Readers' Letters: Johnson's Ukraine comments remind us why he’s a liability

In the week Douglas Ross welcomed Boris Johnson to the Scottish Conservative Spring Conference the PM once again reminded us of why he is such a liability at home and abroad.

Boris Johnson compared Ukraine choosing freedom to the people of the United Kingdom choosing Brexit

Just when Ukrainians were lauding the efforts of citizens here to support and welcome refugees they must view with suspicion our PM drawing comparisons between their cause against the Russian state and the UK’s “instinct to choose freedom” from the EU, especially given Ukraine has aspirations to join that Union.

Equally those remain voters which made up nearly half the vote in the UK and a little under two-thirds in Scotland will feel angry that Johnson has chosen to compare Ukrainian nationalism against the Russian state with the UK’s Brexit nationalism. Brexit divided the UK down the middle and we are still having to pay dearly for the consequences.

READ MORE: Fury over Boris Johnson’s comparison of Ukraine’s resistance to Brexit

A few weeks ago many would have looked to Douglas Ross to again denounce a PM that continues to anger the electorate here with his immoral behaviour and his ability to embarrass the UK abroad.

Mr Ross, however, has made it clear that he now supports his leader, having told us in no uncertain terms that nothing would dissuade him from retracting his letter of no confidence in Mr Johnson’s leadership.

I for one was hopeful that a fresh-faced Mr Ross would be the leader to stand up to the SNP’s disappointing 15-year record in power but his fixated rants to prematurely relax Covid rules have undermined his leadership. Now we know Douglas Ross has little more moral backbone than his inept UK leader we can only hope that the Ukrainians realise that the UK and Scottish people are far more trustworthy than our Conservative leaders.

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

Cheap politics

It beggars belief that any UK prime minister can make an analogy between events in the Ukraine and the UK Brexit vote. This is a stark reminder of how unsuited Boris Johnson is for high office.

He has insulted the large, large number of Britons who voted to remain, (not far short of the “large, large number” who voted to leave) including a clear majority of Scots. He has also insulted everyone in Europe, including the Ukrainians, who see, more than ever, the value of European solidarity – all this damage for a cheap round of applause at a Conservative Party conference. As for the freedoms we have gained – pretty illusionary aren’t they, compared to the freedoms of movement and trade we have lost?

Joan Mitchell, Newton Stewart, Dumfries and Galloway

Fascists’ lies

Russian claims that it is the Ukrainians themselves who are bombing their own cities to reinforce their compatriots’ resistance and inspire indignation abroad echo claims by Franco’s Nationalists that the Basques had bombed their own former capital of Guernica on April 26, 1937. Similar claims were made by the Serbian authorities about the bombing of Sarajevo in the early to mid-1990s.

Lies then and lies now, identifying those were fascists then and are reincarnated fascists now.

John Perivolaris, Isle of Arran, North Ayrshire

Isolate Russia

The suffering in Ukraine will not end until the war ends. The UK government should ask the UN Security Council to call for an immediate ceasefire, followed by a plebiscite by the Secretary General to determine the wishes of all the people of Ukraine.

Under Article 27.3 of the Charter, Russia has no veto, being party to the war. The resolution could in any case go on to the General Assembly, like the resolution in March 2014 which declared the Crimean referendum invalid. China would probably again abstain.

Putin will be even more isolated and exposed. The more he persists in the war, the more support he will lose, even among Russian speakers.

He might come to welcome the plebiscite as a means of escape. But even the people of Donbas and Crimea may decide that freedom, truth and democracy in Europe are preferable to dictatorship, isolation and lies in Russia.

David Gracie, Edinburgh

Popularity contest

It is quite startling to see how popular Vladimir Putin apparently is in Russia. While the rest of the world now considers him a near-pariah figure, his popularity with his intensely nationalistic supporters at home seems solid.

People outside Russia look on in total bewilderment. How could so many I am certain decent and well-meaning Russians be so easily fooled into accepting his line?

