Sir, – Now Boris Johnson has formally rejected the Scottish Government’s request for a Section 30 order (Johnson puts brakes on FM’s referendum plans, Courier, January 15) to facilitate Indyref2 it is time to look more closely at our present constitutional settlement to make sure we know where we stand.
Scotland and England are in a de jure union.
But what sort of union is it in which one partner cannot leave without permission from the other?
Married couples can divorce even if one spouse does not want to.
Nations too can separate, as was shown by the “Velvet Divorce” that brought Czechoslovakia to an end.
Some who are pro-independence take comfort by looking to Section 63A of the Scotland Act, which states “the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government are not to be abolished except on the basis of a decision of the people of Scotland voting in a referendum”.
They would be wrong to find comfort there. The Scotland Act is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom is dominated by English MPs because England is more populous than Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales together.
The Act can be amended, or even repealed, by Westminster.
Scotland’s devolution is a chimera.
The brutal truth is that Scotland is de facto a partially self-governing colony of England.
Those parties in Scotland that support the Union thereby support the subjugation of the people who vote for them to the will of a government elected by voters in England by an undemocratic system (the Conservative Party have 56% of the seats in Westminster but only won 44% of votes across the UK as a whole).
Despite trying to give the appearance that they exist to promote the interests of people in Scotland, the “branch offices” of unionist parties in Scotland are treating the Scottish electorate as cannon fodder to increase their firepower in Westminster.
It is high time those who vote for them opened their eyes to this truth.
Peter Martin.
Sruth Ruadh,
Milton,
Strathconon,
Muir of Ord.
Time to renew UK democracy
Sir, – What is all this nonsense about Prince Harry not wanting to be involved in royal non-work such as opening buildings and the like.
If the man does not like the job he, like the rest of us, can look for another.
The Queen has problems? No!
There are a lot of people in the UK with real problems.
Lack of money is one, children and grandchildren on the streets with drug problems is another and lack of decent housing another.
We have too many politicians. They are there supposedly to look after the country and the people but they don’t.
Dope smugglers and dealers should face deportation to South Georgia for a 20-year minimum sentence.
Murder should be hanging and the people should get a vote on the law required to carry this out.
We have gutless politicians and social workers. It is time the people elected a political head of state to rescue us from politicians who do nothing of any importance.
How many in Westminster are users of drugs?
It is time they started testing politicians in all of our parliaments. Fail twice and it will be made public.
Why should there be alcohol on sale in any of our parliaments?
Politicians can vote for a war even if they are over the limit to drive.
The system is there to maintain the upper class, the ruling elite.
We have had Labour governments?
So why did they not abolish the House of Lords?
The reason is they are the same coin as every other party in the rotten to the core House of Commons.
We need a real democracy.
John G Phimister.
63 St Clair Street,
Kirkcaldy.
Channel 4’s farming conflict
Sir, – There needs to be some questions asked about Channel 4’s motives for the series of anti-livestock farming programmes that they have apparently commissioned, the recent Apocalypse Cow with environment extremist George Monbiot being an example of the sort of biased nonsense that is no doubt to follow.
It is certainly abundantly clear that Channel 4 does not intend to take an even-handed view on the matter of livestock farming.
The problem with this is that Channel 4 has a subsidiary called the Channel 4 Commercial Growth Fund.
The objective of this fund is “to offer high growth potential companies, not currently advertising on television, the opportunity to build their business through advertising on Channel 4 platforms – by exchanging equity stakes and/or striking revenue share arrangements”.
Channel 4 Commercial Growth Fund has reputedly entered into a “seven-figure sum deal” with the Meatless Farm Co, a leading producer of meat substitutes.
Clearly Channel 4 will be carrying extensive advertising for Meatless Farm Co products in exchange for their Growth Fund getting either shares in the Meatless Farm Co or a share of their profits.
There can be no complaint about the Meatless Farm Co advertising on Channel 4 or anywhere else.
What is wrong though is that Channel 4 is commissioning anti-livestock farming programming on the one hand, while on the other they are investing in Meatless Farm Co expecting to gain financially from Meatless Farm’s consequential increase in profits.
Put simply, the more Channel 4 can damage UK livestock farming, the more they will expect to gain from their investments in this veggie-burger manufacturer.
Also The Meatless Farm is not a farm.
It is a food manufacturer fronted by Morten Toft Bech and aside from investment from Channel 4 Capital Growth Fund, it seems to be mainly financed by anonymous wealthy Chinese investors operating through a complex trail of companies in Hong Kong and Switzerland and eventually Fermion Capital Management UK Ltd in the UK.
They will not be intending to pay much UK corporation tax!
D Norrie.
Denhead of Arbirlot,
Arbroath.
Reasons for leaving obvious
Sir, – Last night at 8pm I received a telephone call from Scottish Power.
The caller asked for my full name, my address including postcode and my date of birth.
When I dealt with the request I said now that she knew who I was, could I have her full name, her address with postcode and date of birth.
She said no.
She stated she wanted to have a recorded discussion with me regarding an item on my account.
I pointed out that I no longer had an account with Scottish Power, which was cancelled several months ago.
She needed proof that I had cleared my account, which I declined to give, and suggested she would contact their call centre in India and he could give her any information she required.
If a senior manager of Scottish Power in the UK reads this letter he would have a clue why I left.
AA Bullions.
6 Glencairn Crescent,
Leven.
