Letters: Internationalism has to be the way forward

As circumstances change, it is time to face up to reality in that we are stronger together in a powerful union with the strength provided by such a bloc.

Nationalism has had its day, though many are trying to turn the clock back, forgetting the wreckage produced in our turbulent past by devotion to the nation state, standing on its own. Internationalism with its global outreach is vital if we are to secure resolutions of the worldwide issues confronting mankind.

No man, nay, no nation is an island in today's world and unless we face up to the facts as plain as the features on our faces, co-operation on a grand scale will not be possible.

It is important to sink our differences without compromising our identities to meet the urgent challenges of the 21st century.

Fragmentation is not the way forward, harmonisation is.

Denis Bruce,

Bishopbriggs.

THE way forward in an ever-more divided world is surely for co-operation, not separation, and interdependence not independence. All people on this planet experience the same problems and difficulties and cooperation is the only answer.

Elizabeth Anderson, Bishopton.

MUCH of the debate encompassing the Brexit issue is, unfortunately, conducted in soundbites.

This applies particularly to the pro-Brexit lobby that continually utilises simplistic phrases and words such as "control of our borders" and "sovereignty". It was encapsulated too by Theresa May in her ridiculous statement that "no deal is better than a bad deal".

One can take a position either for or against Brexit, but it ought to be argued from a position of as much knowledge as possible on a very complicated subject.

No one could argue that we now do not know considerably more about the issues and consequences of leaving the EU than we did when we voted three years ago. Yet I have yet to hear one single Brexiter, when pressed, offer a precise definition of what is the lost sovereignty and the lost control of our borders; of what precisely trading under World Trade Organisation rules is going to mean and its undoubted negative impact.

The lost sovereignty is actually no more than 28 sovereign countries agreeing mutually to laws and rules pertaining to matters they believe are of benefit to them collectively. The rest, the bulk, of our sovereignty is intact. What EU legislation, for example, has been passed to which the UK vehemently objected?

The control of our borders pertaining to EU nationals still exists. If someone cannot provide proof of means of employment or serious effort to provide employment within three months we are at liberty to send them back from whence they came. Government figures show that EU immigrants provide net worth to the economy, that they take up proportionately less benefits than the ethnic population.

There is also a less than admirable tone among some Brexiters of jingoistic nationalism, particularly in England. This has been whipped up by populist, self-aggrandising politicians such as Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson and it does nothing to address the real problem facing the western world of the effects of increased technology and globalism, of our version of capitalism which desperately needs to be updated and how that has impacted upon jobs and the long-term security of individuals and families.

We are leaving the biggest trading market in the world, comprising first world democracies which have to meet stringent requirements of human rights, democracy and trading standards, in which we have a vital say. And we are leaving at a time when the EU is in the process of addressing one very real issue which affects many of those who voted for Nigel Farage and his ilk; that of huge business corporations and very wealthy individuals avoiding the very taxes that would make a massive difference to everyone’s well-being.

Rest assured, après Brexit, the Farages and Johnsons of this world who would do nothing to alter that tax avoidance will not be affected one iota by the consequences. The more simplistic flag-wavers among their support who yearn for a return to the "days of the Empire" unfortunately will.

Roger Graham,

Inverkip.

SO Ruth Davidson hitched her cart once more to an anti-independence policy and got soundly thrashed in the European election. They say the human species evolved by learning from experience, but I guess Ms Davidson and the dwindling members of her party must be the exception that proves the rule.

Today I received an email from Ruth Davidson exhorting me to sign a petition. Incredibly the petition is worded to deny the people of Scotland a second independence referendum. I realise the Conservative and Unionist Party in Scotland has severe difficulty promoting any policy other than anti-independence; in fact for years now there has been nothing positive emanating from them. However they have shown the ability to change direction on Europe more often than a weather vane.

I would suggest this one-trick pony is in urgent need of a visit to the vet as I am not sure it still has its full complement of legs.

David Stubley,

Prestwick.

TOM Gordon quotes Nicola Sturgeons claim that “it would be a democratic outrage” if the UK Government blocked another referendum and in her view it would be unsustainable ("Sturgeon warns Tory leadership hopefuls over independence", The Herald, May 30). That is nothing to the democratic outrage felt by the majority of Scots whose “sovereign will” has first been ignored and then dismissed by Ms Sturgeon in her unrelenting manipulation of the UK wide vote to leave the EU.

The SNP's new-found love for everything European was not in evidence in the 2014 independence referendum when a Yes vote would have “dragged Scotland out of the EU against her will” until they lost the referendum. Then and only then, she sought a “material change” to continue with her divisive policies. Ms Sturgeon is a master in seeking any disparity with Scotland and rest of the UK and where none exists she then sets out to create it. Being a smaller fish in an even bigger EU pond is a contradiction of the meaning of independence. The SNP has now ignored the results of two democratic referenda. In its cynical world black is white if they want it to be.

Christine Thompson, Bearsden.