Sir, – As much as I support the welcome and offer of homes to Ukrainian refugees fleeing the horror brought to their country by the Russian invasion, there lingers in my mind the lack of such assistance to Afghans, who, because of their work for the Western allies were forced for their own safety to flee from Kabul as the might of the Taliban army – not in tanks or Humvees, but a raggedy mob in pick-up trucks and motorbikes – descended on the city.
I can recall no offer of “super-sponsorship” or politicians wearing the Afghan colours. Their plight was the result of disgraceful abandonment by those who promised them a bright new world.
Many were lucky to get on flights to safety, others left to their fate at the hands of those who show little mercy. Surely those who arrived in our country deserve the same assistance as those from Ukraine.
Their broken dreams are legacy of our government’s betrayal.
Ivan W Reid, Kirkburn, Laurencekirk.
Is it end of days for organised religion?
Sir, – With a couple of landmark town-centre churches about to be sold off in Inverness, and doubtless the same scenario being repeated elsewhere, the Kirk’s future doesn’t look too secure.
Maybe organised religion has had its day. There were so many denominations, each of them required us to jump through their own little hoops or we couldn’t belong to their group or to God’s. How ridiculous it all was, how controlling, how presumptuous.
Author and poet Emily Bronte had a good take on religion generally. In her poem, No Coward Soul Is Mine, she described the thousand creeds that grip men’s hearts as being unutterably vain, as withered weeds, as idlest froth amid the boundless main.
If you read through her poem it becomes apparent how unshakeable was her personal belief in God. I’ll go with that.
Keith Fernie, Drakies Avenue, Inverness.
Standing on an independent ticket
Sir, – For many years, I have been sending letters to the editor on a variety of subjects but have never been naive enough to think it would have persuaded the readers to adopt my point of view.
Over the years, I have followed aspiring councillors from their election promises to their acceptance on leaving about how disappointed they were on not achieving their election promises. In the main, this is from the so-called group that stand on an independent ticket.
There is an expression that I heard many years ago, “farting into the wind”, which the person had used to illustrate that without support in a committee environment then that person’s aims would come to nothing.
It would be nice to think that if you had a number of independents on a committee they would support each other’s point of view. But dream on – are we to believe that this group put aside their political beliefs while on council business?
Of course not, so any voting that goes on in this group is influenced by their long-held political views. So it’s not surprising that groups that stand on an independent ticket rarely achieve their election promises.
As much as I don’t like nationalists of any type, the SNP normally has a party loyalty that the other political groups should learn from.
So, to sum up, again I will not vote for anyone standing as an independent and will disregard other candidates that think historical references about where they have spent their life as so much rubbish.
I will be interested in how they are going to tackle local problems using local initiatives and not be reliant on tainted advice from the people in power in the central belt.
Finlay G Mackintosh, Forres.