People of Orkney will decide their own future

They would have to get the agreement of themselves and of the Norwegians or whoever, and they would presumably have to get consent from the British state. None of those three conditions looks likely to happen now, but tomorrow’s now is another country.

History has authority over no-one. People have authority over themselves, and the landscape of their thoughts can change in a generation and less. The thing no-one can do is crank history backwards once the people are looking in another direction.

That’s the mistake of Putin, whose fantasy view of history is crafted to ignore treaties of sovereignty signed between Russia and her neighbours in 1991, and who is criminally hostile to the ultimate sovereignty of the people.

Tim Cox, Bern, Switzerland

A failure of Tory leadership

I cannot say I am surprised that Scottish Tory MSP Jamie Greene was sacked as the party’s justice spokesperson by party leader Douglas Ross in his recent reshuffle (“Scots Tory infighting explodes into open after Ross reshuffle”, The Herald, July 3). This was a deliberate ploy to remove a potential threat to his totally ineffective leadership by Mr Ross, who has presided over a monumental fall in support for his party.

If, as suspected, Mr Greene was also sacked because of his support for the Gender Recognition Reform Bill then this opposes the principle of allowing a free vote on the matter. Mr Ross cannot point to the Conservative demise in the UK as an excuse for the continuing slide in support for his party up here, as this began exponentially following the 2022 local elections in Scotland with a recent poll suggesting that from their current position of being the official opposition at Holyrood with 31 seats, they would drop to a miserly four at the next election.

Mr Ross’s multiple policy U-turns including his support, then opposition to the 45p tax rate, his flip-flopping in support of Boris Johnson, and his dual role as MP and MSP are responsible for his own fall from grace. Unfortunately, there appears to be no mechanism in place to oust their leader in the Scottish Conservative Party much to the members’ chagrin.

Christopher H Jones, Glasgow

Border question has two sides

Apparently the SNP’s new paper on separation, produced by their new break-up-the-UK minister, states there is to be no border with England.

Once again it would seem they are unaware that a border has two sides. If in a separated Scotland they decide not to have hard border controls with England, fair enough. But do they really think the English will doff their caps and stand back and meekly say “Carry on, Jock”? Like hell they will. You can of course decide on border controls into your own, separated, country. But you cannot decide what your neighbouring countries or blocs do, much as you would like to. If they erect a manned border, and England most certainly would, that is the end of the matter.

Our southern neighbour and fellow islanders in particular are plagued by an illegal immigrant problem and it is the country where the vast majority of those coming to the UK wish to settle. They are hardly likely to say to a separated Scotland: “yes, your no-border policy with us is fin”’ and then be beset by the countless numbers who would try to gain entry through a separated Scotland with open exit doors and no problems. The floodgates would be opened and it is simply not going to happen. The border would rapidly be built and strictly manned.

Once more, reality checks urgently required in SNP-land.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

The scourge of single-use vapes

The Scottish Government has pledged to act and could ban single-use vapes. Delight turned to despair when I read that Lorna Slater was in charge. She of the failed Deposit Return Scheme, the climb-down over Highly Protected Marine Areas, her hatred of farmers and their livestock and much more.

Politicians have no common sense. It should have been obvious that vapes would be discarded just like cigarette butts which have littered our streets for decades. It should have been obvious that young people would get their hands on vapes and then graduate to cigarettes.

It should have been obvious that allowing these multi-coloured vapes to be on open display in shops that children and youths would be tempted to buy and try. Even after the DRS on bottles disaster Lorna Slater is contemplating a DRS for vapes. Higher taxes on cigarettes did not discourage smokers so a ban on all vapes is the only answer. Cigarettes next?

Clark Cross, Linlithgow

Our troubles began with Labour

We live on bank magic money, the extent of which bears no relation to our actual prosperity. Quantitative Easing for example has reached almost £1trillion, which is £15,000 a head for every man woman and child in the UK, and our national debt is £2.7trillion – another £41,000 per head of population; £56,000 of state debt for each of us.

QE is “narrow” money, aimed at things like the NHS, or sent abroad as foreign aid, but some of it still trickles into people’s pockets to cause inflation.

As we import 60% of what we buy in the shops, including 46% of what we eat, that tends to keep inflation down, but during the big inflation of the late 1970s, when we made and grew most of what we consumed, and Labour was dishing out 25% wage increases, inflation was driven to 28%.

Our current problems began with the Labour government of 1997, who were in thrall to the City, and allowed the banks to create money as a substitute for real economic growth. The house price boom was one result, which is why houses are now bought with mortgages based on six or seven-times earnings, as opposed to the two or three-times earnings of pre-1997.

Government is powerless with a private banking system that can create the money supply from thin air, and lend it to whoever it chooses, and for those borrowers to then do whatever they please with that money. Only by controlling the banks, and living within our means, can stability and real prosperity return.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinross

Threat to cost of living

The article by Martin Williams (“Extra £150 goes on energy bills to switch off and on generators including wind farms”, The Herald, June 30) highlights how generator costs impact on consumer bills ( £395 million over the past two years ). This, however, is merely a portent of the crippling price increases arising from the SNP energy plan issued in the Spring of 2023.

The Energy Secretary plans to increase the capacity of Scottish windmills from 13GW to 58GW without any reference to the fact that, even with a 400% increase in capacity, there will still be no electricity generated when the wind fails to blow. This means consumers are faced with billions of pounds of additional debt to install a further 25GW of gas turbine output to keep the lights on in Scotland. Why bother with unreliable, inefficient windmills when gas turbine technology is all that is required?

Over warm summer evenings, system demand will only require around 15GW of capacity meaning 68GW of plant will sit idle whilst being paid constraint payments to company shareholders yet giving back nothing to the consumer. Why does Holyrood fail to accept that, whilst going green means going poor, 58GW of windmills is a poor investment especially as most of the debt will be repaid by those in fuel poverty?

Note also that as electricity is four times that of gas, then a ban on fossil fuels will see an escalation in energy bills that will impact badly on the cost-of-living in Scotland.

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas

Continuing the Brexit advantages for those travelling to Europe this year, some things are like the old pre-Brexit days. You will once again get your passport stamped going in and out, after you have queued for each of course. This is unlike the French, Germans, Poles, etc, who just walk through that part of the airport hassle-free.

Then of course there is our new Brexit-benefited postage rates. Send a postcard to the UK and you are now charged at international rates, that is the same charge as one sent to Canada or Australia, not the former "within EEC rate"; quite a hike.

Holidaying recently in both Cyprus South and Portugal certainly awakened me to those further Brexit benefits. What a mess or mistake or ill-thought-through shambles and for what?

John A Taylor, Dunlop