Sir – I see that Councillor George Farlow of Ullapool has started his re-election campaign for North, West and Central Sutherland with his article last week (NT February 10).
As usual, he gives us his well-oiled views on Scottish separatism, which is not what his column should really be about.
However, in lecturing us on what he believes is the misuse of United Kingdom oil revenues, he should at least get his facts right.
He refers to "this year’s record £13.4 billion of oil revenues" being misused by what he calls "Westminster Governments". It seems accuracy isn’t George’s strong suit. Apart from the fact that the financial year 2011-2012 still has almost two months to run, the figure he quotes is an official forecast made almost a year ago.
The most recent forecast (from the same source) is £11.1 billion; and the revenues are actually forecast to decline until 2015/16, when they will hit £7.2 billion.
He then claims that "this year’s oil revenues" have been used to "dump Trident on Scotland" and "drag us into illegal wars like Iraq".
This is nonsense. How can the 2011-2012 oil revenues (not yet all received and much lower than his misleading figure) have dragged us into a war nine years ago in 2003?
Again, Trident goes back to the 1980s. Most people in the United Kingdom were rightly opposed to the war on Iraq, and many believe that the threat of nuclear attack posed by Trident is also contrary to International Law; but that cause is not helped by this kind of chronologically-challenged chop logic.
One wonders what other "illegal wars like Iraq" he has in mind, anyway.
What we really need to know from candidates for the council election (when the time comes), if they are seeking re-election, is what, if anything, they have personally achieved for the people in our constituency, how they have personally "made a difference", and what they personally intend achieving if re-elected (and not simply by voting with their political bosses, if any).
While George’s stamina in rushing all over from meeting to meeting on an almost daily basis, and his enthusiasm for tilting at windmills, are well-known, what matters is what has been achieved.
It is for him and the other candidates to make their case on this, and for the people to deliver their verdict.
Michael Otter,
Smithy House,
Oldshoremore, Kinlochbervie.
