Sir, – OK, we’re a bit thin on evidence.
Motive? Well yes we’re a bit thin on motive too, but it was definitely the Russians who did it.
Have we heard anything yet that is conclusive that Russia tried to kill Sergei Skripal, ex-double agent, along with his daughter?
Have we yet had any news outlet with a balanced view on this subject, other than repeating Westminster press releases?
I accept Prime Minister Theresa May has more resources than I to get at the truth, and if she does have evidence of Russian involvement let’s hear it.
I for one will not simply swallow whatever Mrs May and her cohorts tell me. They have lied too often to have any credibility left.
Now the media is full of suggestions as to what action Mrs May should take over Russia’s non-compliance with her ultimatum. For me, Russia has treated her threat with the contempt it deserves.
This is all about control; we hear one of the ways she might retaliate would be to stop RT from broadcasting in the UK. This sounds like censorship to me.
Now, people may have difficulties with Alex Salmond, but watching his shows broadcast on RT over a three-week period, when he interviewed Bertie Ahern, Mary Lou McDonald and Mary McAleese, we heard more truth and wisdom from people in authority in Ireland than we have heard out of Westminster in the past two years on the subject of Ireland and its border with the UK after we leave the EU.
Then again maybe that is why Mrs May wants to close down RT and has designs on social media – these mediums shine a light on what is going on in the world and are a counterbalance to Westminster’s propaganda machine.
Walter Hamilton.
City Park,
City Road,
St Andrews.
Tory hypocrisy is amazing
Sir, – While former Russian spy and MI6 agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter lie critically ill in hospital in Salisbury as a result of a “highly likely” – according to Theresa May – murder attempt by the Russians using the nerve gas Novichok, the Conservative Party at their recent Black and White Ball auctioned off for £30,000 a meal with the Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson – to the wife of Vladimir Chernukhin a former crony of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Lubov Chernukhin, the rich Tory-supporting Russian banker, who is allowed to bring her friends along to the dinner, has in the past paid £160,000 to the Tories for a game of tennis with the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, and £20,000 for lunch with Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives.
Yet with amazing hypocrisy the Tories accuse Jeremy Corbyn of being a Russian spy because 30 years ago during the Cold War he met an individual who, it was later found, was working for Czech intelligence.
Phil Tate.
95 Craiglockhart Road, Edinburgh.
Is James Bond out of a job?
Sir, – I may be sent to The Tower for this.
Nobody can condone the recent attempted murder of the ex-Russian spy and his daughter by an unknown undercover agent from a country yet to be confirmed, though hotly tipped to be attributed to Russia by Theresa “M” and the UK Government.
Naturally Russia deny any involvement, the perpetrator has vanished, and the UK Government has denounced this terrible act as one of war.
But wait a minute, just a hint of double standards here, what about Bond… James Bond, the fictitious British spy and assassin?
Since 1962 and 24 films later, the UK has glamourised this swashbuckling, invincible, stiff-upper-lip superhero, an undercover 007 figure who travels the world with a “license to kill”, knocking off spies left, right and centre using the most sophisticated methods possible before disappearing without trace (until reporting to M) – and then for his UK government to deny all knowledge of his existence or their involvement!
Sounds familiar.
I guess poor 007 is now unemployed, because clearly behaviour such as his can no longer be condoned by the UK Government – at least not when it happens here?
Graham Haddow.
23 Church Road,
Liff.
Rail link hardly ‘on a plate’
Sir, – It was good to read in The Courier (“Levenmouth rail link is still ‘number one priority’, says council”, March 13) of the restated support offered by Fife Council to the Levenmouth Rail Campaign (LMRC)
However I cannot be the only reader surprised by the apparently negative tone of the comments made by Councillor David Alexander.
Since he is the local councillor as well as joint leader of Fife Council you might expect greater encouragement.
Instead there were insulting remarks about a “sense of entitlement” and “naive” expectations about being handed the line “on a plate”.
As a longstanding supporter of the campaign in its various forms, I can honestly say it’s been around for years.
If we’d been expecting it to be handed to us on a plate it’d be getting cold by now!
Is it “entitlement” to expect our national Government to act to address social and economic inequalities suffered by the very community Mr Alexander purports to serve?
Is the councillor’s entire tone actually that of someone terrified of offending his political masters that he will not countenance the slightest criticism of, or demand upon, the Scottish Government?
Even when Transport Scotland has been sitting on the last STAG report for over two years.
Perhaps Mr Alexander can reveal how he has been using his superior wisdom, experience and privilege to get Levenmouth reconnected and demonstrate to the naive members of the loyal community how it should be done.
Stuart McIntosh.
Kirkland Walk,
Methil.
Fears for our food post-Brexit
Sir, – A few months ago The Courier featured a discussion with Scotland’s new Chief Scientist for Health, Professor David Crossman of St Andrews University “Science Lessons”, November 2 2017), who warned against the “very real existential threat to humanity from well documented ‘antibiotics apocalypse’ – that is antibiotic resistance caused by decades of over-prescription of antibiotic drugs”.
An article by environmental campaigner George Monbiot, about antibiotic use/abuse in the US, noted farmers routinely add antibiotics to “the feed and water supplied to entire herds of cattle, pigs and poultry; not to treat illness, but to prevent it”.
This is because the “vast numbers of animals reared in these megafarms… cannot be sustained without mass medication”.
The US Food and Drug Administration state that “around 75% of antibiotics in the US are fed to farm animals”.
Mr Monbiot says the EU bans the import of “the cheapest nastiest meat, whose production is most dependent on mass medication with antibiotics”. But would a UK Government after Brexit, with Liam Fox as Trade Secretary, uphold the ban?
Particularly when he and his government are so keen to strike a trade deal with Trump’s US, whose Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross recently announced that “scrapping the EU food rules that currently apply there would be a critical component of any trade discussion with the UK”.
So, after Brexit, we should be prepared to replace corn-fed with chlorine-washed chicken, and grass-fed with antibiotic-fed beef, and when we fall ill, or need a hip replacement, and the antibiotics are ineffective, remember how we got here.
Les Mackay,
5 Carmichael Gdns, Dundee.