Could such a thing, even on an infinitely smaller stage and of course without the violence, possibly ever happen elsewhere on the western fringes of Europe?

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Double standards

I have to confess myself bemused at our "standards” in the West. In Syria we watched pictures of cities being flattened by bombs, people gassed and Obama’s red lines ignored.

We talked of war crimes and what we would do, but now we see Syria's President being welcomed into the Middle East by the United Arab Emirates,

We talk about sanctions and stick rigidly to the gas and oil embargo inflicted on Venezuela by Trump (we probably have forgotten why) but refuse to sanction Russia. The truth is we splutter and stammer and shout "foul” until it hits our pockets.

I can't see Putin listening to a West that is consistently spewing out “hot air”. If we won’t commit when cities are being flattened, women and children massacred and raped and "dubious” weapons flyting around when will the West act? Perhaps if our overseas holidays are threatened?

At least Boris is speaking out and putting his (our) money where his mouth is with weapons and training. If we had acted in 1914 and 1939 as today we would probably all be fluent in German!

I detest war but perhaps if we had remained true to the “community framework” of Scripture, we might not be drifting into mayhem.

James Watson, Dunbar

Democratic deficit

The result of the SavantaComRes poll (Scotsman, 18 March) showing support for independence at 52 per cent No and 48 per cent Yes is understandable but hardly surprising as Vladimir Putin seems hell-bent on reducing Ukraine to a pile of rubble.

As horrific as the events in Eastern Europe are however, they should not blind us to events at home, where MSPs have refused to give legislative consent to the UK government’s post-Brexit Subsidy Control Bill, which will cause further erosion of devolved powers. The Welsh government has also criticised the plans as an “attack on devolution”.

This Bill sets out how the UK will replace EU state subsidy rules and the framework to implement them, as well as “covering subsidies which have or are capable of having an effect on competition or investment in the UK”.

Under EU rules, the Scottish Government had greater autonomy, much of which has now been transferred back to the UK government through the Bill. It will also undermine the influenced of the parliament in devolved areas such as agriculture, economic development, the environment and fisheries, areas that are crucial to Scotland’s growth and self-sufficiency, particularly as we are going through a major cost-of-living crisis with supply lines under threat.

DW Lowden, Aberdeen

Question time

I agree wholeheartedly with Derek Farmer (Letters, 18 March) when he writes about the unnecessarily intrusive nature of the 2022 Census. I, too, found more than a few of the questions to be intrusive to the point of causing offence.

But I also wondered what interest any party or parties could have in collecting such information in the first place. Why was this information required, who was going to use it, to what end, and where did it go once you clicked on the "send” button?

I, too, refused to answer questions on my state of health, regarding this as confidential information between my GP and myself. We remember that confidentiality is an absolute, not relative concept, and nothing can alter the intrinsic logic of that, despite the "reassurances" of those who would seek to do so.

Brian York, Dumfries, Dumfries and Galloway

Firm favourites

It has been almost 40 years since any team outwith the Old Firm has won the league and as things stand no other team is likely ever again to do so.

The SPFL and SFA seem perfectly happy with the current situation as they are making no effort to level the economic playing field. They are terrified of upsetting the big two who run the game in Scotland to all intents and purposes.

Our league is an absolute joke outwith these shores and nowhere in Europe or possibly the world have two teams dominated to this extent. The Old Firm and their supporters are perfectly happy with the current situation as they hoover up leagues and cups on an industrial scale, only requiring the rest of the clubs to act as cannon fodder.

I have thought for a very long time that the other Premier League clubs should get together at the end of a season and resign from the SPFL and encourage the lower league members to follow suit. They would not consider rejoining unless the economic handout was more evenly shared and the ridiculous 11-1 voting structure which ensures the big two can block anything they don't like, is amended to a more sensible 10-2.

I always thought that Rangers and Celtic need the other clubs far more than the other way round. They have hawked their wares round the English Leagues on several occasions and been rebuffed at every turn. So come on non-Old Firm chairmen, show a bit of backbone and stand up to the two bullies.

Jack Watt, Orkney

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