DAVID Pratt’s articles on the Yemeni crisis refer to the Saudi-led coalition attacking the port of Hodeidah (“Fears mass starvation will tear troubled Yemen further apart”, The Herald, June 16)
Aid agencies have said access to this port is vital to enable provision of desperately needed supplies for millions facing starvation. The UK is providing financial support. Meanwhile, wearing its other hat, it is selling arms to Saudi Arabia. These are used to worsen the problem. The United States, France and the UK also vetoed a UN Security Council motion to condemn the attack on Hodeidah and try mediation. Andrew Mitchell, former International Development Secretary, said Britain should be neutral in the conflict and not supply Saudi Arabia with weapons, earning £4.6 billion over four years for arms dealers.
I fear Glaswegians can do little to help but we can try to prevent an arms fair marketing “Undersea Defence Technology” in the city. We can speak to councillors, some of whom have promoted the event, and MSPs and protest against the fair. Is the British economy so unbelievably weak that we can only flourish as arms dealers? Have we become inured to the horrors mankind can inflict on the innocent? As long as our pensions are doing well, do we wonder how?
Sandra Phelps,
10 Kelvin Drive, Glasgow.
IN the Agenda column “Shaping the thinking of the economists of the future”, June 18, economists at Dundee University suggest they are keen to learn about the key influences in global finance. Adam Smith is said to have introduced the concept of political economy 200 years ago but things have moved on since then with global money flows. National politics and its relationship with the global market doesn’t receive much attention these days.
But on your Letters Pages (June 18) we also see objections to Glasgow City Council’s decision to hold an arms trade, “regardless of the financial benefits”. Politics-geopolitics in finance can be dangerous territory to explore.
Ian Jenkins,
7 Spruce Avenue, Hamilton.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here