Sir, – Derek Farmer’s piece in The Courier Letters on June 18, which used the story of the three little pigs to denigrate another contributor’s point of view and justify his own claims of UK colonial justice, reminded me of a well-known white bovine product, a staple ingredient of a dish eaten by Dundee’s disadvantaged families, which my granny used to prepare.
Britain’s actual record of colonial government was nothing like the rosy picture presented by Mr Farmer .
The crown in a large British Empire was India, where the privileged rulers running its caste system made it easy for the products of our own privileged class system to work together for mutual benefit.
The Colonial masters and their Rajah pals both prospered at the expense of India’s poor and vastly underprivileged native population.
The rest of the Empire, and in particular Africa, was kept in check by abject cruelty and force.
When greedy Britain could no longer control its overstretched empire, it found a way out by forming a Commonwealth of Nations, and secured widespread acceptance of a way to avoid trouble for itself by including trading arrangements as part of the new deal.
Mr Farmer’s take down of a fellow contributor ’s viewpoint by linking it to the prospects or otherwise of Scottish independence is typical of someone who either doesn’t know or chooses to disregard the fact that any nation which aspires to run an independent economy requires the full fiscal powers that go along with it.
In layman’s terms it means being able to run your own financial affairs without interference or control from another nation, including access to international banking facilities.
Currently the Scottish budget is set and controlled by Westminster to ensure that not only will Scotland be seen to mismanage its economic affairs, but also provide a cash cow to offset some of the losses incurred by Westminster’s mismanagement of the UK economy as a whole.
There is an old saying that “justice will prevail” and the UK prime minister will be on his knees right now, giving thanks to some unknown deity for the timely distraction of a pandemic to ensure him, and those of the Derek Farmer ilk, that that day may still be some time off.
Allan A. MacDougall.
37 Forth Park,
Bridge of Allan.
A granny’s difficult choice
Sir, – In the easing of lockdown Phase Two, as a granny, I had high expectations that I would be able to resume childcare for my family, enabling them to concentrate on work commitments.
Grannies living alone can be part of an ‘extended household’ with children and grandchildren but because I live with a grandad, I can’t.
After 12 weeks and three days of lockdown with him, I have had to make a really difficult decision.
One grandad free to good home, ‘Click and Collect’ available.
Maggie Openshaw.
Earlswells Road,
Cults,
Aberdeen.
Cushioned from consequences
Sir, – Alex Bell (The Courier, June 18) points out that the politicians and high-ranking civil servants behind the decision for “blended” schooling, aka part-time school, are largely cushioned from the consequences of their decisions.
They don’t have to choose between working and educating their children at home because they have jobs where they can be flexible about hours, can afford for their partners not to work full-time, can afford private tutors or to send their children to private schools which ,if they are not offering full-time schooling in August, will still be offering much more than state schools.
But it isn’t just the children of politicians and high-ranking civil servants who are protected from the consequences of their decisions about lockdown.
They, together with the scientists who are advising them, are not facing redundancy.
Many employed in hospitality, retail and other private sector businesses will lose their livelihoods as this protracted lockdown pans out; these senior figures in the public sector won’t.
Linda Holt.
Independent Councillor for the East Neuk,
Dreel House,
Pittenweem.
Dijon unrest is a warning
Sir, – While the world obsesses about Black Lives Matter, almost unnoticed, the French city of Dijon experienced four days of ethnic violence involving neither black nor white French people.
This should remind us that issues of ethnicity are far more complicated than supporters of BLM would have us believe.
Reportedly a recent attack on a 16-year-old Chechen boy in the city famous for its mild mustard had led to reprisals by Chechens against local Maghrebi Arabs.
Despite the city’s mayor, Francois Rebsamen, describing the violence as “unprecedented and unacceptable” and the drafting in of police from outside the city, there have only been a handful of arrests.
This should serve as a warning that defunding the police, as demanded by Black Lives Matter, can lead to a multi-ethnic society and not to harmony and rights, but tribal retribution.
Of course, it is unlikely that lack of resources is the problem in France, but much more likely a lack of the political will to require the police to uphold the law.
We should value our police, and require our politicians to insist on the law being upheld.
The alternatives are too horrible to contemplate.
Otto Inglis.
Ansonhill,
Crossgates,
Fife.
Missing from slavery debate
Sir, – In all the reports in the media about slavery and removing statues there is one glaring omission.
That is the vile practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) which stems from the belief that a woman or a girl is male property. In other words a slave.
In just 29 countries across the Atlantic Coast to the Horn of Africa, 125 million women are forced to undergo FGM.
The top three countries are Somalia, Guinea and Djibouti, “cutting” some 70 million females.
So why do the Black Lives Matter protesters not go there?
Despite being made illegal in the UK and Scotland in 1985 there has only been one conviction for this vile offence in 35 years.
It is estimated as many as 100,000 women and girls in the UK have undergone this illegal procedure so why are the UK authorities reluctant to introduce regular testing for young girls whose parents originate from these 29 countries?
Are governments scared of a racial backlash?
Clark Cross.
138 Springfield Road,
Linlithgow.
Paying to bail out the wealthy
Sir, – Further to Les Mackay’s letter (“Slavery debt had a long reach”, June 18).
The compensation paid off in 2015 was not to the slaves but to the slave owners for the ‘loss’ of their ‘property’.
Society again bails out the wealthy, as we have seen in recent times – the banks after 2008, and we will be paying yet more for the costs of pandemic government borrowing.
Society did not directly gain much benefit from the slaves, but their owners did.
Nick Cole.
Balmacron Farmhouse,
Meigle,
Perthshire.
