Readers’ letters: The SNP are the biggest obstacle to a second Indyref

Yet what the First Minister will not face up to is that he and his party are the biggest obstacles to their desire for a second referendum.

There is little prospect of a clear and sustained majority in Scotland favouring leaving the UK, when the main party proposing separation has proved beyond all doubt over the last 18 years that it is not capable of effective government.

John Swinney has been at the very heart of the decision-making behind the missteps and failures that have so undermined all the essential public services that we depend upon.

Looking to a future beyond next year’s Holyrood election, many in Scotland will be hoping to be released from the SNP’s corrosive and divisive approach that has smothered progress in all that it has touched.

With his latest keynote speech, John Swinney has simply demonstrated yet again that he is a First Minister of a government treading water until whatever comes next arrives to give us all a fresh start.

Keith Howell, West Linton, Scottish Borders

Not again, please

As the chances of SNP success dwindle, John Swinney reverts to type. No, he is not issuing a detailed, expert breakdown on pensions and currencies and borders come the great day – he dare not do that – but another once-in-a-generation referendum for breaking up the UK. That always goes down well with the ultra-gullible.

And so, we enter once more the “how long is a generation” twaddle. It is 14 years since the last one, when the SNP were well beaten.

For once, just once, won’t Mr Swinney and his cohorts put Scotland’s well-being before that of the SNP?

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Twin obsessions

Apparently, John Swinney’s obsessions du jour are Gaza and the constitution. Gaza is outwith his jurisdiction since foreign affairs are reserved to the MPs we send to Westminster, and Scots rejected the SNPs ambition to break up the UK.

How about Swinney focuses on the effective management of healthcare, education, housing, transport and other devolved public services rather than pointlessly pontificating on matters beyond the remit of Holyrood? Or would that risk unearthing too many uncomfortable truths?

Martin Redfern, Melrose, Scottish Borders

Swinney’s right

First Minister John Swinney is absolutely right to ban Scottish Government support for companies manufacturing armaments which could be used by the Israeli military (Scotsman, 4 September).

What is happening in Gaza to the Palestinian population is similar to the horrors inflicted by the Nazis on Jews and East Europeans whom they considered untermensch (sub-human). But while the Nazis tried to conceal their mass murders from the public, Israel’s rulers actually go out of their way to explain to the public the merits of their atrocities, and as a result most Israelis back Bejjamin Netanyahu and his gang and some want them to go even further. The words “lebensraum” and “Greater Israel” have been used by members of Israel’s elite.

But are the UK Government and UK politicians actually complicit in Israel’s actions? RAF planes from Akrotiri have flown repeatedly over Gaza. Why? How many MPs are still “Friends of Israel”, and how many have benefited from freebies to Tel Aviv? Does the UK Government still consider Israel an ally? And what is Reform’s policy? Given Mr Farage’s close rapport with President Trump, Israel’s main backer, does Reform back or criticise Netanyahu’s actions? The threadbare “right to defend itself” excuse no longer makes any sense at all, if it ever did.

William Loneskie, Lauder, Scottish Borders

Israel betrayed

Better known as Anne Frank, Annelies Marie Frank and her family were betrayed and arrested 4 August, 1944 in Amsterdam. She died of typhus in February 1945 in Bergen-Belsen.

Today we again witness the betrayal of the Jewish people in the antisemitism and unfounded accusations of genocide, by European and other politicians, academics, media and street pundits.

After the 7 October cowardly first genocidal atrocity, Hamas spokesmen announced their attention to repeat it until Israel and its people, Jews, Arabs and others, were no more.

The Palestinian leader Amin al-Husseini, spent much of the Second World War broadcasting from Berlin against the Allies and trying to stop Jewish emigration to their historic homeland from countries occupied by the Nazis.

In The Times of 2 August, 2025 Glasgow-born historian, Niall Ferguson demolished the argument that the IDF or Israel government was or is now committing genocide. It is fighting Hamas, one of a coalition of genocidal intent against Israelis.

In 2009 Netanyahu, in a speech at Bar-Ilan, established he was willing to negotiate towards a demilitarised Palestine beside a fully accepted Israel. He was turned down flat both by Hamas and Fatah.

Netanyahu has been forced to take this military line by his isolation through the support of a duplicitous Qatar aiding Hamas to continue fighting and the shameful attitudes of Western leaders too fond of Qatar’s finance, sports sponsorship and military provision and pressured by an ignorant public and street prejudice here against Jews in general.

Bill MacDonald, Bonnyrigg, Midlothian

Civilian deaths

Two recent contributors praised the International Association of Genocide Scholars for agreeing with them that there is a genocide in Gaza (Letters, 4 September). However they forgot to mention that only 28 per cent voted. Perhaps the others don’t rely on the BBC, Sky News and the Guardian for their information. All the other so-called “reliable” committees get their figures from the Gaza Heath Ministry, which is part of the Hamas government.

When Isis was expelled from Mosul, or even when the Taliban and Al-Qaida were removed from Afghanistan, there were no serious concerns about “genocide”, “ethnic cleansing” or “war crimes”. In all of these cases the ratio between the deaths of civilians and terrorists was far higher than Gaza.

The IDF have implemented more precautions to prevent civilian deaths than any other military in history. There is no genocide in Gaza and those using the word demean themselves and its real meaning.

Lewis Finnie, Edinburgh

Saint’s heritage

Elaine Pomeransky (Letters, 5 September) anachronistically describes Scotland’s patron saint (Andrew) as an “Israeli”.

From what little we know of St Andrew, he was a Galilean fisherman recruited by Jesus. At the time, Galiliee was a Roman province; Israel did not exist. Consequently, modern Israel can have no interest in the matter.

Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh

Borrowed time

On Tuesday the Government’s cost of long-term borrowing hit a 27-year high of 5.74 per cent. Its since moderated to 5.59 per cent.

Touching such a high is an infrequent occurrence. It happened back in 1976 when a combination of a major oil shock, weak growth, and rising inflation and unemployment forced the government to seek a multi-billion IMF bailout.

It happened again in the early-80s as the Thatcher government adopted a hyper-austere monetary policy to deal with the legacy of stagflation bequeathed by Labour.

And it happened again in the early-90s as fiscal consolidation and recession (remember negative equity in the property market) followed the UK’s exit from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism under the Major government.

Stubborn inflation, weak growth and a fiscal deficit that seems inured to government cutbacks form the backdrop to the current situation.

Before concluding we’re irretrievably deep in the proverbial economic doo-doo, other evidence is needed. What’s missing is conclusive evidence that the labour market and unemployment are struggling to the same extent as previously.

Signs are worrying. Following the hike in employers’ National Insurance contributions in last Autumn’s promised “one-off” Budget, payroll employment has contracted by 160,000 according to the HMRC. And last quarter's employment figures fell by 0.5 per cent – the fastest fall since 2021, according to the Bank of England More worryingly, surveys of the future intentions of business leaders indicate job cuts are set to increase further in the year ahead.

This very much looks like more big trouble ahead for the economy. Can this Chancellor rise to the scale and seriousness of this challenge. We certainly hope so, but the truth is the jury remains well and truly out at the moment.

Ewen Peters, Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire

‘Toady’ in a hole

In a BBC Scotland interview on Thursday Glenn Campbell asked Sir Keir Starmer if he agreed with John Swinney's accusation that he is “toadying” to Nigel Farage on immigration.

The PM’s answer was “no”, of course, and then he added: “Reform wouldn’t exist if some of these problems were fixed.” You don’t say, Prime Minister!

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

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