WHY do SNP politicians keep shooting themselves in the foot? The latest is external affairs minister Angus Robertson meeting Israel’s deputy ambassador. I’m sure Mr Robertson knew what he was doing. I’m certain he is aware of anti-semitic views going around these days especially in the thuggery in England ... so it can be tricky to say the least to balance a path of morality and state reality.
READ MORE: Greens demand SNP apologise for 'secret meeting' with Israeli diplomat
However , Scotland’s representatives within the independence movement should and must refrain from promoting Israel as a “normal” democratic state. It practices apartheid. It kills thousands of innocents in the name of killing a few Hamas fighters and has, to our disgrace, used armaments supplied by the UK.
It’s impossible to minimise the horrendous nature of the actions of Hamas on October 7 last year and equally impossible to justify Israel’s response ... and for Mr Robertson to meet with government officials who work for a country that systematically kills babies, children, mothers and fathers who have the same love and feelings as us is morally repugnant.
David Gill
via email
TOMMY Sheppard comes in for a fair bit of criticism in recent editions, but to be fair he is just a politician and we should remember that politics is a dirty but potentially lucrative game played mostly by a certain type of brass-necked individual.
It should be clear to us all that politicians’ main interest is the huge salary/expenses that accrue to a seat in either parliament. In return they need to do very little, and sadly that includes very little in advancing our aims.
READ MORE: Tommy Sheppard: A four-step route for the SNP to win back lost votes
There are a few notable exceptions, but unfortunately for the independence cause, for most of our elected representatives a cushy life in politics seems to be preferable to causing the upsets they should have caused in Westminster when they were mob-handed. Refusing to take their seats in that degraded monkey house would have been a start.
Jim Butchart
via email
I DESPAIR after reading Tommy Sheppard’s article. I acknowledge Mr Sheppard’s achievements. Can we call the four-step route what it is? A “Please Sir/Miss” approach to Scottish independence. Good luck with that.
The current SNP leadership look like a sports coach who, despite managing a squad of superstars, are constantly fighting relegation, or more accurately for any relevance.
READ MORE: John Swinney to lead General Election review at SNP party conference
Scottish independence has turned into a middle-class dinner party chat, rather than the visceral debate it needs to be. I am middle-class and yet I am wholly disillusioned, not specifically for me, but for the millions of Scots who would be better off in pocket, heart and soul with independence.
In my previous epistle I mentioned Moses. I suppose these are the independence wilderness years, led here by a leadership clueless on how to achieve the one task they were elected to deliver.
JM Mathison
via email
THE Wee Ginger Dug’s educative piece on August 9 (Anyone who says Muslims are alien to Europe don’t understand history) came to me as a breeze of some fresh, breathable air, after a few tumultuous days of trying to take stock of what was happening around me, in the heart of England, the midlands.
That there is so much dust and dirt in the aftermath of the heart-wrenching Southport stabbings and the sudden and violent reaction to those literally spreading out nearly all over England, and engulfing us all in its wretched fumes, has certainly left many of us mere mortals questioning our very place and belonging in the land we live and thrive on.
READ MORE: Karen Adam: There is a fundamental clash of values within the UK
As a brown and bearded guy here from Muslim background, strictly non-practising and an avid globalist, having worked for the NHS for nearly two decades, for the first time I have questioned if and whether my brown kids could be ever English enough for their self-recognition, bouncing off their compatriots as they make their mark in professional fields in the future.
Then I looked up and down, right and left for some referencing to these riots, and I found quite a stark difference between the rhetoric on the street and populist media in England and that of Scotland. I came across very many comments on Scottish media posts, including the Wee Ginger Dug (Paul Kavanagh) article, that seek to educate ourselves and others instead of stoking up further hatred.
Thank you, Paul, for what you have written and undertaken here, an effort to acknowledge the importance of co-existence. I am an ardent student of Al Andalus and the concept of Convivencia, and that of the convivencia practised under Cyrus the Great. In times of despair, of trying to find an identity for one’s children, articles like Paul’s help make one feel more human than alien for sure.
Junaid Tipu
via email
I WANT to express how refreshing it is to have true left-wing opinions printed by a newspaper. The articles from Richie Venton and Colin Fox of the Scottish Socialist Party have been superb. Richie Venton’s article on the far-right riots is the first time I’ve read it explicitly said that it was people power that stopped the spread of the riots, not actions taken by the police or politicians.
Opinion pieces on transferring public transport back into the public hands, and the scandalously expensive use of public money on PPI deals, must surely be popular among your readers.
It is my sincerest hope that you continue printing their opinion pieces. At a time when people are coming together to reject far-right thuggery, left-wing voices need to be heard.
Ross Kenny
Monifieth
THE Department of Work and Pensions reckons that more than a million pensioners fail to claim Pension Credit worth £1.7 billion. Labour’s decision to restrict the Winter Fuel Payment to those who do get Pension Credit may now result in the increased uptake of this benefit, and its enjoyment for years to come, thus more than cancelling the Chancellor’s intended saving.
Malcolm Parkin
Kinross
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