Letters: National service – let’s not lose it in the fog of ‘war’

I never saw him lose an argument or be stuck for a way out of a problem. I put a lot of that down to his army service and I decided the way to gain that maturity and resourcefulness and have the spare cash he never had was to get some peaceful life experience, so from 14 until I graduated, I had 19 weekend and holiday jobs in factories, building sites, farming and NHS in the UK, America, Norway and Europe. This also included hitch-hiking alone around 12,000 miles in the UK, US and Europe.

It was a great experience that set me up for life. The opportunities for, and attitude to, youngsters working and travelling before settling down are vastly diminished these days, one of many reasons we have so many directionless young people. This isn't good for them or the country and I hope the "national service" idea doesn't disappear in the fog of election "war".

The Labour Party should at least get behind the proposal to have a Royal Commission design the scheme.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven

Don’t be confused by this bad idea

SURELY, for the majority of voters, the election can't come soon enough. It's just a pity we have to wait six weeks for the result. They will be filled with reams of nonsense and distraction, aimed at confusing us all. A classic case is the idea of reintroducing some form of national service.

I groaned when I heard about it on the news and already it has taken up too much air time and column inches since. Here am I contributing as well. Why do we fall so easily into these traps?

Let's be honest, whatever young people need these days, it's not the ill-thought-out idea being flown by the Conservatives’ kite. We do need national service, in the form of better public services. They have been crumbling for the past decade and more. Why? Are we not prepared to fund them? Is there not enough tax revenue?

It can't be that there's not enough money because a great number of people are doing very well, thank you. Rishi Sunak is one of them and I'm sure there are a few other politicians of all persuasion in a similar cruiser, as well as the so-called captains of industry and the rest on ridiculously obscene salaries.

Most of us are desperate for change to improve the lives of all our citizens. Whoever wins, will we get it after July 4? I'm not holding my breath.

David Bruce, Troon

From one bubble to another

RISHI Sunak has declared his intention to introduce conscription to the armed forces or social activities for all 18-year-olds, and his ministers claim that the objective is "to take teenagers out of their bubble". This from politicians who are cut off from reality in the Westminster bubble.

When seen against the policies pursued by the Government over Brexit, the treatment of illegal immigrants, Rwanda, and the Court of Human Rights, it would seem they have no knowledge of modern history; or perhaps, and much more worryingly, they do.

TJ Dowds, Cumbernauld

Lesson on workers’ rights for the FM

THE First Minister revealed a lack of awareness of employment law covering disciplinary and grievance procedures when he stated: "If a constituent came to me and 'said' they were about to face a disciplinary panel at work and one of the members had made prejudicial comments about them, I would come down on that employer like a ton of bricks".

Having served as a trade union workplace representative over many years, I can say that such an attempted intervention is unlikely to be helpful. The appropriate response would be to establish whether the employee has trade union representation, which would normally be by a representative trained in dealing with disciplinary and grievance procedures by the trade union in question.

If the employee is not in a trade union or professional association, then they can still get advice, including from the Citizen's Advice Bureau, and have the right to be accompanied at the disciplinary hearing.

In either case, they may be advised whether to present evidence of the alleged prejudicial comments as part of their case. If the eventual findings are against them, then they will be informed of their statutory right to appeal, and if still not successful then depending on the nature of the sanction applied, may apply to an employment tribunal.

In this connection, employment tribunal fees introduced in 2013 have been abolished following Unison Legal Services' successful challenge, with the Supreme Court finding that the system of fees infringed constitutional rights.

The lesson here is for the employee to seek informed advice and representation at an early date, not simply to rely on a "friend" who will unquestionably accept whatever they are told.

Chris Smith, Inverness

Don’t be fooled by a tribute act

KEIR Starmer flies in to start his election campaign in Scotland. He tells us there’ll be no second indy ref, no prospect of re-joining the EU, no change to the first past the post election system, and no restoration of family allowance for a third child. Starmer also justifies the murder of 30,000 plus completely innocent women and children by the Israeli war machine, as “self-defence”.

In addition, Labour is parachuting in English candidates, to contest Scottish constituencies they couldn’t point to on a map. Respect for the Scottish people?

Meanwhile, Anas Sarwar just tugs his forelock and acquiesces.

His chancellor, Rachel Reeves, says she is not continuing with “Tory austerity”, and everything will be “fully costed and fully funded”. So more austerity then. When the economy is stagnating, as it has for the past 14 years, governments must provide the stimulus for growth.

Keir Starmer then tells us Scots we need to vote for his “changed” Labour party. The only change he’s managed is to change the Labour party into a Tory tribute act.

To quote the great modern day philosopher Pete Townsend, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”

Surely, we Scots “Won’t be fooled again”

J. McFadyen, East Kilbride

A plea to the Tory MPs out there

A DESPERATE plea to Scottish Conservative MPs who may be reading the Herald today: your Prime Minister has clearly gone utterly mad. Is it constitutionally possible to just cancel his election?

Rishi Sunak's suicide of a campaign has already degenerated into farce. It is so disorganised and unplanned that his headline policy of national service cannot get backing from his own party, with minister Steve Baker complaining that it was "sprung on" him.

Dozens of Tory MPs, more than in 1997, reacted to the election declaration not with cheers of enthusiasm but a panicked dash for the exits. Some like Lucy Allan have defected to other parties. There is no manifesto. Over a hundred candidate positions are vacant. Evidently something has gone badly wrong with Mr Sunak's government behind the scenes and until this shambles is straightened out we cannot have a fair or properly informed vote.

Parliament will not be officially dissolved until 30th May: up to tomorrow, Thursday, MPs still hold their current positions and there is no need to elect a new Parliament. That means there is still a narrow and urgent window in which this mess can be fixed.

Is there any actual codified reason in law why ministers cannot drag Mr Sunak back to the King and have him request that the King end the prorogation, so that regular business resumes for the rest of the parliamentary session's normal length and the election is called off until the normal legal time?

It might be unprecedented, but these are unprecedented times: and whatever political embarrassment might arise from the Prime Minister being made to take back his declarations, other Tories must realise that it still will be preferable than the humiliation of total annihilation that Mr Sunak is marching his colleagues off the cliff of right now.

Robert Frazer, Dundee