Letters: Thatcher had the right idea on an indy mandate

I trust Peter A Russell, since he backs the proposal, would apply the same supermajority to all proposals in the referendum – status quo, independence or “other”. But that won’t happen, and the whole nonsense just sounds like imperial rules from a century ago.

I have the gravest doubts that a fair Scottish referendum can take place under the media rules proposed by the UN for “territories” (a description now used to describe Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland by this Tory Government) seeking independence. The media is entirely Anglo-centric and unionist. The BBC that operates in Scotland lacks the bandwidth, forum or journalistic quality to debate anything, never mind independence.

As Margaret Thatcher stated, negotiations for independence should start when a majority of pro-independence MPs are elected from Scotland. That would also sideline a whole lot of angst and bitterness.

GR Weir, Ochiltree.

SNP FOCUSING ON WRONG ISSUES

NICOLA Sturgeon would have us believe that she is in tune with what “the people of Scotland” want. Clearly not. Time after time, surveys show that on top of the majority not wanting separation from the rest of the UK, a clear majority do not want the Government to be wasting time, money and effort on preparing for a referendum. How many civil servants are tied up preparing the latest fictional release called a White Paper? Could they not be put to better use getting accommodation and support in place for our homeless and those in poverty as well as helping with the Ukrainian work?

Not on the First Minister’s watch. All she wants is the headlines and the photo opportunity of helping Ukrainian refugees and to keep dangling the carrot of a referendum just over the next hill. The Ukrainians deserve all the help they can get from the many countries around the world offering support. Our own most vulnerable deserve help too.

Theresa May said it was not the time a few years ago, pre-Covid and pre-Ukraine. What will it take for Ms Sturgeon to get the message that she is focusing on the wrong issues?

Jane Lax, Aberlour.

WHY HAND THE KEYS TO BRUSSELS?

DESPITE wars and energy crises your Letters Pages still contain many missives from both pro and anti-independence camps.

There is almost no doubt now that the referendum proposed for 2023 is a non-starter. If those who are massively in favour of independence will draw some breath and admit this then perhaps a more basic question can then be answered. Does independence mean what it says or is it inextricably linked to handing the keys and responsibilities to Brussels?

Calling for an independent Scotland is simply wrong if that independence is promptly given away. The very word "independence" ought to be the centre of the debate and, as such, the answers from the nationalist side must include solid solutions to the currency, debt, pensions, national bank, interest rates and borders issues, not wish lists.

Europe comes later, if at all, so membership is simply conjecture based upon how well Scotland does if independent. The current world situation does not favour small non-aligned countries, nor will this change in the foreseeable future. This needs very much to be taken into account. We are better together.

Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.

DEFINING A WAR CRIMINAL

PRESIDENT Biden has publicly called Vladimir Putin a war criminal, a charge undoubtedly accurate given his bloody actions in Ukraine. The number of innocent civilians murdered on his orders is now well into the thousands and will continue to grow so long as this war continues.

Let us not forget that Russia was at no time threatened by Ukraine nor was ever likely to be; this was simply an invasion to reclaim territory falsely claimed by Putin to belong to Russia. He calls Zelenskyy a Nazi and seeks "denazification" yet it is Putin, like Hitler, who invaded another nation’s sovereign territory; it is Putin, like Hitler, who is a dictator; it is Putin, like Hitler, who has total disregard for human life. Yes, Putin is a war criminal all right, and should be convicted as such.

But let’s back up a moment. President Nixon together with his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, in illegal direct defiance of Congress, indiscriminately bombed Cambodia and Laos, two countries not involved in the Vietnam War. They unfortunately just happened to be in the way. Half a million innocent civilians from each country (let that figure sink in for a moment) were killed by bombs dropped from B52s with barely a word of protest that I can recall. Nixon is dead but Kissinger, now 98, still lives a life of contented luxury in the US. No retribution for him.

Then there are George W Bush and Tony Blair, both partners in a "coalition of the willing" although in direct defiance of the unwilling majority of the population of the UK, who, on the flimsiest of pretexts, bombed and killed more than 400,000 innocent Iraqi civilians. For Mariupol in Ukraine read Fallujah in Iraq.

Putin is a war criminal and must be held to account (although good luck with that); Kissinger, Bush, and Blair (now, God help us all, executive chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change) also have civilian blood on their hands and should be arraigned immediately, not that that is likely to happen.

A war criminal is a war criminal, a dead civilian is a dead civilian; their provenance is irrelevant.

Bob Buntin, Skelmorlie.

UN AND NATO HAVE FAILED US

OVER the last three weeks, the United Nations has shown itself to be an impotent and toothless organisation, serving solely as an elite members club for the well-paid representatives of national governments, whose function is to provide a mouthpiece of their respective governments on the world stage. Both the Security Council and the General Assembly have failed to achieve unanimous condemnation of Russia’s illegal war or the illegal targeting of civilian targets and hospitals.

We are one minute before midnight on the path to World War Three, yet the UN has spectacularly failed to achieve its prime and founding objective of preventing war. Even the mighty Nato, the world's strongest military force, has cowered in the face of Vladimir Putin’s expansionist war and its crimes against humanity.

Surely now is the time to rethink the purpose and usefulness of these dysfunctional and bureaucratic organisations that have failed Ukraine, failed democracy, and failed the world.

Ian Forbes, Glasgow.

FOLLY OF A NUCLEAR ARSENAL

WHEN there is a war on, it's convenient to criticise the SNP-Greens alliance for their Nato- and nuclear-sceptic stance ("SNP should call Harvie’s bluff and scrap the Green coalition", The Herald, March 16).

Any rational person opposes nuclear weapons, especially those parked in Scotland’s backyard. The shared consequence of radioactive fallout are only too obvious from the 1986 Chernobyl explosion.

Russia wisely took back its Ukrainian-based weapons when pro-Nato independence was declared.

The other eight nuclear countries are the US, the UK, France, Israel, India, Pakistan, China and North Korea with a collective total of 13,000 bombs. Only one of those countries has used such weapons on innocent civilians, at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The US kindly shares its nuclear arsenal with other countries, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Turkey.

It is a bit like saying the gun lobby acts as a deterrent for shooting incidents.

Malcolm Macqueen, Fairlie.

MASKS DID NOT DO THEIR JOB

DAVID Clark (Letters, March 18) claims that the current spike in Covid cases is due to people not wearing masks. Masks were first widely introduced in the UK in the summer of 2020. However this didn't prevent the so-called second wave, which began in September of that year, nor the third wave which began in June 2021. Indeed both of these waves were much bigger than the first. Did mask wearing contribute to this?

Also, on April 3, 2020 Jonathan van Tam, the then UK Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said that “there is no evidence that general wearing of face masks by the public who are well affects the spread of the disease” based on evidence reviewed by the World Health Organization.

Geoff Moore, Alness.