway through the Drumochter pass.

The fact that it ended up on its roof on the northbound carriageway did not deter the eejit behind me from coming out to try the same manoeuvre and getting stuck in the outside lane, becoming a dangerous hazard in the process. And no, I did not stop to help him!

The A9 used to be a meandering nightmare which ground traffic to a halt in Newtonmore, Kingussie and Aviemore, and created unbelievable congestion in Inverness, Beauly, Alness and Invergordon, and probably Tain and points north too. It hasn’t done that in years.

The average speed cameras have tamed most of the Formula Beamer drivers and, in the hundreds of times I have driven the road, the last few have changed from nail-biting anticipation to just about the most relaxed trip I take. It saves fuel too.
Les Hunter
Lanark

I’VE just watched an absolutely excellent programme on the telly with the wonderfully simple title “Earth”. It was presented by the impressive Chris Packham and was the first of five weekly episodes.

It’s simple. It’s about the astonishing four and a half billion-year story of the planet we call home. The first episode entitled “Inferno” explores one of the darkest periods in Earth’s history: the worst mass extinction the planet has ever seen, when as much as 90% of all species died, 252 million years ago.

The devastating effects of, albeit naturally occurring climate changes that the programme explores have, of course, always occurred in the history of our planet. However, they are a stark cautionary tale of how rapid climate change can cause whole ecosystems to collapse. It’s pretty obvious watching the news this week and over the past few years we are definitely going through rapid climate change, unfortunately the human-induced variety!

I’ve done a bit of digging online. Humans originated from earlier primates in Eastern Africa 300,000 years ago. Here’s a mind-boggling stat. That means we have only been on this planet for 0.0067% of its 4.5 billion years. The vast majority of man-made climate change has been since the start of the Industrial Revolution to date, a period of around 300 years. Well, here’s an even more mind-blowing stat. That means humans that have been on Earth over that period – for a mere 0.0000067% of its existence – have managed to pretty well f**k up the place in that miniscule period of time!

Clearly politicians throughout the world (aye, here in Scotland tae!) are totally incapable, due to a fear of losing elections, to make the drastic changes required to possibly prevent climate Armageddon. As we know in Scotland, any politicians (meaning Lorna Slater) that recommend even paltry, miniscule changes in the scheme of things are well and truly shot down in flames.

The vast majority of the media show the odd documentary and a few clips on the news about the effects of climate change. However, the content of their overall programming effectively conveys to us everything is still “hunky dory” and we can continue to live in the manner we have always lived, with no detriment to any of us. A case of fiddling while Rome burns. It’s not just one city burning though, it’s the bloody world for god’s sake!

When it comes to combating climate change, why is it many supposedly “intelligent”, well-respected, widely admired folk just don’t get it, or just don’t want to get it? All I can say is when Armageddon comes and there isn’t even a viable Scotland to become independent, dinnae greet “ye werenae telt”!
Ivor Telfer
Dalgety Bay, Fife

THENKS tae The National whilk hes tellt hiz aboot e New Testament an e Aul Testament, nou rendered in Doric by Gordon M Hay. He is a lawyer in Peterheid wha hes rendered baith o them. This wark has taen him seventeen year an mair.

Haud on tae this, ye readers o e National.

“Dinna jeedge ither fowk an ye winna be jeedged yersel. An fittivver mizzeur ye mete oot tae ither fowk will be dealt back tae you. Fit wye div ye glower at e speck in yer freen’s ee, bit ye canna see a muckle tree trunk in yer ain ee? Foo can ye say tae yer freen, ‘Lat me pick a speck oot o yer ee’, fan aa e time there’s a tree trunk in yer ain ee? Ye hypocrites! First ava tak a tree trunk oot o yer ain ee, then ye mith see a hantle better tae tak a speck oot o yer freen’s ee.” (Matthew.)

It’s no lang syne maist o e chiels o this cuntra kent this fine, an maist o the loons an quines tae. It’s no lang syne orra bairns in Scotland kent fu weel e wurds o Wir Fadder in Heiven, lairned at hame an at scuil, an unnerstuid fine, “forgie oor mistaks as we forgie them att his misfitted hiz”. For gey near 2000 years fowk here kenned their God.

Bit nou ye mith leuk an leuk bit ye winna see, ye mith hearkin an hearkin an ye winna hear speak o God. We winna unnerstan cause us fowk are gey thick i the heid. Nou whit wey can we speir an expeck blissins when we kenna wir wint o the Lord?

Mair fer takin:

“Dae aa att ye hive tae dae wi’oot gremlin or argie-bargie, sae ye mith be God’s bairns, blameless, sincere an halesone, bidin, as ye div in a gizzent an camsteerie cuntra, shinin oot tae a warl like bonnie lichts, haudin oot e wird o life.” (Phillippians).
Lesley J Findlay
Fort Augustus