Sir, – In response to the Rev Dr John Cameron’s opinions on Donald Trump, I note Dr Cameron lives in St Andrews.
I live in Lafayette, Louisiana, so perhaps am better qualified to comment. Mr Trump is a tub-thumper with a history of bankruptcies. His apparent popularity is due to popular discontent over the present system.
To address Dr Cameron’s points, Hispanic illegal immigration has being going on for years and, without it, the agricultural system in California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona plus other states would collapse as it is dependent on migrant workers. US workers are unwilling to work in the fields for a pittance.
Come here and see all the menial tasks done by Hispanics. Do you think the US economy would be better off if a wall went up? I don’t think so.
Do we have immigrant welfare abuse? Yes we do, as do most Western European countries.
Secondly, Muslim bans. Again this is populist tub-thumping. Mr Trump will get ripped to shreds over this.
Apart from 9/11, any Muslim outrage, like San Bernadino, is far outweighed by home-grown terrorism by lunatics.
Even here in sleepy, insignificant Lafayette, we had a cinema shooting perpetrated by an American.
Do Muslims contribute to American society? Yes Dr Cameron. Come to any major US city and see who drives your taxi. The FBI and CIA are doing a pretty good job of weeding out the bad guys.
Lastly, if Dr Cameron thinks the dispossessed and overlooked in America will vote for Donald Trump then he is seriously deluded.
They will vote Democrat, no matter who the candidate is.
All Mr Trump is doing is handing the election to the Democrats and the House and Senate as well.
Please, Dr Cameron don’t pontificate on subjects you know little about.
Eric Swinney. 101 Creekwood Drive, Lafayette, Louisiana.
Rights put before safety
Sir, – Americans take a dim view of European comments on their gun control laws and are apparently willing to pay the price of having a school massacre every other month.
Similarly, we abhor Donald Trump’s views on the EU’s “open-door” policy for Islamists and seem willing to pay the price of having our capital cities wrecked by their bombs.
After each massacre, the US President warbles on about guns and EU prime ministers offer “moral support” but if society chooses individual rights over public safety, it’s just chatter.
Rev Dr John Cameron. 10 Howard Place, St Andrews.
Immigration threat to EU
Sir, – The atrocities perpetrated in Brussels are an object lesson in the dangers of well-meant open immigration policy.
The much-criticised UK Government action in limiting and controlling immigration to the UK by people from different cultures with professed good intention, is vindicated by the events of Tuesday.
No doubt we will find that the perpetrators of the Brussels atrocities are of similar provenance and antecedence to those who killed so many innocent people in Paris and would doubtless do the same in the UK, given the opportunity.
The first responsibility of any national government is the safety of its citizens and here, the governments of France and Belgium have failed because of too-lax immigration policy within the EU, and a naive and misplaced belief by politicians that all peoples of the world share the same social and cultural values.
The UK must continue to apply tough immigration rules to protect its citizens. Today’s “asylum seekers” may otherwise become tomorrow’s terrorists, killing innocents in murderous attempts to impose their foreign motives on our society.
Derek Farmer. Knightsward Farm, Anstruther.
Brilliant SNP tactical move
Sir, – People say we dodged a bullet on September 18 2014 but how did we get in the SNP’s sights in the first place?
Step forward Osama Bin Laden and 9/11, arguably the most brilliant tactic in history aimed at bringing down a civilisation.
It resulted in the Iraq war, the mayhem in the Arab world culminating in Syria, the inflaming by ISIS and others of frustrated Muslim youth in Western societies, and the potentially huge destabilisation of countries due to mass immigration.
The economic collapse of 2008 (actually started by George W Bush’s earlier tax cuts) and the disarray and lack of faith in governments, provided further ingredients for grievance and populism-driven politics across the western world.
In the UK, Tony Blair’s actions on Iraq, and spendthrift policies in his second term (which meant we struggled to cope with the banking crisis) sowed the seeds of Labour’s collapse in Scotland.
The SNP saw its chance and brilliantly exploited it.
It was the decline and loss of credibility of the UK political establishment that created the SNP, not any real desire for independence.
Allan Sutherland. 1 Willow Row, Stonehaven.
White Paper apology due
Sir, – Let us remember that today, March 24 2016 is the day when a $110 a barrel oil-fired Scotland might have floated away to its ‘independence’ in the EU, on the strength of a prospectus called Scotland’s Future.
With oil now hovering around $41, and the EU project in disarray across the board, some apology from the promoters of that 650-page suicide note might be appropriate.
Malcolm Parkin. 15 Gamekeepers Road, Kinnesswood, Kinross.
We have ballot box choice
Sir, – There has been much criticism of late from certain correspondents, with suggestions that Scotland has become a one-party state.
There was even one way-out likeness to North Korea which suggests that the supporters of parties other than the SNP are running scared of the opinion polls.
They seem to forget the fact that, unlike down south, Scotland has an electoral system that allows the number of votes cast for each party to be reflected in the number of representatives they have in parliament.
If, as is predicted by the polls, the SNP dominate the seats after the coming Holyrood election it will only be because the Scottish people have voted that way.
The problem seems to lie with the unionists who can’t seem to get it into their heads that while the referendum result came out in their favour, the landslide SNP surge at the following Westminster election was the result of a betrayed promise by their political masters down south.
So if the anti-SNP brigade wish to negate the prospect of an overwhelming nationalist majority arriving at Holyrood in May, they should stop all their negative sniping from the sidelines and do something positive to persuade voters to back their parties.
They all claim to believe in democracy and if that means having a electoral system which values all votes cast then we have it in Scotland. Get on with it.
Allan MacDougall. 37 Forth Park, Bridge of Allan.
Cancel high-speed rail
Sir, – Claims from HS2 minister Robert Goodwill and Scottish Infrastructure Secretary Keith Brown that the high-speed rail project will slash travel times and bring benefits to Scotland are nonsense.
As of June 2013, the official cost of the Y-shaped HS2 network as far as Manchester and Leeds was more than £42 billion.
The Institute of Economic Affairs estimated the cost at £80 billion. Given these horrendous costs it is doubtful that the scheme will ever get beyond Birmingham.
Last week, scientists from the British Geological Survey warned that unstable soil along many sections of the route will put high-speed trains at risk of derailment.
This creates a dilemma: either the train speeds will have to be reduced or much extra money will have to be spent on soil stabilisation.
If we want to improve our transport infrastructure, upgrading the A1 between Edinburgh and Newcastle would make far more sense.
We already have high-speed trains running at up to 125mph between Britain’s major cities. HS2 should simply be cancelled.
Otto Inglis. 6 Inveralmond Grove, Edinburgh.