The UK's definition of controversial is way off balance

The National

6 hours ago

Mike always manages to see the wood from the trees and clearly, like me, abhors the dripping hypocrisy of governments, the media and press. In this instance, the English Labour government gets so het up by folk having the temerity to spray red paint on two precious military planes, yet is just so unforgivably cold-hearted about death and destruction in Gaza, which, as Mike says, it's complicit in.
So, to witness at the NATO summit in The Hague the leaders of European countries, including the AI-generated abomination that is Keir Starmer, being so obsequious to the leader of the country that is basically funding the mass destruction of humans and infrastructure in Gaza was sickening!
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I'm no daft! Obviously this totally insincere behaviour is a form of self-protection. The type of self-protection, however, that is more akin to those in one of my favourite films, The Godfather, that grovel and simper to the don, Vito Corleone, then after his death to his youngest son, Michael.
The world has gone mad! Those that, quite rightly, have a conscious and a heart that spray paint a military aircraft involving zero harm tae onybody, no even a cut finger in sight, are portrayed as evil monsters!
Yet it's imperative to still sell arms to a nation whose government is involved in ethnic cleansing and to defend that country's right to 'defend' itself! Even the term 'perverse' doesn't cut it!
Glastonbury is now upon us and a group called Kneecap are playing there much to the overwhelming disgust of politicians, the media and the press, apart from The National, to its great credit!
Somebody needs tae hae a brain! Kneecap care about the plight of Palestinian bairns that get blawn tae bits and quite rightly display this in a very blunt, 'controversial' way. However, what the hell could be mair controversial than blawing a poor innocent bairn tae bits! Aye, the world has definitely gaun mad!
Ivor Telfer
Dalgety Bay, Fife
LAST week the Scotland 2050 conference took place in Edinburgh.
Swinney spoke, and his big idea for solving Scotland's myriad of problems isn't independence.
It's reforming the National Performance Framework (NPF), the aim of which is to 'create a framework that better drives public sector reform, improves collaboration between the national and local governments and empowers communities'.
Stirring stuff! When I tried to learn more about the NPF, I found the website was archived.
Swinney also wants Scotland to rejoin the increasingly authoritarian, neo-liberal and warmongering EU. That isn't up to him but to the Scottish people, and they can't decide it until Scotland leaves the failing UK. He references independence, but provides no strategy for achieving it.
He plans to complement the NPF with 'full fiscal autonomy'. That means instead of the block grant, Holyrood would receive all taxation levied in Scotland – business, employment, environmental and consumption taxes – although VAT remains reserved to Westminster.
Scotland would still pay Westminster a population share for 'Union services'. That means it would have to shell out money for nuclear weapons that Westminster insists be located in Scotland, as well as expensive UK embassies and a Foreign Office that cheerleads US-instigated foreign wars and backs the Zionist entity to the hilt.
Full fiscal autonomy is not independence but just another form of devolution. No central bank or a Scottish currency. No control over energy policy, which would still be dictated by London. No say over immigration or trade policy. Holyrood would still be on a fiscal leash that Westminster could yank to pull it back into line at any time.
(Image: PA)
It's managerialism, something at which Swinney excels and it shows that he and the other Holyrood career politicians have settled comfortably into their devolutionist straitjacket. Moreover, it's unlikely that Westminster would ever agree to it.
Devolution has failed Scotland yet it's all the SNP and Swinney are offering.
The Scottish people will continue to live with falling living standards, worsening physical and mental health, crumbling public services and rising poverty all because they don't have the courage and confidence to run their own affairs and tell Westminster to take a hike.
Leah Gunn Barrett
Edinburgh
ACCORDING to that self-proclaimed fountain of wisdom, Dame Jackie Baillie (right), the latest figures on NHS Scotland cancer waiting times are 'disastrous and an indication of the SNP's mismanagement of the NHS'.
If that is indeed the case, and not just another disingenuous Dame Baillie anti-SNP soundbite, then how would Dame Baillie describe the situation in Wales, perhaps 'catastrophic?'
