Most of the good people of Invergowrie would have woken up last Saturday morning to discover that their quiet little place of residence was in the national news ("Corbyn condemned over jailed peer’s appointment," The Herald, September 19). Mike Watson, when nominated to the Lords, had selected Invergowrie to define his peer ship geographically. Invergowrie must now be viewing that as a kind of lucky white heather experience.
Negative talk of Invergowrie, blameless as it is, must make Lord Nelson, on his column in Trafalgar Square, restless in his admiral’s shoes, because the Invergowrie quarry supplied some of its stones, and the devil, having already thrown a few stones round the village, according to legend, must be wondering if he should add a few more.
The appointment of Lord Watson to the Labour front bench is the latest episode in the perennial pantomime known as the House of Lords. He is only able to continue to occupy a seat there because that body has inadequate procedures for ejecting members when they have been found guilty of committing serious offences. Putting lives at risk through fire-raising is fairly high up on the list of criminal activities.
Mr Corbyn’s spokesman only accentuates the aura of farce when he describes Labour’s front bench as "inclusive across the party". Well, it is certainly going a long way toward that. It now includes a convicted criminal for a fire raising offence. Perhaps, we have yet to see another scene in the buffoonery and flummery, known as the House of Lords, with Lord Archer acquiring a seat on the Tory front bench.
Ian W Thomson,
38 Kirkintilloch Road,
Lenzie.
Tim Purdon (Letters, September 17) complains about Jeremy Corbyn showing disrespect by not singing the national anthem to honour pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain, and adds that these men may themselves have gained inspiration from the song.
Mr Purdon might be unaware of the many occasions where Service personnel remain silent while others sing the anthem. Perhaps he should consider the possibility that Mr Corbyn was reflecting everyday normal behaviour among the military.
Campbell Douglas,
A/Lieutenant, Royal Marines Reserve (Rtd),
52 McLelland Drive,
Kilmarnock.
Much has been reported over the last few days about the great aerial battles fought in the skies above southern England in September 1940 and subsequently named the “Battle of Britain”. On the ITN evening news on Sunday the events were referred to as being “the battle for England”.
The Battle of Britain did not suddenly start in September 1940 but almost a year earlier, not over the fabled corn fields of Kent, but rather over the Firth of Forth and the Forth Bridge. On October 16, 1939 two legendary Scottish squadrons of 13 Group Fighter Command, 602 City of Glasgow temporarily based at Drem in East Lothian and 603 City of Edinburgh based at Turnhouse accounted for two Junkers 88 bombers that were shot down into the Forth. The pilots were Scottish and it was the first occasion in the Second World War when the-then new Spitfires fired their guns in anger and the first time that German aircraft had been shot down over the UK. It was an Englishman, no less, who, some years ago, wrote what was to become the definitive account of the Forth Raid and appropriately he titled his book The Birth of the Few. And it was. This begs the question: why was there no "fly-past" over Scotland in the last few days? Several Scottish squadrons, mostly crewed by Royal Auxilliary fighter pilots gained considerable fame during the Battle of Britain and the subsequent years of the war.
Brian Farish,
10 Baird Grove,
Edinburgh.
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