Sir, – The evidence of Detective Chief Inspector Paul Settle to the House of Commons’ home affairs committee should trouble us all in Scotland.
Mr Settle gave evidence that the case against Lord Leon Brittan “fell at the first hurdle” but that as a result of an intervention by Labour MP Tom Watson, his superiors in the Metropolitan Police were thrown into a “state of panic” and immediately ordered that the terminally ill peer be questioned.
If an opposition politician can have this effect on such a major police force, how much more susceptible must Police Scotland be to political pressure from the Scottish Government?
Of course, some believe that the single police force in Scotland was created by the Scottish Government for precisely that reason.
Evidence of the Scottish Government’s authoritarian tendencies and contempt for civil liberties is all too plentiful.
The most egregious example is the named person scheme under which every family in Scotland is to be spied on and every parent treated as a suspect.
Attempts to abolish corroboration in criminal trials, which has long protected us from miscarriages of justice, are another example.
The creation of Police Scotland was a mistake.
If we value our liberty, we must re-establish regional constabularies, each with its own chief constable and accountable to its own elected police board.
Otto Inglis. Ansonhill, Crossgates, Cowdenbeath.
Scotland is not 1930s Germany
Sir, – It was with mild amusement that I read the letter from Mr Alastair I. Stewart (October 22).
His closing words were that he is frightened.
I had a vision of him sitting cowering in the corner awaiting Nicola and her invading army . I must look out for my call-up papers .
However, on a less frivolous note, perhaps it is not fear that Mr Stewart should be feeling but shame.
His indulgent fantasy which equates the democratically elected government of Scotland with Adolf Hitler and his monstrous regime is an insult to the many millions of people across Europe and beyond who suffered misery, incarceration and death before and during the second word war .
History will most certainly not repeat itself in Scotland.
Carole Downie. 2 Hill Place, Arbroath.
Dangerous mix of circumstances
Sir, – Alastair Stewart is not alone in seeing the parallels between our situation in Scotland now and Germany in 1933.
One parallel he missed in his list is the mixture of nationalism and socialism, a mixture which seems to be evident in the ethos of our current SNP Government.
It is worth remembering that the official title of Hitler’s Nazi Party, the NSDAP, translates into English as National Socialist German Workers Party.
When nationalism and socialism get together it can often be the trigger for dictatorship, a one-party state and the scapegoating of one perceived enemy as being responsible for all the ills the nation experiences.
With the SNP Government, the nationalism and the socialism seem to have come together in Scotland and the Westminster government is perceived as the fount of all our ills, so let us hope that the rest of the pattern does not come to pass.
(Captain) Ian F. McRae. 17 Broomwell Gardens, Monikie.
EVEL benefits UK union
Sir, – How they squealed in protest at the audacity of the proposal.
How dare they presume to have equal rights to their Scottish and Irish counterparts. Get a grip. Did the SNP not expect the English people to demand a say on laws that affect only them?
They are only following on from the inward policies being pursued by the SNP.
It strikes me as very reasonable. The tantrum of Peter Wishart MP on the floor of the house would suggest he is unable to consider another nation wanting equal treatment to the views he espouses.
This proposal does not weaken the union but strengthens it. Different tricks for different folks.
AG Walker. Puddledub Cottage, Guthrie.
Pot calling kettle black
Sir, – The Commons has now passed the English Votes for English Laws, (Evel) bill much to the annoyance of the 56, sorry 55 SNP MPs.
They protest that they have been left as “second-class” MPs.
This bill creates a new stage where bills on English issues are debated by English or English and Welsh MPs with Scottish MPs excluded.
The SNP dominated Scottish Parliament already has full control over areas such as health, education and justice and has made a well-documented and expensive mess of these areas.
Angry nationalists accused the Tories of damaging the union.
Now that really is the pot calling the kettle black.
Clark Cross. 138 Springfield Road, Linlithgow.
Ms Sturgeon has work to do
Sir, – So Nicola Sturgeon spent last Friday in Aberystwyth supporting fellow nationalist Leanne Wood at the Plaid Cymru conference.
Yet we were told our First Minister was too busy to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in London a little earlier in the week to discuss, in particular, Tata Steel and more generally, the Scottish economy and jobs.
At the SNP conference, Ms Sturgeon tried to reach out to no voters.
She informed us her focus isn’t independence and another referendum but getting on with the day job the routine business of effectively running Scotland and its struggling public services.
Ms Sturgeon made her trip to Wales to further her cause of breaking up the UK.
It was of nil benefit to Scots, whereas face-time with the Chinese president may well have helped our economy.
Based on a snapshot of how Ms Sturgeon has prioritised her diary recently, she has work to do before no voters will consider backing the SNP in next May’s Holyrood elections.
Martin Redfern. 4 Royal Circus, Edinburgh.
Spend Trident cash on jobs
Sir, -Before Ravenscraig steel works was closed down by the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Tory cohorts, it was producing the best steel in Europe and supplying companies such as Volkswagen, a feasibility study was carried and suggested that a deep-water ore terminal and super steel plant could be built at Hunterston in Scotland.
The rationale was that giant ore carriers could bring their cargoes directly to the point of use, making massive savings on transport and enabling the plant to produce the cheapest steel in Europe if not the world.
Instead of wasting £100 billion on Trident, why not spend some of the money on bringing Hunterston to fruition and allow Britain to have at least a chance to compete with China?
T. Gardner. Main Street, Bankfoot.
Must farming be subsidised?
Sir, – In response to Ewan Pate’s article (October 23) on the UK Government’s proposal to reduce feed-in-tariff subsidies to small wind turbines located on farms, since when was it an mandatory obligation on all electricity bill payers to pay higher electricity bills in order to subsidise farming?
GM Lindsay. Whinfield Gardens, Kinross.
Governor’s double standard
Sir, – It was intriguing to note the speech by Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, on the issue of the UK’s membership of the European Union.
Lord Lawson, who heads the Conservatives for Britain Group, which is campaigning for the UK’s exit from the EU, accused the governor of “wading into a political debate”.
Mr Carney’s comments on the United Kingdom and the EU were, however, a lot less forthright than those he made in the run-up to the Scottish independence referendum, when he questioned the compatibility of a currency union with sovereignty.
The tamer approach taken by Mr Carney on the EU issue is clearly intriguing, as the impact of a UK withdrawal from the EU would be more hard felt in the UK than Scottish independence.
It is also strange that Lord Lawson is critical of Mr Carney’s “political” intervention in the EU debate but did not raise his concerns over his intervention in the Scottish independence referendum.
Alex Orr. 77 LeamingtonTerrace, Edinburgh.
Vital question of defence
Sir, – I am somewhat intrigued by Mr George White’s reaction to my little piece on the “big stick”, in that he appears to assume, probably because of the light-hearted approach to an extremely serious subject, that I am oblivious (his term) to the conditions under which we own and operate our nuclear deterrent.
He could not be more mistaken.
The rather well-worn reference to grandmothers and eggs springs rather readily to mind.
Had he read between the lines, he surely would noted that, having freely given up my big stick, I was, in all seriousness, seeking from the worldly wise some viable suggestion as to how I can continue defending my home and family.
In closing, as one who has been around for some time now, I should certainly welcome Mr White’s opinion regarding that, without the existence of Mutually Assured Destruction, there is a fair chance that we would have had to survive world war three.
I cite the Cuban Missile Crisis for starters.
Ian Kennedy. Manse Cottage, 1 Gray Den, Liff, Dundee.