Incredibly moved by lovely farewell in Boat of Garten

On Sunday 29th June an event was held in Boat of Garten Community Hall to thank us for our 23 years running Boat of Garten Post Office and Shop.

We were incredibly touched by the number of folk attending, we received many gifts and cards from many people, and to all of those we say a massive thank-you very much.

Thank-you also to everyone for kind words and good wishes, we appreciate all of them.

Thank-you to Boat of Garten community for being our home and our life, where we earned our living and brought up our family.

Although we will miss the buzz of business and the craic with customers, we are looking forward to whatever comes next.

David and Beth Woolsey.

Boat of Garten.

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Still hope for our ‘fractured world’

The prominent and engaging journalist Gerry Hassan’s newspaper article on ‘future thinking’ was both fascinating and enlightening.

I agree completely when he writes: “How we perceive the future is central to how we organise society, government, democracy and power”.

It’s indeed true that from the 18th Century rise in industry and empire, the 19th Century exploitation of wealth, trade and technology, to the 20th Century world wars, nuclear weapons and the space age, the future was easier to envisage.

Today with worldwide corruption, trust in our politicians and leaders has gone, leaving the human race in limbo.

Humanity has always talked about the future, without actually doing much about it!

However now with increasing wars and desolation, a nuclear arms race, drastic climate change and the uncertainty of AI, the future outlook for planet Earth must be taken seriously.

If not, Hassan declares, “with imminent environmental collapse”, we could be facing, what he calls, the "end time”!

I believe that with courage, confidence and an intrinsic faith in the enduring goodness of humanity, there is yet hope for our fractured world - have patience but please hurry.

Grant Frazer

Newtonmore.

* * *

Close tax havens of the super-rich

Why don’t they tax the super rich? And why don’t they close the loopholes on tax havens?

I asked our highly supportive and responsive local MP earlier this week in the hope that maybe he would know.

Honestly, nobody I speak to can understand this.

For years governments have allowed super rich CEOs, corporations, and criminals to evade paying tax by hiding their money and identities in places like The Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands and Bermuda. I have read that billions could be raised if only jurisdiction was put into action.

Indeed, yet another deadline has passed for this with no results, apart from Gibraltar I think.

I have read that the UK and its overseas territories are responsible for a quarter of global tax abuse.

This is disgraceful.

Similarly, why should those with so much wealth that they keep getting richer without even needing to work - for many of them it has been inherited rather than earned - pay less tax than those of us who work for a living?

Anyone can see that this only exacerbates the harmful gap between the very rich and the very poor, which any economist will tell you is not a healthy state in which society can flourish. If successive governments are so afraid that they will lose the support of the super-rich, the answer is so simple: cap the amount of donations that can be paid to any party.

We should not be slipping into this parlous state of an oligarchical kleptocracy where the rich steal from the poor.

It’s time to get rid of all this ‘dark’ money corrupting our democracy, and if such laws were put in place, now is the time to reform our voting system so that they can stay that way, instead of this endlessly futile yo-yo between the right and the left sabotaging each other’s changes.

Voting in this country has become a tired and pointless, old joke.

Obviously it would be necessary to employ more people at HMRC to recover all this money, but not only would this provide extra employment but in the light of all the billions raised which could go to rescuing our welfare state, it would be so worth it.

With a chancellor in tears, and a Labour party robbing the worst off and making employers’ lives more difficult, it’s time to face the most obvious answers.

So why don’t they?

I have been signing petitions for these changes for years now, and I am starting to tear my hair out.

Elvira Neame

Badenoch

(address supplied)

* * *

Thinking about future...

I was listening to the radio and reading in the papers about AI technology and the loss of training places in law and accountancy firms, with young graduates struggling to get a job.

A friend once said to me the dustmen would get paid more than solicitors in the future and this looks to be what’s going to happen.

I would suggest to any young person today to go and get a job in the building industry, where wages have got to the stage where a fully-trained tradesman can earn 50,000 - without incurring the expense of university fees.

The young today should look carefully at what the future holds as they are about to leave school.

John Kirk

Nethy Bridge.

* * *

Changing tack in rest of world on energy security

Politicians should be made to sit an annual intelligence test.

We should start with Ed Miliband who is pushing to fill Britain’s gardens with wind turbines.

Do UK politicians not realise the damage his diktats are doing?

The Lindsey Refinery entered administration, putting fuel supplies and hundreds of jobs at risk.

The UK has had to increase gas imports in Q1 2025 driven by falling North Sea output and poor wind generation. Meanwhile UK reserves go untapped.

Germany has approved gas drilling in the Wadden Sea, a UNESCO site to boost energy security.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is backing fossil fuel expansion. The US Senate has passed a sweeping budget bill that will significantly restrict new wind and solar projects. The oil, gas and coal rich countries continue to prosper as they ignore Net Zero.

Never mind the UK will save the planet.

Clark Cross

Linlithgow.

* * *

The real power rests in our wallets and purses

Daniel Levy is a former Israeli peace negotiator with an informed understanding of Israel and its politics. He knows whereof he speaks, recently stating on Channel 4 News: “Without sanctions Netanyahu won’t stop”.

It is natural to feel increasingly hopeless in the face of sclerotic UK politics and government; outdated, unrepresentative and increasingly reactionary. An alternative is anger and frustration.

The West Bank village of Burin has a message of “Sumud - steadfastness” for us all in our individualised western world.

“We dance the dabke under the teargas”

Every morning the citizens of Burin wake up to a cloud of tear gas.

These olive farmers and their fellow villagers are surrounded by three large illegal Israeli settlements and several army posts, which daily make their lives hell.

The Israelis use every means possible to clear the villagers from land they and their ancestors have farmed for generations; this includes the destruction of many thousands of olive trees.

Anyone who has tasted Palestinian olive oil knows its fine quality. These Burin famers say theirs is extra special, laced as it is with tear gas, and they refuse to leave or die. This week sees Burin hold its annual kite festival.

Started in 2008, the festival is a defiant celebration in the face unbearable deprivation and violence.

The presence of international guests acts - one hopes and prays - as a check on the more heinous crimes of heavily-armed illegal settlers and occupation forces.

In 2025, due to Israel’s attack on Iran, many international supporters have been unable to travel to Burin, but it goes ahead; a statement of joy and celebration despite the odds.

The villagers refuse to be seen solely as victims and I am in awe of their courage and resilience.

We also have the power to act: small as individuals but collectively in a big way.

If governments cannot act effectively we can impose our own sanctions.

They do work: despite early UK government support for apartheid South Africa, that regime fell after widespread sanctions and boycotts.

In May 2025 members of the Coop voted to cease trading with Israel. This is being acted upon.

In the face of government inaction, we can impose our own sanctions by adopting the approach of the Coop and the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement (BDS), by refusing to buy Israeli supplied goods, particularly emanating from the illegal settlements, where certain large firms - notably McDonald’s and Coca-cola - trade.

Well-known Israeli suppliers can be difficult to identify, so help is available on the BDS website.

.Although not cheap, Palestinian Zaytoun olive oil is beautiful, stocked by the Coop, but doesn’t taste of tear gas.

We do have power, in our purses and wallets. Let’s use it for good.

Paul Derbyshire

Laggan.

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