Historic context

Our history over Iraq makes sad reading. It was Westminster that under the Sykes-Picot Agreement set up the arbitrary countries of Iraq and Syria.

Since then, each time we have interfered, from the bombing by the RAF in the 1920s to Blair’s incursion in 2003, we have tended to make things worse.

The surrounding countries have plenty of weapons, a significant amount of it sold to them by us, and they should be the participants in countering IS.

Now Westminster is promising another long conflict to try and remove the threat of IS. The problem is our involvement might actually make things worse, with more radicalisation of young men and women here.

Scotland is a democratic country with no direct official involvement of any religion in government. We should keep it that way. Our government should represent all sections of society by democratic election.

Bruce Skivington

Strath

Gairloch, Wester Ross