THE sad death of Charles Kennedy may persuade the Scottish Government to contemplate and modify its hypocrisy about alcohol.
On the one hand the Scottish Government deplores the substantial damage which alcohol causes to society in Scotland. On the other hand it applauds the export success of whisky manufactured in Scotland, caring nothing for damage to societies which are over Scotland's horizon.
The Scottish Government likes to claim the moral high ground; but not so on this issue - an embarrassed silence is noted, and is appropriate.
Dr William Durward,
20 South Erskine Park, Bearsden,
I WAS astonished to read the reported suggestion by Alex Salmond that Charles Kennedy's heart was not in the Better Together campaign ("British politics unites as news of death heard", The Herald, June 3). Speaking at a campaign meeting in Portree last summer he said he was a passionate Highlander, a passionate Scot, a passionate Unionist and a passionate European and saw no contradiction in those allegiances. He also said he was fearful of nationalism, as it could easily lead to extremes, and suggested that an Edinburgh parliament was no more likely to pay due regards to the needs of the Highlands and Islands than a parliament in Westminster.
Fiona Robertson,
Glinns Road, Kippen, Stirlingshire.
THE death of Charles Kennedy has troubled me greatly for the power of its symbolism. I truly believe we are entering an era in which we are seeing the demise not just of Liberal England but, more significantly, liberal England. We have at Westminster a revanchist bourgeois party in power that is (reinforced by the views of its new and younger members) not simply illiberal but profoundly anti-liberal in ethos and I'm afraid practice.
With the hegemony that English politics enjoys over the political outcomes of the entire UK (even in the face of devolution) we will increasingly view the death of Charles Kennedy in a similar light to that of John F and his brother Robert as a fin de siècle moment.
We have lost a great light from out of the west.
TM Cross,
18 Needle Green, Carluke.
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