Readers' Letters: If Independence isn't for Scotland, we need to talk

More incredible breaking news – the SNP is not to blame for Britain’s economic, social and moral demise!

Most of the shortcomings of the SNP criticised by contributors, such as Jill Stephenson, Jane Lax and Alexander McKay, are rooted in failures at Westminster, as evidenced in the decline in public services across the UK, from health and education to potholes in our roads. This is not to say that the SNP in government at Holyrood, even with the limited and diminishing powers of devolution, could not have made better decisions.

Regrettably, these same contributors have shunned serious discussion on fixing Britain by avoiding opportunities to discuss federalism, confederalism or independence, thereby leaving the door open for a shadow political entity such as Reform UK. The very people who orchestrated Brexit, the anonymous cabal of super-rich backers of UKIP, are the same people now backing Reform UK and their snake-oil front-man Nigel Farage. While some seem oblivious to the dire consequences of a Farage-led government, others, amazingly, seem to think that the same “has-beens” who brought about Britain’s demise, both via a “Hard Brexit” and gross economic incompetence at Westminster, can restore Britain to its former greatness.

All voters need to wake up to this impending nightmare and regular contributors to these pages should turn their attention to arguing for a fresh start for Scotland and the rest of the UK through federalism, or confederalism, if they truly believe Scotland and its people should not be democratically enabled to determine their own future!

Stan Grodynski, Longnidry, East Lothian

Come on Liz!

As the world is plunged into chaos by Donald Trump and his handlers, it is a relief that Reform are providing some badly needed amusement in their “We take absolutely anyone” approach to recruitment.

Having managed to secure the services of members of the previous chaotic Tory cabinet such as Nadine Dorries, Danny Kruger, Nadim Zahawi, Robert Jenrick and Andrea Jenkyn, it can now add the bizarre but inevitable Suella Braverman.

Should the one-issue Reform form the next government it has an oven-ready incompetent cabinet to take over from where the last catastrophic Conservative government left off in 2024, with the economy tanking and the country in turmoil.

Nigel Farage now needs only to chalk up the powerhouses that are Grant Shapps, Gavin Williamson and Priti Patel for a full set of utterly failed Tories. Well, almost.

So come on Liz Truss, you know you want to.

D Mitchell, Doune, Stirling

Cynical ruse

Israel at its best is worse than South Africa at its worst in its bygone apartheid era. Its latest stunt is a circular road splitting the Palestinian West Bank and cutting off East Jerusalem, the proposed capital of a Palestinian State.

Israel is getting away, quite literally, with murder, and this latest cynical ruse is aimed at ensuring that there is never ever going to be a sovereign Palestinian state, recognised or otherwise.

Dubbed Apartheid Road by the Palestinians and hailed as Sovereign Road by a slim majority of Israelis, this is but the most recent of appalling war crimes, first in Gaza and now in the West Bank, which are scarring Israel’s already dodgy reputation.

Hopefully, this time Israel has taken a step too far. Even a fervent supporter of Israel, Donald Trump, seeks a two-state solution as his stated aim for the Palestinian plight. Quite literally, the Palestinians are simply being squeezed out of the land of Israel, to the point of non existence. What future do they have, other than extinction?

It’s well past the time support of Palestine and its beleaguered people is deemed to be antisemitic. Sadly, their nakba is continuing, unabated, while the world looks on.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Invisible nose

Nicola Sturgeon surfaces briefly to insist she did not apply pressure for the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital to be opened just in time for the election despite the hospital having serious issues.

As someone who as a former board member of a public authority has experience of the invisible nose of the SNP government being poked where it should not be, government pressure would not be unusual. The only thing that is a surprise about the whole sad episode is that I was expecting Nicola Sturgeon to rely on being “unable to recall” interfering!

Brian Barbour, Haddington, East Lothian

Drink to that

It’s good to hear that China is to reduce its tariff on Scotch whisky by 50 per cent. And all without John Swinney going to meet President Xi. Will Mr Swinney be congratulating Sir Keir Starmer on this achievement?

As we used to say routinely, I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Looking elsewhere

So British citizens can now travel to China visa-free. Big deal, Starmer! Oh while you were away (yet again) the Waspi women got shafted.

But I think you wanted to be away for that, of course.

Steve Hayes, Leven, Fife

Common demands

With reference to The Scotsman editorial and the statement of Maryam Rajavi of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (28 January), these are the ideals every democratic mind will support.

But the realities are very different. The ten demands of Maryam Rajavi are exactly the same as those put forward by Reza Pahlavi, available on social media, Reza being the son of last Shah of Iran who ruled Iran by iron hand and his secret police.

But the conspiracy is much deeper; let me remind you of the old maxim of President Roosevelt, the Atlantic Charter: “Respect the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them.” If this still holds then what is the point of sending USS Abraham Lincoln to the Middle East or giving asylum to Reza Pahlavi, except to bring him back to have a puppet regime?

This, unfortunately, is the pragmatic plan behind all this support and the play of democratic cry in a Middle East land which has never had a democracy.

Hasan Beg, Kirkcaldy, Fife

Electric elephant

There is an elephant in the room that neither the SNP nor the Green Party will address during the Holyrood election campaign.

The Inconvenient Truth is that, if the wind does not blow, wind farms cannot generate any electricity. How, then, do they plan to keep the lights on in Scotland or provide power for the AI projects in Airdrie?

The unspoken answer appears to be that Scotland will be dependent on the import of electricity from England until funds are available to install a second system to maintain power under dunkelflaute conditions. The result is even higher energy bills to cover the costs of stand-by plant, hence the reason for the cost of Scottish electricity being double that of mainland Europe!

Voters should note such plans that can only drive companies out of Scotland, leading to further increases in the cost of living.

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway

Bard timing

Scottish separatists are desperate to pressgang Robert Burns into their cause because he wrote in Scots and has won international renown. D Mitchell (Letters, 28 January), whose own position on the constitutional question is clear from previous correspondence, does this, claiming Burns was “what Mr O’Gorman may refer to as ‘a leftie’.”

Burns certainly championed “human decency and freedom from oppression for all” – values which the SNP/Greens think they have a monopoly on – but was also the enemy of hypocrisy and virtue-signalling; read "Holy Willie’s Prayer”.

How likely is it that the Ayrshire Bard would have endorsed a devolved administration which has smugly presided over falling life expectancy since 2007? We can only imagine what harsh things Robert Burns might say about the ongoing ferry fiasco or the Scottish Government’s addiction to secrecy.

A countryman and a farmer, it’s doubtful he would have been impressed by nationalist neglect of rural communities or the imposition of inefficient, costly wind farms upon them in the teeth of furious local opposition.

His attitude to the Union remains enigmatic. In “Such a Parcel of Rogues” he criticises it, but in “The Dumfries Volunteers”, a later work, we find the lines: “Be Britain still to Britain true / Among oursels united.”

The “outspoken radical” D Mitchell speaks of volunteered for the militia to defend our island against invasion by revolutionary France when the murderous new regime’s true nature became apparent.

As for what many on the left would today describe as his “toxic masculinity”, D Mitchell can only plead that Rabbie was “somewhat contradictory”.

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

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