Herald Letter: Westminster and Holyrood Obsessions Failing The Poor.

DAVID J Crawford repeats – amongst other things – the idea that “Scotland will never have a Westminster government that reflects the wishes of the majority of its citizens” (Letters, November 13). While I am myself a lifelong advocate of electoral reform, it is hard not be amused by those who vote for the SNP then complain that their vote is wasted at Westminster. Surely they know that the nationalists can never form a government when they put their cross in a box on polling day?

It is easier to agree with Mr Crawford’s substantive point that Scotland’s devolved and reserved governments are both failing the poor at their respective levels. The fact is that we would not be in our current position if Boris Johnson had not seen his job as Prime Minster as representing the Leaver 52 per cent of the population against the Remain 48%; and if Nicola Sturgeon had not seen hers as First Minister as representing the Yes 45% of Scotland against the No 55%.

Likewise, both of these are highly divisive figures bent on pursuing their own obsessions at the expense of the greater good of society. The shame of poverty in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK must be laid at their door, as they have chosen the path of division over that of unity, and have put their own interests above those who most need the assistance of the state. The remedy for this is to vote for candidates and a party which will govern for the whole population and will seek the best of both worlds in a devolved Scotland within the UK.

Peter A Russell, Glasgow G13.

Herald letter: Lies, Lies, Lies.

ONCE again we are faced with Scottish nationalists trying to mislead us on the question of Scotland’s contribution to public investment in other parts of the UK, this time in the person of your correspondent Mick McCready (Letters, November 12).

So again, it is necessary remind your readers that Scottish taxpayers are not paying for the new London sewerage system and Crossrail. And that as far as HS2 is concerned, Scotland is paying only a very small contribution, which has been agreed with the Scottish Government as reflecting its economic benefits north of the Border – and which is more than repaid though Barnett consequentials. And that Trident is deployed for the protection of the whole UK, including Scotland – it is not an “English” project, but one that contributes to the whole system of collective security under Nato, to which the SNP subscribes as well.

It is of course the right of nationalists to make their case that redistribution from the better-off parts of the UK to those that are worse off is a weakness and not a strength, as it is for social democrats like myself to disagree with that viewpoint.

However, once again, the question must again be repeated: if secession from the Union is such a good idea, why must so many mistruths about who subsidises whom be repeated so many times to justify it?

Peter A Russell, Glasgow G13.

Sestina – Djinns in the Aleppo Souks.

Catch the djinns between the piles of giddy spices
In air shot through with bolts of light
Blasted diagonally through the dust and dark
Into the barter of bargain goods of the Levant
To the haggling crowds of everyday merchants
Muttering, shouting in there, in the labyrinth.

Anciently concealed in shops and booths in the labyrinth
Blazed with tawny, azure, brown, and golden bright spices
Dealt by commercial domestic merchants
Like their goods veiled from the blistering light
And blinding heat of the shapeshifting Levant
Shuttered cluttered there in the dark

The blasted roof of corrugated tin welds in the dark
Traced with cash threading through the labyrinth
Intersecting algebraic values of the Levant
Mediterranean oil, sea-salt and camel caravanserai spices
Emulsified on counters under jaundiced electric light
By gold like the teeth in hospitable merchants

Accommodating demanding hosts querulous merchants
Their eyes and hearts looking not to our Europe wet or dark
But south and east to Mecca and the Prophet’s light
Language, life, in the djinns’ superstitious labyrinth
Subtle, expensive, sour and cruel as spices
Turned from the classical flame, the turned back of the Levant

The once stuck sun again smoulders on the Levant
Aleppo fragmented into body parts of merchants
Shells, bullets, explosives and poison gas for spices
And tracers now the bolts through a world of dark
The cacophony of an unending labyrinth
The lair of clamour and tormenting torch light

The stars have set in that tin roof, but can rise to light
Again the strained grace of the Levant
Can cut the cat’s cradle chart of the diplomats’ labyrinth
As invasions of Crusaders, Arabs, Romans, merchants
Brought force, and trade and lost themselves to the friendly dark
And persistent demand for commerce of life and spices

The Aleppo Souks strike light and sharp shadow, quick trade of merchants
As violence drives life from the Levant leaving their air stale and dark
The djinns stay put, possess the labyrinth, seeking, guarding essential spices.