Readers' Letters: UK most not adopt isolationist stance in face of Trump


As I wrote in Letters back in August, despite Kamala Harris enjoying a honeymoon bounce she was still behind in the crucial swing states and it was going to be a tall order for her to beat the much more experienced Donald Trump. That has proved to be the case as Trump connected better with disaffected voters who put the economy and immigration top of their priorities. As with the Tory party in the UK, the Democrats failed to listen to the electorate; to paraphrase Kate Forbes “continuity won’t cut it”.
Where an America First policy puts the rest of the world remains to be seen but the biggest danger to the UK is Trump’s threat to withdraw from Nato and withdraw support from Ukraine. That effectively makes Europe entirely dependent on itself for its own security and potentially gives Putin carte blanche to extend his “special operation” beyond Ukraine into Moldova and the Baltic States. At the very least we will see Hungary and Slovakia joining with Belarus to effectively become proxies of Putin’s Russia.
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Hide AdA surge to the political right of populist politics across the West is a clear danger to democracy. It’s time in the UK for calm heads and to continue to look outwards rather than withdrawing further into an isolationist position.
Neil Anderson, Edinburgh
Time to rally
Ukraine and Europe now stand alone against an axis of fascism stretching from the Arctic Ocean at Murmansk through Russia, Iran and China all the way to North Korea and the South China Sea, all the way from the Black Sea to the Bering Strait at Asia’s furthest point. The dictators of all those places revel in tyranny and conquest, and are banded together.
Europe is a greater industrial power than Russia and can save her own freedom by helping Ukraine throw back the invader.
If that looks impossible, remember that Britain held the line alone from May 1940 to July 1941.
Tim Cox, Bern, Switzerland
Time for rethink
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Hide AdDo those who thought that a person with all the despicable characteristics of man-child Donald Trump could not be elected US President, again, still think Nigel Farage could not become the UK’s next prime minister? Are those who are comfortable with having nuclear weapons based close to our most populous city also comfortable with the fact that these weapons are again under the control of an erratic self-centred megalomaniac?
Perhaps it is time for a rethink on self-determination to enable an independent Scotland, free of nuclear weapons, to work more closely with our European allies.
Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian
State of union?
Following the election of Donald Trump, is it fair to ask if America is the world's first stupidocracy?
Ian McElroy, Thurso, Highland
Greed first
I see that City of Edinburgh Council has yet again allowed Princes Street Gardens to be privatised, with the construction of the “Christmas Market” blocking access to Edinburgh residents wishing to go about their normal business.
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Hide AdCould they not at least have waited to build their tacky constructions until after Armistice Day and shown some respect towards those visiting the adjacent Garden of Remembrance
Clearly commerce comes before sacrifice.
Karen Sutherland, Edinburgh
Blame SNP
Ian Johnstone’s Perspective article of 6 November contained not a single reference to the fact that, had SNP politicians at Westminster supported the Tory motion to retain membership of the Customs Union in 2019, the Bill would have passed into law, thus negating the outcomes detailed in the article.
However, failure to act in line with the wishes of Scottish voters meant the lack of SNP support resulted in the Bill falling by only 6 votes.
It will be interesting to ascertain if Nicola Sturgeon includes an explanation in her memoirs !
Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway
Universal truth?
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Hide AdHow is Labour in Scotland to spin the latest u-turn of raising student tuition fees in England and Wales as Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves both said in the House of Commons and TV interviews that they would scrap tuition fees, not raise them.
Following winter fuel payments, what’s next in Labour’s continuation of Tory ideology, means testing for health treatment?
University finances, like those of GPs, charities and our local authorities are all going to suffer as a result of Labour increasing employers’ National Insurance contributions, which is an indirect tax on working people and wages, unlike VAT or income tax.
The rest of the UK is out of step with most western European countries that have access to free, or very low cost, higher education, such as Norway, Iceland, Germany, Austria, France, Poland, Greece, Hungary, Slovenia, Czechia, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Scotland.
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Hide AdAs the Jimmy Reid Foundation pointed out in 2012, universalism is incredibly efficient, the selective element of pension entitlement is more than 50 times more inefficient than the universal element measured in terms of fraud and error alone, and without even taking into account the cost of administration.
In economic terms, universalism is clearly shown to deliver things we all benefit from which selectivity simply cannot deliver. The economic impact of universalism is much greater than the economic impact of selectivity because of the multiplier profile of expenditure. Universalism also creates positive economic stability by mitigating the swings in the business cycle and creating much more economic independence among the population. On virtually every possible measure of social and economic success, all league tables are topped by societies with strong universal welfare states.
Universalism creates a higher, more progressive tax base which also improves economic stability, reduces price bubbles and creates more efficient flatter income distributions
Mary Thomas, Edinburgh
Degree of doubt
In answer to Jane Lax (Letters, 5 November), whether or not someone goes to university or not should be squarely based on their academic abilities and not the parents' ability to pay (or a wish to get into debt). I myself studied at University of Abertay Dundee but, due to a combination of third class honours and lack of practical experience, eventually went to Butlins Wonderwest World in Ayr to hire out bikes.
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Hide AdThere is a huge cost to the nation in the failure to appreciate that many of the key workers – folk in supermarkets, bus drivers, NHS porters, council workers, to name a few – who kept this nation going during the Covid pandemic were, by and large, not university educated.
In charge of the nation as Prime Minister was Eton-educated Boris Johnson and following that we had former philosophy, politics and economics student Liz Truss, who lasted 49 days and gets a pension for life for her stint in office. Says it all, doesn't it?
As someone who delivered groceries during the Covid pandemic and now works for a privatised Royal Mail as an agency driver, how much our politicians valued the NHS key workers over the other key workers such as posties, council workers and bus drivers was fairly evident to me.
Yes, the nation needs its university-educated people but should see them as an investment in the future, and not forget how much it actually needs those who are not, yet are practically gifted, such as joiners and plumbers – it’s not an “either or”, but “both”.
Peter Ovenstone, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire
Fast ferries
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Hide AdLeah Gunn Barrett (Letters, 6 November) blames “the Tories” for the absence of a ferry service between Scotland and the continent.
As a “new Scot”, she is probably unaware of the excellent Superfast Ferries service that ran between Rosyth and Zeebrugge some 20 years ago. It was discontinued because it was not economic to run. This was explained to me by a van driver on one of our journeys on the ferry. He said that the Superfast service would not last. It was good for tourists, but there simply was not enough freight trade in Scotland to make it viable, particularly when so many firms were inured to driving to Newcastle or Hull.
It is, of course, all London’s fault, in Ms Barrett’s view, for not providing the funds to support such a ferry. But in citing Ireland as her poster child she omits to mention that when a government subsidy was introduced, to support ferries during the Covid epidemic, the ferry operator Irish Continental Group warned that extending it would be a “waste of taxpayers’ money” and would further distort the market.
There is also the question of infringing EU rules: subsidies are deemed to be “unfair competition”, and a Belgian provider complained on that basis about Irish state aid.
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Hide AdJourneys by ferry from Ireland to the continent take 18 hours and are not suitable for time-sensitive commodities, so many Irish hauliers continue to use the UK as a land bridge.
Trying to find a solution to the ferry problem is desirable, but not when it is accompanied by ridiculous jibes about a Scottish “colony” and dishonest claims about the “UK openly stealing” Scottish resources. Let’s instead treat problems on their merits.
Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh
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