Your leader states: "It falls to the Scottish Government to make sure that in forging our green future, it has the interests of the many, not the few, at heart" (Embrace a green future, Editorial, October 1). This is a vital principle.
The difficulty of enacting legislation which runs counter to the interests of the tax haven lobby demands boldness and enlightenment, be it dealing with the cruelty of the shooting elite, selling arms to Saudi Arabia or the power grab of a fracking proponent.
Believers in progress should beware. Ruth Davidson's trip to the Manchester Tory Conference may have more to do with unseating Nicola Sturgeon than pointing out you can "sell a three-bed semi in Ilford and buy up half of Sutherland". That remark is perhaps better suited to illustrating the erstwhile treatment of the Highlands by her beloved party, but a brilliant example of the wealth gap, past and present.
Back home, meanwhile, the ritual pheasant slaughter is reduced to money and jobs. Yemen is far away, and we are told that fracking will boost Scotland's economy; once again, at the hands of the few: people and the environment pay.
Iain R Thomson
Cannich
So Nicola Sturgeon is to ban fracking in Scotland (Revealed: SNP will ban fracking in Scotland, News, October 1). Really?
If she does, this means just now, as Labour's renaissance continues, she seeks popular support in the form of central belt and Fife votes more than she needs to big up a new tax stream to replace collapsed North Sea tax receipts.
But if Scotland were ever to become independent, expect a dramatic U-turn. Without a massive new source of public sector finance to replace the Barnett Formula, Ms Sturgeon's independence dreams are dead in the water.
Martin Redfern
The SNP-dominated Scottish Government has, after a public consultation, outlawed fracking despite the fact that it would create 3,100 jobs and bring £6.5bn of investment to Scotland.
The 60,000 who voted against fracking, because they believed all the scare stories, need to be reminded that the Advertising Standards Authority, earlier this year, told Friends of the Earth not to repeat claims made in an anti-fracking leaflet, which included allegations that fracking caused health problems, that water used in fracking contained a toxic cocktail of chemicals which could end up in drinking water, that 25 per cent of fracking chemicals could cause cancer.
Just about everything we touch contains plastic derived from shale gas so will the 60,000 stop using “tainted” goods?
Clark Cross
Linlithgow
LET'S HAVE A TRUTH-BASED REFERENDUM ON EU
The time has surely come to stop saying “one respects the EU referendum result", before talking of a long transition period, remaining in the Customs Union or Single Market (Let’s debate a second EU referendum, Editorial, October 1). We in Scotland, with a “Remain” vote of 62 per cent (and recent reputable opinion polls at 65 per cent) can say we do not respect it. The referendum result, like a car's MOT, told you the situation on one day only.
Parliament, the civil service and judiciary all know that Brexit is an unmitigated disaster. What's changed is that the ordinary person in the street now realises too. Of course, the campaign was based on lies. Some believed the £350m on the side of a bus. Some were spooked by the Ukip poster of refugees (on the Slovenian/Croatian border), and some, let’s be honest, were racist.
You are right in calling for a second referendum based on truth. People now know they get fewer euros on holiday. Their chocolate bar is smaller. Inflation is up, mortgage rate rises are imminent. Supermarkets can no longer hold down prices.
Our EU doctors, nurses and berry-pickers are going home.We will no longer have access to the EU arrest warrant so will not be as safe. Brexit has endangered our financial services industry while three million British jobs depend on the EU. We were part of the world's most successful trading bloc. Other trade deals cannot compare. Hundreds of millions of EU aid to Scottish farmers will cease. Workers’ rights, which we take for granted, are due to EU law. Our roads, railways, hospitals and universities will lose out on EU funding.
We need the SNP, LibDems and Greens to make it clear a referendum will be called once the Brexit terms are known. The Janus-faced Labour position on the EU betrays Scotland.
John V Lloyd
Inverkeithing
Our First Minister likes to portray the SNP as occupying the moral high ground on Brexit and the EU. She is quick to criticise the Tories and Labour for what she considers as divisions and inconsistencies. Yet of all the political parties none could be more conflicted over the EU than the party of Scottish independence.
If SNP supporters listened to what Jean-Claude Juncker had to say in his state of the union speech about the future of the ever closer union project, they will know that "independence in Europe" is a myth. Quite apart from what an independent Scotland would be expected to agree to in order to meet EU joining criteria, the spectre of an EU with ever greater control of finance, defence and currency on a pan-European basis, must surely be an anathema for many who have Scotland’s best interests at heart.
Keith Howell
West Linton
THE INDYREF ISSUE HAS NEVER GONE AWAY
Iain Macwhirter’s interesting piece comparing Catalonia’s independence movement with Scotland’s even managed a moment of comedy (Spain should have learned from indyref, September 24).
He states of Scotland’s vote that “everyone accepted the result and agreed the issue had been resolved for a generation”. He then says Brexit “unexpectedly reopened the issue”. Not unexpected by anyone paying the slightest attention to the SNP surely. Sadly the issue has never gone away.
Barry Mitchell
STIRLING IS A FINE PLACE TO EAT OUT
I can't bear the thought of your restaurant critic, Joanna Blythman, being bereft of a decent dining experience in Stirling (Restaurant review, Sunday Herald Life, October 1). If she wants a curry, there's a good Indian restaurant at Allan Park and another one in King Street, while if she puffs her way up the hill to Stirling Castle, she'll pass an excellent Italian restaurant and a couple of sweet treat tea shops. But who needs food when the view from the castle is so awesomely delicious? Soak it up and enjoy.
Ruth Marr
Stirling
Reading Joanna Blythman’s recent article about Green Gates in Stirling, I had to wonder who she had been asking for recommendations to eat in Stirling (Restaurant review, Sunday Herald Life, October 1). There are so many great places to eat in Stirling. In Stirling’s city centre there are Namaste, Mediterranea, City Walls, Hermann’s, Brea, Colessio. With a little research I am sure there are a few more gems.
Some places very close to Stirling are the Torbex (Cambusbarron), Jam Jar (Bridge of Allan), The Birds And Bees (Bridge of Allan), The Westerton Arms (Bridge of Allan), Meadowpark (Bridge of Allan), Bridge Inn (Bridge of Allan).
Ross Brannigan
Editor in Chief, Brig Newspaper
University of Stirling
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