I CONSIDER the Greek vote ("EU shocked as Greek voters reject austerity demands", The Herald, July 6) as a triumph for patriotism over the fluctuations of economics.
Among possible analogies that can now be drawn is the one between Scotland's independence referendum and Greece's euro referendum, which exemplified how the idea of liberty, indeed independence, is much more powerful than threats of penury, indeed impoverishment. There was also the analogy of a biased media doing its utmost to sway the Greeks from supporting the anti-austerity government that the country's electorate voted into office at the start of this year.
David Torrance ("When it comes to Greece the SNP is all over the place", The Herald, July 6) writes: "Now, during the long referendum campaign former First Minister Alex Salmond went to great lengths to play down monetary policy as somehow unimportant, a mere formality when it came to "sovereignty" and fiscal flexibility. Unionists like Danny Alexander, meanwhile, said his proposed "currency union" would end up like the Eurozone; a tad hyperbolic, perhaps, but then he was less wrong than Mr Salmond."
Now, what happened to these two persons when exposed to Scotland's electorate on May 7 this year?
Ian Johnstone,
84 Forman Drive,
Peterhead.
FOR comparison, I've just run the 61/39 and the 45/55 results of the respective Greek and Scottish referendums through my computer's gumptionometer and subservience-meter programmes. With a degree of precision hitherto unachievable, these show that the Greeks have 16 per cent more gumption, and are 16 per cent less subservient, than the Scots.
London refuses to return the Elgin Marbles to Athens. Let me suggest that there is another relic which Holyrood might now hand over to Greece, namely Scotland's ancient motto Nemo me impune lacessit, or "Wha daur meddle wi' me", since the Greeks are clearly more worthy of it than we are.
Alan Crocket,
63 Leyland Road,
Motherwell.
WHEN Scotland voted 55 per cent to 45 per cent to stay in the UK news media such as the BBC told us this was a decisive vote and the issue was now settled.
Greece voted 61 per cent to 39 per cent to reject the offer but the BBC uistelling us that there is "a sizeable chunk of the Greek nation still unhappy with what has happened and the government will have to unite a divided nation."
Why is 55 per cent to 45 per cent "settled" but 61 per cent to 39 per cent a "sizeable chunk" that needs to be united by the government ?
Nothing to do with what we might call "elite agendas" I suppose?
John McArthur,
131 Crowhill Street,
Glasgow.
IT seems that out Holyrood government and Greece have one thing for sure in common - they both expect, indeed require, those who loaned them money to write some or even all of it off.
It feels as though when the borrowing took place (on their behalf in Holyrood's case) they never intended to take responsibility for paying it back. Some blame the lenders for being suckers, they failed to question if the ability to repay the loans was there and failed to check out the recipients' associated financial analysis.
Not a few countries have benefited from write-downs, but that does not mean it's right. Can't pay, won't pay gone riot, but should we take pity on the creditors - they could be us in part.
Joe Darby,
Glenburn,
St Martins Mill, Cullicudden, Dingwall.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article