Sir, – The imminent collapse of the Brexit talks has been Boris Johnson’s planned outcome since he became Tory leader.
Thanks to his incompetent hubris, food and medicine shortages are inevitable.
No Deal means sheep farmers will lose up to 60% of their export markets.
Johnson told them to switch to beef but this will take up to five years. Even the much vaunted fishing rights mean a loss of 70% of their market in the European Union.
The Tories want to use Brexit to lower safety standards and bring low wage sweatshop jobs back to the UK, and they will also sell off the NHS.
Nicola Sturgeon has had nearly five years to organise an independence referendum to get Scotland out of this chaos.
She has done nothing despite having many mandates. Scotland is no closer to having a referendum than it was in 2014. This is an unforgivable abrogation of leadership and responsibility.
Alan Hinnrichs.
2 Gillespie Terrace,
Dundee.
EU rules a problem in BiFab collapse
Sir, – The BiFab wind turbine plant goes bankrupt whilst orders for turbines here, go elsewhere.
The Scottish and UK governments both say EU rules preclude them from offering state aid (a point that is a problem in current EU negotiations ).
This is a problem for the SNP – is this not the same EU they are so keen to get us back in to?
William Ballantine.
Dean Road, Bo’ness,
West Lothian.
How will the Hate Crime Bill cover this?
Sir, – The police in England and Wales have a website for reporting hate crimes and so far have received over 100,000 complaints. The site says verbal attacks on disability, race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender and other issues are hate crimes. It is ideal that hate crimes are being challenged but 100,000 complaints in so short a period? There must be some control over malicious complaints and for persons making them to be punished.
Whilst confidentiality will be respected for those who leave their details, it should be made clear the police will not investigate anonymous complaints.
Will the proposed controversial Hate Crime Bill in Scotland cover this?
Clark Cross.
138 Springfield Road,
Linlithgow.
Forgotten ideals of unity and peace
Sir, – On June 6 1946 King George XI wrote a letter to all schoolchildren in the land in which he thanked children for sharing the hardships of war and outlined reasons to be proud of ourselves and our parents who had triumphed over the enemies of the Allied Nations.
He concluded by expressing a wish that these qualities would grow up with us and that we would join in the common effort to establish world unity and peace.
Nowadays it appears the parliaments of the UK and Scotland hardly know what these things are!
Allan Bullions.
6 Glencairn Crescent,
Leven, Fife.
Country estates are not above the law
Sir, – The recent letters published attacking Jim Crumley personally are unfortunate.
Those letters oddly do not mention that licensing of grouse moors is only being introduced after all self regulation efforts failed.
Wildlife persecution continues unabated, with around a third of satellite-tagged golden eagles in Scotland disappearing in suspicious circumstances, on or around grouse moors.
Obeying the law applies to all of us, and despite acting to the contrary for many years, large country estates are not above the law.
The stances of the groups supporting current practices (SLE, SGA, GWCT) is totally reactive. If they instead improve their focus on eliminating criminality, they can easily avoid the further compliance measures they over-protest about.
Iain MacDonald.
56 Grove Road,
Broughty Ferry.
