Yes, it's time for change, Sir Keir: time for you to go

The Herald Scotland

9 hours ago

Ruth Marr, Stirling.
• We are already waiting for any (even one) of Anas Sarwar's election promises from 2024 to come true, and yet here he goes again in a desperate bid to stay relevant: 'no tax hikes if Labour win in Scotland' ("No Scots income tax rise if Labour wins, insists Sarwar", The Herald, July 2).
The fiscal position in both the UK and Scotland make this assertion difficult, if not impossible to sustain, as the IFS states 'since departmental spending plans are locked in and the Government has had to row back on planned cuts to pensioner and working age benefits, tax rises seem increasingly likely' ("Welfare U-turn raises questions over Labour's tax plans", heraldscotland, July 2). Given Mr Sarwar's record on promises I know who I believe.
GR Weir, Ochiltree.
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John Swinney's woolly words
Two articles on facing pages today (July 1) are an interesting contrast in style and content. The First Minister's contribution ("'There is nothing wrong in Scotland that cannot be fixed'") is to my (admittedly unsympathetic) eye a blancmange of aspirations and largely unfulfilled, or at least untested, promises (and, Mr Swinney, the baby boxes are a sorely over-used example of something actually done).
Kevin McKenna's piece ("We are being softened up to no longer believe in the sanctity of life") about assisted dying is, in contrast, clear and unequivocal. The difference between them, which to me is crucial, is that everything the First Minister says is theoretically achievable and measurable (though not by the current administration) and is, by any standard, aimed at the common good for all of the people. Mr McKenna uses the ideology of a single and highly-organised group in society to argue for an outcome which, equally, would affect us all and, for me, would take away the right to decide when life had become unbearable. It seems wrong that the untestable and so unverifiable beliefs of that one portion of our society should be allowed to have a disproportionate influence on this or any other article of legislation of such importance.
The First Minister's words are woolly but lacking in harm: Mr McKenna's, better expressed though they may be, are potentially dangerous to our democratic process.
Bryan Chrystal, Edinburgh.
The lesson of Ukraine
Stan Grodynski (Letters, July 2) continues to write from the independent state of La La Land. His belief that an independent Scotland would not require to defend itself is counter to the fact that Scotland is essential in the defence of the gateway to the North Atlantic and the North Sea, both strategically important routes commercially and militarilly.
Mr Grodynski might look to the Crimean peninsula for a good example of a very similar situation where Ukraine, in a referendum, relinquished its 30% of the USSR's nuclear arsenal in return for security guarantees. Those guarantees have been proven worthless by President Putin and the rest, as they say, is history.
Peter Wright, West Kilbride.
• Stan Grodynski is clearly an unhappy man, with a long list of grievances about the UK in general and the Westminster Government in particular.
There is however one goodish aspect of Britain that he might like to consider, which is that he can spout his nonsense on one day, and will still be at the same address the next day.
Malcolm Parkin, Kinross.
Veiled allusion
In 2014 we were promised the earth and all that is in it. Rishi Sunak vowed to lead us to sunlit uplands. Today a 'socialist' government lurches from one disaster to the next and London-based newspapers are seeking any number of heads to roll. The outgoing chief of the Institute of Fiscal Studies has warned that the state pension triple lock should be scrapped as soon as possible.
I am reminded of Ronald Reagan's story about the woman of some mature years who walked into a bridalwear shop.
An assistant asked: 'How can I help you?'
"I would like a dress for my fourth wedding."
"What sort of dress exactly?"
"Oh, virgin white, veil and a long train – the full works."
As delicately as possible the assistant inquired as to whether that would be appropriate for a fourth-time bride.
"Oh, I'm just as entitled as a first-time bride."
"How so?" inquired the assistant.
"Well my first husband got so excited at the wedding, he collapsed and died of a heart attack."
"I'm sorry to hear that. And the second?"
"We had a heated argument on the way to the reception and never spoke again."
"Oh dear. And the third?"
"The marriage was never consummated."
"Never consummated?"
"He was a unionist. He just sat on the edge of the bed each night saying how great it was going to be."
Alan Carmichael, Glasgow.
IDF are the terrorists
As I sign a petition to allow baby food into Gaza (with no hope it will make a difference) and watch coverage of yet more atrocities committed by the Israeli Defence Force, the British Establishment continues to try to squeeze the last drops of faux rage out of the comments of a couple of musicians.
Hundreds of unarmed Palestinians are shot every week queuing for food because the Israeli state backed by the US closed down 400 food distribution centres run by experienced independent agencies and replaced them with four distribution centres. A reputable Israeli newspaper has reported that soldiers were told to use live ammunition to help control crowds. This is the Hunger Games added to the destruction of all schools, hospitals and homes.
The rap duo at Glastonbury were wrong to shout for anyone to be killed. They should have been shouting "The IDF is a terrorist organisation". There is no other way you could describe an organisation that has carried out the atrocities it is guilty of.
But British senior politicians and sections of the media want to divert attention from the horrifying reality with the trivia of paint on planes and music festival chants.
And let us expose the antisemitism claim for what it really is. It has been used for years to bully people who criticise the actions of the Israeli state. It no longer works. Too many people see the reality and those who continue to use it need to question their own ethics. We know that there are many honourable people of Jewish ethnicity in and outwith Israel who are also strong critics of the government of that state.
Isobel Lindsay, Biggar.
What did Benjamin Netanyahu know in advance of the October 7 attack? (Image: PA)
• Otto Inglis (Letters, July 1) is correct in reminding us of atrocities committed at that other music festival on October 7, 2023.
What he chooses to ignore is the apparent complicity of Prime Minister Netanyahu, a situation now generally accepted, even by many of his Israeli subjects. Over a period of weeks he is known to have received information from frontier guards who saw, and heard through increased wireless activity, the necessary extensive preparations for the attack. Information is also said to have come from Egypt. In spite of the repeated warnings, frontier defences at that crucial point were not strengthened.
The Prime Minister's craven response, which incidentally involved betrayal of the hostages, appears to have been made in relation to a number of current personal and political problems. But, from a longer perspective, the vastly exaggerated retaliation and unprecedented slaughter in modern times of thousands of innocent civilians, especially the children who would have formed a future Palestinian Gaza, helped to further his personal aim as founder of a greater Israel.
Further proof of the real situation on October 7 and determination to distance themselves is provided by the resignations, soon after the event, of three top generals and the head of Shin Bhet, on the basis of "not on my watch."
Why does our own Prime Minister, after those months of slaughter, not have the courage to join so many of us in saying the same?
Murdo Grant, Rosemarkie.