AN excellent appreciation of one of Scotland’s greatest footballers, man or woman, by Stuart Cosgrove in the Sunday National (Daughter of Aberdeenshire who followed in the footsteps of Law, Sep 5). Kim Little still has, hopefully, a few years left at the top of the game with Arsenal, but, notwithstanding that, she should enter the Scottish Football Hall of Fame immediately on the basis of her glittering career so far.

Kim Little is the consummate professional and modest to a fault. She has worked on developing her skills since she was a wee lassie in Mintlaw, where she not only copied her father and brothers’ tricks with the ball, but strove to do even better. She has continued to do that to this day – and how it shows.

READ MORE: Stuart Cosgrove: The Scot who may be the best female footballer in the world

In 2010, she was named the FA’s Women’s Player of the Year. In 2013, she became the first recipient of the PFA Women’s Players’ Player of the Year award. In 2016, she was named BBC Women’s World Footballer of the Year after being nominated for the second consecutive year.

Going to play for Seattle Reign in 2014 and winning the National Women’s Soccer League Most Valuable Player award (Player of the Year) in her first season was a sensational achievement. She was top scorer in the league. She was named league player of the week and player of the month countless times. She outshone the great Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan and the rest. She was the Lionel Messi of the NWSL in her time in the US.

READ MORE: Scotland legend Kim Little retires from international football

How absolutely appalling it is, therefore, that in her three seasons in the US, BBC Scotland never once sent a reporter to Seattle to highlight her sensational career in the NWSL. The BBC in Scotland give us over-the-top, tedious wall-to-wall coverage of what at present can only be described as a mediocre football scene, but they ignore a home-grown diamond professional under their very noses. The BBC in Scotland is not fit for purpose and need a damned good shake-up.

Thanks again for the superb article, Stuart.

Bill Cockburn
via thenational.scot

THERE has been a lot of talk since the MoD announced/leaked their contingency plans for Trident should Scotland once again become an independent nation.

Obviously we can sympathise with our poor little Englander friends down south losing control of Scotland, but we don’t have any sympathy for them losing their base at Faslane. By all means let them make their contingency plans for Trident, but the idea that the MoD will be able to unilaterally “lease back” Faslane is really a no-brainer to start with. In the first instance, Westminster will have to negotiate with Holyrood on this along with the independence agreement and international treaty that will define the workings of the two nations.

READ MORE: Scots urged to write to UN to demand removal of nuclear weapons

Secondly, Faslane is not exactly easy to get to either by road, sea or air, hence why the location was chosen, but that can also be its downfall. If any personnel are coming by road, it will be very easy to intercept them and prevent them getting there and hold them before deporting them. The sea route can easily be blockaded so that the Trident submarines are unable to leave or return to the docks and port, and you can’t deploy the submarines via helicopter. However, the only route viable to replenish stocks and personnel would be by air, and that would need permission from Scottish air traffic control. Effectively you put a no-fly zone around the area.

If the situation is as above, and the MoD are unable to get their personnel in or out of the base or deploy their submarines and their illegal weapons of mass destruction, how long would they be willing to keep the base before admitting failure?

Alexander Potts
Kilmarnock

THE latest statistics indicating that the UK is the only country amongst its close European neighbours to have a negative trade balance on exports since the Brexit vote should hardly come as a surprise as we progress with what is a catastrophic act of national self-harm.

It was what those against Brexit like myself warned about, but were consistently told by those such as Mr Johnson and his Brexiteer cabal that Brexit would in fact boost trade.

The figures from the House of Commons Library show that the UK has seen a 5.5% decrease in its exports since the 2016 referendum when the country voted to leave the European Union. This is estimated to have cut Scotland’s GDP by up to £9 billion by 2030 compared to the considerable advantages of EU membership.

READ MORE: Brexit or Covid? Food and drink exports plummet by £62m a week

The data shows that Ireland has seen the biggest increase in its export trade balance, of almost 50% from 2016 to 2021, while France has recorded a surplus of 6.7% and Germany had a positive trade balance of 9.5% over the same same period. When the impact of the Covid-19 is taken into account, and figures compared from 2020, the UK’s accumulated change of -19.3% is the worst when compared to 13 of its close European neighbours.

Data shows that in the first four months after the UK joined the European Economic Community in 1973, the pre-cursor for the EU, the total value of its goods exports increased by 16% compared to the first four months of the previous year. In the first four months of 2021, the total value of UK goods exports fell by 11% compared to the first four months of 2020.

The “sunlit uplands” we were promised that Brexit would deliver are maybe not as sunlit as we were led to believe.

Alex Orr
Edinburgh