Labour will let children go hungry but the war machine is always fed

The National

4 days ago

While Westminster gleefully slashes disability benefits, hammers the poor, and guts public services, it's shovelling £40 billion a year into the insatiable maw of Nato – an alliance of warmongers demanding 5% of GDP for war while children go hungry and the sick are left to rot. This isn't governance – it's larceny on a national scale.
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And let's be clear: Scotland is a colony. A cash cow milked dry to feed the British state's addiction to militarism and empire. Our resources, our taxes, our people – all sacrificed on the altar of Westminster's delusions of grandeur.
Liz Kendall, Starmer's merciless attack dog at the DWP, is sharpening her knives to butcher welfare for nearly a million people. 950,000 lives destroyed – 800,000 stripped of disability payments, 150,000 carers thrown to the wolves – all so Labour can bankroll more bombs, more jets, more death.
And don't be fooled by their crocodile tears. They know exactly what they're doing. Their own impact assessment admits 250,000 more people will be plunged into poverty, including 50,000 children. But do they care? Of course not. Because Scotland's suffering has never mattered to London.
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Rachel Reeves screeches about protecting the NHS while handing it a real-terms cut – 2.8% funding increases, below even the Tory average. Meanwhile, half of all public spending will be swallowed by healthcare because everything else has been bled dry.
And what's left for Scotland? Crumbs. A pittance in housing, a joke of an education budget, and local councils driven to bankruptcy. All while Westminster hoards our wealth to fund its wars.
This is the brutal reality of the so-called 'United' Kingdom: Scotland is a resource colony, its people an afterthought. Starmer, Reeves, Kendall – they're just the latest gang of thieves in a centuries-long racket.
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We must break free. Not just for our dignity, but for our survival. Every penny stolen from Scotland's poor to feed Nato's war machine is proof that this Union is a fraud.
Enough. No more blood money. No more lies. No more Westminster rule. Scotland must be independent – before there's nothing left to save.
Alan Hinnrichs
Dundee
I READ that Rachel Reeves is borrowing again and we are likely to face tax increases. From what I can gather, essentially all countries have a national debt on which they are paying interest. Even the G7 nations, supposedly the cream of the crop, have national debts which are increasing both in the amount and as a percentage of their GDP. In 2024 there were 20 of 186 identifiable countries whose accumulated government debt exceeded the country's GDP. The World Economic Forum estimates that the total global debt is $307 trillion.
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This financial year the Office of Budget Responsibility estimates Westminster will spend £104.9 billion on national debt interest payments, the equivalent of 8.2% of government spending. To whom do all these 186 governments owe money and why, in a democracy – supposedly government of the people by the people for the people – does our elected government not control something as basic as our currency? Why does the Chancellor have to borrow money and pay interest on the loan rather than just create it out of thin air?
David J Crawford
Glasgow
TOMMY Sheppard's Monday column really cannot pass without some comment (SNP don't yet have answers but we're now asking right questions, Jun 23). As an activist with more than 45 years of campaigning, I hope I have something to add.
Firstly, prior to last year's conference I advised Keith Brown of points raised in Mr Sheppard's column. No response!
I believe that without radical change and direct action by the SNP government, there will be no majority SNP government in 2026. Mr Sheppard now advises that 'first things first', independence will be central to the party's message. How about it being first, second and third priority? As to 'frustration and fatigue eating away' at the SNP's capacity, it is the feet-under-the-table attitude of our SNP MSP and MPs that is undermining the supporters.
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As to control of our own resources, let's get a horse whip out to the SNP MSPs who negotiated the wind farm contracts first. And as to MSPs providing grants of millions of pounds to companies without enforceable safeguards should they decide to relocate to England, what private company would fail to consider such an outcome?
As to people not coming out to vote, same old, same old is not going to cut it any more for the SNP. Nor do I blame the intransigence of the UK state; I expect dirty tricks from them. What country ever got free of Westminster corruption by fair play? I expect our parliament to act as Westminster acts towards us.
'Vote for SNP next May and we will tell you our plans for the future'. Tommy, do you not see that this attitude is what is killing us bit by bit? Tell people what the SNP government has achieved, tell them what Scotland will do as an independent country, what we are going to do about our currency, oil and gas reserves, what we are going to do about business progression, training for young people, land ownership, water management, wealth management, global warming. Explain to young people why there are no car factories in Scotland. I could go on, but you see the picture.
As I said to Keith Brown a year ago, if the SNP don't grow a pair they are going to be gone in 2026. Patience is not endless.
Vince Godley
via email