ALTHOUGH an anti-nuclear activist I am, in common with the vast majority of people and many other anti-nuclear activists, not a pacifist.

To have armed forces, to fight wars, that is to say for instance, to knowingly sometimes order thousands into battle with the virtually certain knowledge that the majority will die or be maimed for life is a decision leaders have made for thousands of years.

For some that’s immoral and it often is. However, from time to time, for the vast majority of human societies its a sad reality that they would rather not think about, but sometimes tolerate.

I do know too, as is abundantly clear in these difficult days that many people do not want to think through the consequences of the carnage of war. That’s a perfectly understandable reaction that I have some sympathy with, but only some.

On Thursday evening I saw on TV, in common with millions of others, four or was it five tiny new-born babies. They were gasping, gurgling and thrashing as new-born do, but they were doing it in a basement in a war torn city. Horrifying as that was, for me, as an anti-nuclear activist, worse was to come. I watched in horror as Thursday’s Question

Time audience on BBC1 full of media-induced guilt and media-induced confusion continued in large numbers to entertain the potentially disastrous option of a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

For those who still think my anti nuclear position is merely a subset of an alternative lifestyle choice I suggest you consider what other, more establishment voices have to say.

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) is as establishment as it gets.

On its open source section of its website is an article “A no fly zone would be ineffective, dangerous and a gift to Putin”. I commend to all of you who think that “rolling the iron dice” is a risk worth taking, though bear in mind that this time they are radioactive, with potentially a different species ending type of carnage.


Bill Ramsay, Glasgow.

RUSSIANS NEED TO HEAR THE TRUTH

THE biggest problem about the war in Ukraine is that it could happen again.

Vladimir Putin’s ludicrous demand for the demilitarisation of Ukraine reflects a real need: demilitarisation of Russian state media and their straitjacket of lies. Most Russian people believe a fantasy world of Russia confronted by enemies waiting to strike.

Russians do not need conquests. They need freedom to hear the truth. They would never elect a criminal like Putin again.

The keys to the future are a working democracy and freedom of expression in Russia. Russia would be on its way to integration in Europe, to the immense benefit of Russians.
 

Tim Cox, Bern, Switzerland.

OUR SAFETY IS STURGEON’S DAY JOB

IF the conflict in Ukraine escalates to nuclear war, then Scotland will be on the front line, yet Bob MacDougall (Letters, March 13) thinks the most important elected politician in Scotland should stay quiet and concentrate on her “day job”. I would have thought the safety of Scots was her day job. 

Equally quaint is Alexander McKay’s nightmarish ramblings (Letters, March 13) that the Scottish Government is “going helter-skelter …to shut down, or shut off all our own … gas and oil”. This will be Scotland’s gas and oil resources whose licensing and extraction is, and has been, entirely controlled from south of the Border for the last 50 years, but whose life span can now only be measured in a few decades. 

Scotland is a major exporter of energy in the form of gas, oil, with substantial and expanding amounts of electricity going to the UK and European grid. Scotland has no industrial interest in nuclear power, so it would be more enterprising to develop commercial tidal power, or green hydrogen production, and be cheaper (and faster) to revive the proposed interconnector between Scotland and Norway, so that the complementary exchange of their vast renewable energy would be of benefit to them both.
GR Weir, Ochiltree.

NORTH SEA OIL WILL NOT SAVE US

YOUR report on the Scottish Greens conference quoted Patrick Harvie as saying “war cannot justify more oil and gas production” (“Harvie: ‘War cannot justify more oil and gas production’”, The Herald, March 18). Crude coming out of the ground has not suddenly become more expensive to extract and refine. Demand falls as price rises, so price is reduced to increase demand, as the crude can’t be stored. Very soon the price at the pumps will be back to normal.
Malcolm Parkin, Kinross.

SAY NO TO ANY SAUDI DEAL

LAST Sunday Mohammed Bin Salman executed 81 men, in the largest mass execution in Saudi Arabia’s history. This is a brutal and shocking moment. 

Boris Johnson visited Saudi Arabia this week to beg for Saudi Arabian oil to replace Russian gas. We cannot show our revulsion for Vladimir Putin’s atrocities by rewarding those of Mohammed Bin Salman. I fear for the lives of every person on death row in Saudi Arabia;  especially Abdullah al-Howaiti who was just 14 when he was arrested and tortured for a crime he couldn’t have committed, and Mohammed al-Faraj. who was arrested and tortured when he was just 15 for so-called “crimes” including going to his uncle’s funeral.

Mr Johnson should refuse to buy oil from Saudi Arabia. We cannot be thinking of striking a new trade deal with a country that has just killed 81 people and that could murder many more at any point. Mohammed Bin Salman is making a statement. He thinks he can act with impunity. He thinks the world will stand by while he orders the murder of so many men, and publicly announces it. Mr Johnson must not trade oil for blood in our name.
B McKenna, Dumbarton.

NO INDEPENDENCE WITHIN THE EU

TAOISEACH Michael Martin has told the Dublin parliament that the government “cannot” bring down diesel fuel prices, as they would like to do, “because of EU regulations”.

This is one of the countries often put forward by the SNP as being “normal” and “independent” and “free”. Am I missing something?

By the way, I voted Remain in the Brexit referendum and wish the UK had stayed and have no axe to grind. But clearly, the kind of “independence” that the SNP promises is utter nonsense and a complete pipe dream.
Alexander McKay, Edinburgh.

QE MONEY BELONGS TO US ALL

IT is interesting to note that the Bank of England has changed its logo – replacing the flag of England (the St George’s Cross) with the Union Flag.

This should serve as a timely reminder that the Bank of England is (currently) the central bank for all four “home nations” and that, when “our” central bank indulges in quantitative easing (QE) – producing new money from fresh air to deal with banking failures, Covid (business support, furlough, etc), and other substantial unplanned expenditure – all four home nations are entitled to their share of this new money, from our central bank, as a right.

Such money is not, and never has been, “borrowing” from some existing reserve of funds; nor has it ever been a “gift” from the Westminster Government – though that Government does have an inordinate amount of influence on how much is produced, at what time, and how it should be shared/spent.
Ian Waugh, Dumfries & Galloway Indy Hub, Dumfries.