Mass migration was made in the USA: the buck stops there

Western intervention in the former Yugoslavia produced the first refugee wave, of Kosovars and others from the fragmenting state, and this was followed by the subsequent military interventions after 2000 in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria to name but a quartet of countries benefiting from unwanted western patronage. These conflicts turned the refugee trickle into a flood.

But intervention is not always needed, just interference can work. It was the USA's free trade agreement with Mexico which destroyed that country's peasant agriculture in the interests of US agri-business, and led to the upsurge in illegal emigration to the USA. These interventions turn their objects into fragmented or even failed states.

Mass migration and the illegal immigration crisis is thus not some kind of natural phenomenon, but is a man-made crisis. And it is Made in the USA, sadly with the support of its European allies.

Migration serves the interests of capitalism, and robs the country of origin of human talent. On the one hand you get skilled healthy labour you have not paid to train (from Eastern Europe, or places like Syria) as well as unskilled cheap labour from sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. On the other you get useful diversions for the growing marginalised sections of the population, suffering from austerity and increasing homelessness as they - taking effect for cause - in their miscomprehension, blame their problems on immigrants, rather than on the real culprits for their ills.

Saying Immigrants Welcome may be politically-correct virtue-signalling, but will solve nothing, as dislike it as we may, very large sections of the local population simply do not agree. Stopping imperialist wars would be a great help, but as there is little likelihood of that we have an intractable and insoluble conflict.

But at least we should correctly point the finger of blame.

Ian R Mitchell, Glasgow.

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Let's drop the hypocrisy

MUCH has been seen and heard from politicians and media who squarely place blame for the recent rioting on this mystical faction named the "far right".

The definition of what is the "far right" is as obscure in matters of factual proof as are the links of the rioters to any established right-wing faction.

That being said, it is arguably the case that the events that have been happening in UK cities is a long-deferred public reaction against the continuing immigration of foreign citizens, both legal and illegal, that is progressively creating foreign ghettoes in UK cities, mainly of followers of Islam, who decline the need to conform with British values.

It is a proven fact that immigrant families have been responsible for some of the atrocities of the recent past, before the Southport murders, and which have taken the lives of indigenous white people, many of them children.

It is not so long ago that British society was being implored to "take the knee" in support of the US import of Black Lives Matter, the subsequent publicity creating more protests and vandalism in our society. No mention of white lives mattering just as much, if not more so in terms of our indigenous white citizenry.

No-one can possibly condone violent disorder, but there seems to be a clear difference between the policing of these recent protests, and the policing of the pro-Gaza protests that have polluted our major cities for many months.

If we are to condemn the recent violence, then we should also drop the hypocrisy and begin to stop ALL the mindless "protests" that have become a sad feature of life in UK.

Derek Farmer, Anstruther.

The UK state does not care

FROM time to time I read Andy Maciver's opinion columns and most of the time think that instead of the sometimes very broad brush that he uses to spread his views on a multitude of related topics, like his recent piece on benefits (“Time to get real on ‘free’ benefits”, The Herald, August 2), he should choose a fine brush and explore the intricacies of why certain things are as they are. His broad brush obscures much to create his big picture which is often coloured with layers of guilt for a cohort of readers.

Pensions for example, is a topic that needs the layers of adverse comments peeled back to reveal some facts. Mr Maciver needs to explore why the triple lock was created. Was it guilt following the financial crash of 2008/9 when many private pensions lost massive amounts when markets crashed? In my own case my pension pot went down by around 64%. The subsequent austerity and very low interest rates prevented buying a reasonable annuity. Then the cost of living crisis is another area where he should microscopically examine the winners and losers. Among the winners are the energy companies and financial institutions whose ultra-high profits are ring-fenced for the interests of share holders. Or so we are told. The losers are ordinary people who have seen families driven into poverty.

If the high taxation of Denmark and Norway is one answer to giving people a sense that the state cares, then so be it. But my view is that in Britain, the state does not care. There are many examples of selfish profiteering at the expense of the people in general and if they are driven into poverty by overt capitalism that is just the way it is done in Britain and the broad brush strokes just mask the layers of entitled privilege.

If the promised increase in taxation comes about in a way that redistributes wealth while dealing with the nation's debt and ensuring that poverty is dealt with by embracing those in most need, then maybe moving to the Scandinavian model will be a beneficial system that will work for the UK over time.

We must avoid those like Mr Maciver and their views who attempt to create guilt in those who are in fact the victims of modern Britain's excesses by looking at the small details in the picture so that the real larger picture can be seen without the whitewashing that covers what "they" don't want us to see or realise.

Ian W Gray, Croftamie.

A Black Lives Matter demonstration in London (Image: PA)

A world without tax

IMAGINE living in a world without tax. No income tax, no VAT, no purchase tax, no council tax, zero taxation. There would be no need for tax avoidance nor tax evasion, no creative accountancy nor the need for overseas tax havens. The rich could keep all their cash here in Blighty and Little Lord Fauntleroy could keep everything Pater left him in his will and not have to adopt French citizenship or add to the increasing number of Rees-Moggian brass plates stuck to a wall in Dublin.

It wouldn’t cost any more, probably significantly less, to run the country but you may ask where would the government get the money to pay the bills? Simples. The answer lies in your article “Top UK banks could avoid bailout” (The Herald, August 7). You may remember that at the cost of hundreds of billions the taxpayer relatively recently bailed out several banks, we still own almost 20% of NatWest and we would be expected in future to do the same under similar circumstances.

The reality is the banking system can and does create fiat money out of thin air, a system based on trust which the 2008 collapse demonstrated was in some instances misplaced. The currency it creates cannot be exchanged for anything other than more paper money. The question we should all be asking is why HM Government does not control and issue the national currency. If it did, then problem solved. I’d accept a “tenner” issued by Westminster just as easily as one issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland, especially when its true value is dictated by some spotty currency speculator in an office in the bowels of the City of London or Manhattan, not by our elected representatives.

David J Crawford, Glasgow.

Police should look to Japan

CALUM Steele ("Politicians have betrayed the police and riots are the result", The Herald, August 7) may find his utopia in Japan. Rather than a handful of massive and intimidating police stations, thousands of little booths called Koban, each housing a handful of officers and staffed 24 hours a day, are dotted across the country in a very effective form of community policing. They are a factor in making Japan one of the world’s safest countries with an exceptionally low homicide rate.

Tom Thomson, London.