In Wales, the devolved Labour Government has not only given up (since 2019) on reporting the 31-day target for the start of treatment, which NHS Scotland is achieving in 94.1% of cases and NHS England in 91.3% of cases. NHS Wales is only achieving the 62-day target for initial referral to start of treatment in 60.5% of cases.
On the 62-day target, NHS Scotland at 68.9% is performing 13.9% better than Wales and NHS England at 69.9% is performing 15.5% better.
Of course, the broader picture is that across the UK the NHS is struggling as cancers are increasingly suspected earlier and people are living longer (NHS Scotland has seen 17.5% and 6.3% increases in 62-day and 31-day referrals since the pandemic) while staffing levels continue to suffer as a result of Brexit and hostile UK Government immigration policies.
If the SNP Scottish Government stands accused of 'mismanagement' then presumably the Labour Welsh Government stands accused of 'gross negligence'?
Despite her patronising rhetoric, don't expect broad assessment and honest objectivity from Dame Baillie and the Labour Party on Scotland's NHS within the confines of UK Government policies any time soon.
Besides more deceitful soundbites, one should expect more desperate references in the Scottish Parliament to relatively few poor experiences plucked from the hundreds of thousands of daily interactions with patients who are generally appreciative of the high quality of overall service delivered by NHS Scotland.
Stan Grodynski
Longniddry, East Lothian
THE median waiting time for cancer treatment in Scotland being 52 days comes as a surprise to those waiting for their initial appointment with a plastic surgeon in Ayrshire and Arran to begin their cancer treatment.
Two plastic surgeons have left the health board and appointments are being deferred while they bring in an external consultant to help alleviate the situation, with current referrals being given from initial diagnosis in June cited as a possible August appointment.
This is leaving patients worried about accelerating conditions where early treatment is imperative, causing stress and anxiety which may further accelerate their cancer.
Giving median statistics is great for those having a speedy journey through their treatment.
At the opposite side there are many waiting unacceptably long times for appointments and treatment to begin, yet if you enquire about private treatment there appear to be consultants working and available for a fee.
Personally, I have been waiting for an appointment with a general surgery consultant for a non-urgent appointment, though the issue is of concern to me, for a year for a hospital appointment with no end to the wait in site while they try to manage their waiting lists.
Ayrshire and Arran have a huge problem and someone needs to be looking deeper into the statistics for all departments.
Name and address supplied
IRAN'S military surrender, as US president Donald Trump had demanded earlier this month, may also mean soon surrendering access to much of its vast fossil fuel reserves to American, and perhaps even British, 'energy' corporations.
Those big business interests, and maybe even Israel's government, know there's still much to be effectively appropriated from the nation long demonised by the West.
The 1979 Iranian Revolution's expulsion of major Western nations was in large part due to British and American companies exploiting Iran's plentiful fossil fuel.
The expulsion may have been a big-profit-losing lesson learned by the 'energy' corporation heads, one that they, via intense lobbyist influence over the relevant governments in Washington DC and London, would resist reoccurring anywhere.
The 2003-11 US/British invasion and prolonged occupation of Iraq may also have been partly motivated by such Western insatiable corporate greed.
There has been a predictable American-UK proclivity for sanctioning Iran, its officials and even their allies since the Revolution, resulting in, among other negative impacts, reduced oil production revenue by the nation.
It would be understandable if those corporate fossil-fuel interests would like Iran's government to fall thus re-enabling their access to Iran's resources.
It may be that, if the relevant oil company heads were/are in fact against Iran's post-revolution government(s), then so were/are their related Western governments and, via general mainstream news media support, national collective citizenry.
Frank Sterle Jr
White Rock, BC, Canada
If Westminster taxed the rich cheats who threw money at Brexit so they could avoid the new EU tax laws on tax havens, they would bring in way more cash than they will get from hitting the poor and disabled.
They could close the loopholes the government deliberately creates and make everyone pay their tax.
Loopholes are actually government created corruption.
Labour could recover if they taxed the rich, as long as Israel doesn't mind, of course.
Bill Robertson
via email