THE inexorable slide into unchecked racism is becoming more visible and audible day by day. That it could be claimed “it’s not happening here” should never become an excuse for staying silent. Whether there or here – and it is happening here – all forms of abuse have to be called out.

That the most recent hate speech could be left unchallenged and excused, as some form of aberration coming from the unorthodox USA president who doesn’t do convention but does it his way, is either cowardly or complicit or both. It’s not good enough to lay it at the feet of Americans and hope they will take action by booting Trump out at the next election. We have to ask and answer: well, what can we do?

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Hard though it might seem, checking out the likes of the next potential PM and his wannabe Cabinet chums should be sufficient to firstly worry us and then ensure we act.

On Friday Sajid Javid, currently Home Secretary, praised Nigel Farage and his Brexit Party for not being extremists. Quite ironic to my way of thinking, since Javid’s speech was about countering extremism and yes, Farage is the man who posed in front of that infamous Breaking Point poster. It spoke to breaking free and taking back control. The very same poster prompted a certain Boris Johnson to distance himself and the official Leave campaign from Farage and Ukip.

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How time brings change, allied to the whiff of power as the next PM. That Javid wants in Cabinet is pretty obvious to me at least, and to cement power Johnson will, in all probability, need support from the likes of Farage and his Brexit Party, to add weight to the ERG group. So a little public praise will surely go a long way; a win-win for these three men and their two political parties. But a loss for us.

Who of importance in the Tory party has stood up and called out the naked racism centred around the vitriol coming from Trump and his acolytes chanting “send her back”? Any propaganda film from mainland Europe in the mid-20th century sees baying crowds, arms raised, and their chanting of “seig heil”: hail victory. The more recent chant targets an individual, but can easily become pluralistic and all-consuming. No-one ever envisaged the end game that was to become the horror of the extermination camps, even as the forced migration was disguised as so-called moves to transit camps prior to resettlement in far-off places; the pretence of sending people away, if not back.

Call it out. We must, since without that simple action extremism can so easily become the accepted norm. Sadly, history has taught us that. Call it out. It’s the least we can do. Otherwise when they come for us, there will be none of us left to call it out.

Selma Rahman

Edinburgh

SOME weeks ago on the online petition page for the revocation of Article 50, I was invited to click to see the results on a “heat map”. At this time the tally of signatories stood at about three million. When I stopped looking it had reached 6,079,792 – and signatures were still being added.

I found that the map was very interesting and at first surprising. In England the purple/black, corresponding to greatest support for the petition, coloured Oxford, Cambridge and parts of London. In Scotland similar demographic areas within the major cities, also showed up in the darker colours.

I felt that this was encouraging. The section of the population who we could expect to be generally more politically aware, committed and responsible was emphatically against the idea of the UK leaving the European Union.

I am of the opinion that considering both the enormous numbers of signatures and the general characteristics of the section of the population who signed, a wise government with the wellbeing of the country as priority would have done well to heed the indications.

There are reports, though, that Conservative Party activists engaged in election canvassing and visiting a household where they detect the presence of books expect a less favourable response to their canvass.

Victor Moncrieff

Lanark

WE’VE read, we’ve blogged, we’ve marched, we’ve protested, we’ve leafleted, we’ve listened, we’ve had discussions, we’ve voted, we’ve been patient, we’ve trusted and we’ve never given up hope.

As The National’s report on the inspiring AUOB’s sad, internal trials and tribulations makes clear, sustaining one movement over many years with participants holding disparate views is challenging.

Concerning too is the SNP’s independence deficient agenda for their Aberdeen conference later this year.

We cannot afford to lose the incredible momentum built up behind the Yes movement by AUOB and many, many others.

You cannot feed the Scottish electorate a diet of Brexit Armageddon then just let it happen and ask us to thole the catastrophic consequences for a year, perhaps more.

The SNP cannot demonise a (likely) Johnson premiership and then not challenge its legitimacy in Scotland from day one.

The SNP’s unrivalled dominance in Scottish politics will falter if they ignore their raison d’etre.

Success is never guaranteed whenever this vote is called. It will always be a terrifying risk. But we are ready and we are waiting.

Now is the time to start the formal challenge for our democratic right to hold indyref2.

SNP, we’ve done our bit. Now it’s your turn!

I Easton

Glasgow

SO, from the latest and last Tory leadership hustings we see photos of Boris Johnson holding aloft a smoked fish. How quaint.But what I want to know is, which one is the kipper?

Fiona Jack

Eastriggs, Dumfriesshire