Herald on Sunday: Letters

Although The Herald on Sunday gives a sobering balance of the tragic events ... that can’t be said for much of the media/press/and the establishment who have long hijacked it for celebration purposes, keeping the politically ignorant in their place.

I was particularly impressed by Sir Hew Strachan’s account of the aftermath of the conflict, “After the war, the trouble begins”. The impossible heartbreak for the families ... of the then Imperial War Graves Commission’s decision not to repatriate the bodies of those who had died overseas.

And the Beatrice Web diary entry on November 11 – “Thrones are everywhere crashing and men of property are everywhere secretly trembling”

– A romantic prophecy that did not manifest to any extent in Britain.

Sir Hew points out “as 1918 turned into 1919, from the Baltic to the Balkans, and from Ireland, through North Africa and on to the Middle East, Afghanistan and India, conflicts continued”.

The world death toll mounted, and I suppose has never stopped rising. One calculation he flags up, “more than four million deaths followed between 1919 and 1923”. The notion that the war heralded

a great new era is based on ignorance and lies... and

a “misrepresentation of what happened after 1918”.

Today we are into a new era of violence and terror – although some-right wing academics tell us we are living in so-called peaceful times.

It seems to be a foregone conclusion that violence follows hate propaganda. We have witnessed this through recorded history. When a nation or

a paramilitary or political group is about to do something fundamentally evil to other people,

there will be a period of slander, innuendo or

rumour- mongering beforehand.

The obvious example is Hitler, though Donald Trump and the Alt Right organisations across the planet have this down to a fine art. Nowadays this

still helps legitimise, the violent actions that follow ... Things never change.

In conclusion, I believe the photographs of the Cameron Highlanders taken at Edinburgh Castle,

the top one in 1914 and the bottom in 1918, say more than a thousand words.

Graham Noble

Kinlocheil, Fort William

While others have been quick to criticise Jeremy Corbyn’s sartorial choices, what I found most telling about the Leader of the Opposition’s presence at the Cenotaph on Sunday was that he was the only politician singing Oh God Our Help In Ages Past without having to refer to the hymn sheet.

John Eoin Douglas

Edinburgh

Brexit is a mess of our own making

The Brexit fiasco could be blamed on so many people but at the end of the day we can only lay the blame at our own feet – the electorate’s. The referendum vote was a nonsense as we were voting for something with no detail, no hints as to trading options with the EU or other aspects of the probable fall out after.

There will be many who voted for the status quo as they were aware that our position was based in dealing with negotiations to our mutual benefit, doubtless with a fair bit of give and take on all sides.

Our MEPs are there to serve the interests of the electorate, not their party whips. Would it not have been better to negotiate terms as a member state than be in the position that we are now in and accepting whatever crumbs we are allowed?

If we do come away with the deal on the table now it would be far better for all parties to pull together, wait until we stabilise our economy, get back on our feet and then get back to the utterly nonsensical infighting and bickering that has become the norm in our children’s playground of a parliament.

George Dale

Beith

In the event of a second EU referendum and a remain win now looking more likely than ever, how humiliating it will be for the UK to go back to Brussels, tail between legs, and plead: “Can we get back in again please?”

Alexander McKay

Edinburgh

Martin Redfern seizes on an opinion poll that suggests in 2021 Liberal Democrats might double their representation at Holyrood (Letters, November 4), but as that would still only see them scrape into double figures, any celebrations might have a hollow ring.

When Mr Redfern writes “many voters in Scotland, as we know, feel positively towards the EU”, he fails to mention that, in fact, 62 per cent of voters, and every local authority area in Scotland, voted to remain within the European Union; and yet, here we are, with the LibDems and the other so-called “Scottish” Unionist parties content to stand back and see Scotland being dragged out of the EU against our will, and with not one of them supporting Scotland’s strong and democratically expressed desire

to remain.

Ruth Marr,

Stirling

Vital questions must be asked

Fight for Aviemore, but don’t saddle it with an impossible task.

Apparently some people in Aviemore would like to have a share in the financial black hole that is CairnGorm Mountain resort (News, November 4). I didn’t think the community right to buy was ever meant to burden communities with failing government liabilities.

It is not as if CairnGorm is owned by some heartless or disinterested private individual. In this case

the change needed is that the community becomes a meaningful partner to governance, not that it takes on an impossible financial burden not of their making.

Before rushing into the one proposal on the table, a few questions should be asked: What do we know about the trends in the snow sports market and climate change? What are the prospects for infrastructure failure? Will new planning applications bring new environmental opposition, restrictions and precautions? Will the rest of the community engage more effectively when invited?

Who will underwrite it all?

The last decades have seen unprecedented changes on Cairn Gorm that confound many of the claims of campaigners on all sides of the debate. I witnessed them in my 20 years as Head Ranger there and wrote about it in depth in Cairngorm Ranger – An Insider’s View Of The Cairngorm Mountains, published this year. I think some background reading is required.

Nic Bullivant,

Erbusaig, Highland

Clue to surge in death rates

I refer to the article in the Herald on Sunday (News, November 11), “Mystery surge in death rates across the west of Scotland”.

The areas cited as being affected are the Forth Valley, Argyll & Bute, Ayrshire & Arran, and Dumfries

& Galloway. All of the areas mentioned are in proximity to MoD military activity (nuclear), and a nuclear power station.

In the case of the Forth Valley, we have decommissioned MoD nuclear submarines at Rosyth in the Firth

of Forth, and secondary pollution from Grangemouth Refinery.

In Argyll & Bute and Ayrshire

& Arran, there is MoD Faslane nuclear submarine base, and

a nuclear power station just along the coast from Largs.

In Dumfries & Galloway, we have the MoD Dundrennan Test Range, where uranium-tipped shells are fired. There is also Beaufort’s Dyke, a deep water trench off the south west coast of Scotland, where live munitions, including chemical and radioactive weapons waste,

was dumped in very large quantities (thousands and thousands of tonnes) by the MoD. A large area

of the Solway Firth is sectioned off by the MoD as a test area.

I am not necessarily saying an increase in death rates in the stated areas are a direct or indirect result of MoD activities involving nuclear and radioactive pollution, either

air or water borne, or radioactive pollution from a nuclear power station, which can travel up and down the west coast in the sea currents, but is it a coincidence that ALL of the stated areas are in the critical MoD impact zones?

The MoD does not have a good track record of stopping radioactive pollution from its military sites.

At the very least we should be considering what I have outlined as one possibility among many others.

William C McLaughlin

Thankerton

No guidance on tuition fees

I read Ron McKay’s Sunday Diary column with interest, particularly his reference to the Fraser of Allander’s annual Scotland’s Budget analysis.

Had Ron actually read our report, he’d have known that contrary

to “calling for the introduction of student tuition fees”, it explicitly states it makes “no recommendations”.

Indeed, the chapter on Higher Education simply sets out the full range of funding options available to policy makers, as well as their implications – positive and negative. Our aim at the FAI is to set out

the full range of options for policymakers to debate and decide on the best way forward.

They can only do that with impartial analysis of all the costs and benefits with a particular policy position.

We would be pleased to send Ron a copy.

Professor Graeme Roy

Director of the Fraser of Allander Institute

University of Strathclyde