I BUY The National as often as I can. My favourite sections are the articles by your featured writers such as Vonny Leclerc or Hamish MacPherson. But I truly adore the letters pages.
It’s so interesting to read people’s views on topics, not just the mainstream opinions but real everyday people’s. I feel a fiery passion for politics and at the heart of that is a overwhelming desire for a better country and better living conditions for myself and fellow residents of Scotland.
Socialism is something I’ve been drawn to at different times, but a wariness of a socialist party has always been inside me. I believe our mainstream social ideologies are to blame, and media and my own lack of understanding. However, when I read Carolyn Leckie’s article on the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) I was actually quite intrigued by the party and the values it stands for etc. All in all, a positive feature that was thought-provoking.
READ MORE: Anti-SNP rants are not helping my former party the SSP
Fast forward a day and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Ken Ferguson’s letter is a shining example of what’s wrong with politics and is also a fantastic example of someone proving someone else’s point for them! His attempts to prove Carolyn wrong just makes her case all the more right ... the article was not about shamingthe SSP for daring to disagree or criticise the SNP, it was to highlight that the party has amazing values at the heart of it and it should concentrate its efforts into pursuing the true values and move away from the political bias and political manoeuvering whereby you get sucked into a fight that pits party against party, and the true party values falls to second place behind simply beating your opponent.
Why waste air time or word count to childishly list off all the things another party is doing wrong (and then he said and then she did...) instead of using the time to truly propel your party’s values and great ideas?
And so l fear my original resistance to supporting the SSP was backed up not by Carolyn’s article but Ken’s childish “he said she said” letter. I would love to see a party stand up and say “this is what we stand for, this is what we want and this is how we plan to accomplish it”. But Ken’s long-winded letter was more SNP than SSP.
Stacey W
East Kilbride
READ MORE: Letters: The SNP are not above criticism by other Yessers
IT is continually stated that the EU is using Northern Ireland as a means to trap the UK. This misses the point that the UK, the Republic of Ireland and the EU are all locked together by the Good Friday Agreement. As co-signatories, they cannot escape the responsibility to protect it. If Northern Ireland did not exist then the EU would not have been so willing to do the deal just revealed by Theresa May in the draft agreement.
Many of the pro-Brexit MPs who are currently throwing their teddies out were already at Westminster when the GFA ended the troubles. Maybe they should have stopped and read the small print before they voted it through, but as we have seen with the lack of knowledge displayed by Karen Bradley, Dominic Raab, Iain Duncan Smith, Andrew Bridgen and so many more, not having a f*****g clue is no bar to gaining a seat at Westminster.
Jon Southerington
Deerness, Orkney
IT’S a dark and sinister world at Westminster! Yesterday, Tory Ross Thomson said he was asking Mr Mundell “in the gentlest and strongest terms” to follow Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab in quitting the Cabinet! Yet also said he was not calling for the PM’s resignation!
So what’s he up to? Trying to get Mundell out the way so that HE can take Mundell’s job? Ross Thomson is as discrete as a slap in the face with a wet fish! Mind you, Mundell will be seen as being more like a wee mousey, if he doesn’t resign than any kind of a man! As for Thomson – nothing other than a self-serving opportunist . . . he’ll do well in the Tory party then!
Thom Muir
via thenational.scot
READ MORE: David Mundell denies being a man without principles after failing to resign
LAY off Fluffy – if he resigned who would make the tea and bring the biscuits for the Cabinet? Somebody has to pick up the crumbs for Scotland.
Des McFarlane
via thenational.scot
MUNDELL may as well not resign. He is not of any consequence in Westminster. As would be any Scottish Secretary of State for Scotland. If he resigned I doubt if any of the Tory papers would bother reporting it.
Stewart Beattie
via thenational.scot
THE recent articles on Willie McRae’s death grabbed my attention. By coincidence I was just finishing a book called The Life & Death of Lord Erroll by Errol Trzebinski.
Lord Erroll was found murdered in his car in Kenya in 1941. He was politically active. He could have been a danger to the reputation of high-ranking British Establishment figures etc. The author lays out a case for British Government involvement in his murder. So many more similarities between these two deaths.
Kenny Henderson
Dunfermline
READ MORE: Old interview backs up nurse’s suspicions about Willie McRae's bullet wound
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel