Readers' Letters: Proscribing Palestine Action as terrorists is over the top

Here in Dunblane there are many in the local churches who still honour the memory of the late Helen Steven and Ellen Moxley, pacifist Quakers who ran the Iona Community’s Peace House in Braco for 12 years from 1985. They were experts in NVDA. Ellen was one of the three peace activists who in 1999 broke into the naval facility on Loch Goil and threw computers into the loch. Was it an act of criminal damage? Possibly. The Sheriff who accepted their plea that they were acting to prevent a worse crime was later held to have been wrong in law. Were they acting as terrorists? Certainly not!

There must be many, like me, concerned that the Home Secretary, in proscribing Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000, is stretching the definition of “terrorism” beyond any reasonable limit. Organisations supporting NVDA may be a nuisance to government, their actions may be costly and inconvenient, but that does not make them terrorists. Using anti-terrorist legislation against such an organisation appears excessively draconian against legitimate protest and risks diluting the focus of the security forces against real terrorist threats.

Anthony Birch, Dunblane, Stirling

Running sore

Surely, nobody could begrudge the Jews their homeland, particularly after the hell they went through in the Holocaust. But what about the Palestinians?

Their land of Palestine was decreed by the colonial powers of the day, not least the British and French, to be the setting for the Jewish homeland. The infamous Balfour Declaration was passed in 1917, without any reference to what would happen to the Palestinians. It wouldn't be until 1948 that the Nakba would happen and the Palestinians' fate be sealed in a running sore that hasn't been healed. Indeed, it has worsened in their experience now of ethnic cleansing. What other people has been asked to make such a sacrifice?

The absurd situation has been reached where even supporting the Palestinian cause is deemed to be a criminal offence. Yvette Cooper has had a twin victory, in Parliament and the courts, deeming Palestine Action a terrorist group.

I ask again, what about the Palestinians? The question is urgent, and remains in need of an answer.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Prove me wrong

David Millar (Letters, 7 July) accuses me of “disappearing down the usual separatist rabbit warren of claiming we in Scotland are in a better state than our English and Welsh neighbours regarding levels of poverty”. I don't claim this. The statistics contained in the letter he refers to prove it.

If Mr Millar believes they are incorrect he is free to refute them. His letter makes no attempt to do this!

Alan Woodcock, Dundee

What wealth?

The UK’s National Wealth Fund (NWF) is apparently geared up to spend billions over the next 25 years. Apart from the fact that given our national debt is almost 100 per cent of GDP and we have no cash to spare, we have to ask if this expenditure is expected to earn interest and if so what the anticipated rate of return will be. This NWF could be just another wheeze by government to pretend that government spending is not money down the drain but actually investment! I remember the Tony Blair government suggesting that spending was investment and look where that took us. The country has yet to recover from the 2007/08 debacle, let alone Covid expenditure and the impact of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on prices in this country.

We don’t have a magic money tree despite Rachel Reeves suggesting that some financial chicanery allows headroom to “borrow more”. Our money tree is cash taken from our pockets to be spent in servicing our huge debt, plus big pay increases to those areas funded by government (that is, by taxpayers and even more borrowing).

It should be obvious that this merry-go-round cannot continue. In fact, the sooner it stops the better it will be for the country and we taxpayers have to take a stand on the “we need more” that is leading us nowhere but poverty for all.

Perhaps that is Labour’s idea of equality!

T Lewis, Coylton, Ayrshire

Trump China

In a review of its military support, the White House says it must “put America’s interests first”, and still seems ambiguous in its attitude to Vladimir Putin’s war.

But in a meeting last week with Kaja Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi said Beijing does not want Russia to lose the war, as the USA would then be able to focus more directly on China. That plausible (albeit surprising or even unintended) admission surely makes President Donald Trump’s priorities straightforward.

He should immediately support the pro-Ukraine Republicans in Congress, enforce with the European and other allies the maximum economic and financial sanctions against Russia, impose stronger penalties on those countries that finance Putin by their purchase of Russia’s oil, gas and minerals, and supply Ukraine with the intelligence data and hardware needed for swift military success – something many experts have thought feasible since late 2022, with the right support.

That would then allow the USA to pass the Ukraine baton safely and effectively to Europe, and to concentrate on globally confronting China – politically, diplomatically, economically and militarily – which Trump has for years asserted is their greatest competitor and enemy.

John Birkett, St Andrews, Fife

NHS app disgrace

New figures show that the number of patients waiting more than 78 weeks for treatment in Scotland is now over 38,000, compared to 1,154 in England. More than 35 million people in England use their NHS app, with Scotland's app not expected before 2030.

Another national SNP disgrace with no one held accountable (as usual).

Jim Houston, Edinburgh

Pecking order

According to John V Lloyd (Letters, 7 July), what are known in Peterhead as "scurries” are a menace. I am sure the herring gull, or scurry, might regard us a menace, might they not?

I was not paying attention one morning and just accepted the scurry had won a buttery from me of the two I had bought at the bakers and just got on with life.

When do we accept that the nesting season is only a couple of months long and they are protecting their young by dive bombing people?

Peter Ovenstone, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire

Lawyers’ payday

Labour is to increase the legal aid fees paid to lawyers to represent migrants fighting to stay in Britain by 30 per cent. The cost will rise from £47 million to £61m a year.

Ministers say the move was necessary to clear the 90,000-strong backlog of asylum claims and end the use of hotels to house migrants. Yes, and pigs can fly.

This will never clear the backlog since there are numerous migrant lawyers all too willing to coach migrants on what to say as they get a slice of this £61m pie.

Fear of persecution in your home country? Tick. Gay? Tick. Unable to get protection from the authorities in your home country? Tick. Subjected to sex slavery? Tick.

What not to say is that you passed through numerous safe countries before arriving in the UK.

So why are lawyers now being paid more as they use every trick in the book to prevent illegal immigrants being deported?

Britain is a soft touch. Instead of increasing legal aid for migrant lawyers we should abolish it.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Waking Nessie

Reports of the Loch Ness Monster are surely “based on some underlying physical reality” (Editorial, 4 July). But if not Nessie then what?

I have examined very many reports and have come to the conclusion that boat wakes are the usual culprit. There is a phenomenon peculiar to long and deep narrow lakes used by heavy vessels. All sizeable vessels create wakes in deep water if travelling at a constant speed. Firstly a disturbance created by the screw propellers, trailing in line behind the vessel. Secondly, a wake created by the bows, spreading out both sides at a particular angle. This is known as the Kelvin wake and is always at an angle to the direction of the vessel of 19.5 degrees. On a calm surface – “Nessie weather” – boat traffic creates wakes that will travel a long way and may even be reflected from the shoreline, sometimes interfering with the wake itself and/or the screw wake, to create a lump of water than can seem animated.

One major cause of Nessie-like wakes on Loch Ness was British Waterways’ converted ice-breaker tug Scot II, which operated on the Caledonian Canal from 1931. From 1960-1991 it carried tourists on cruises according to a strict timetable. It is no longer on the Canal.

Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh

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