Letters II: This is the time to be bold, not to retreat

If they offer nothing inspirational and no vision of what an independent Scotland could achieve, the activists and core supporters will drift elsewhere. Corbyn’s campaign team learned from the Yes campaign – some of them observed it closely and they reproduced aspects of it in the election in England.

The SNP’s election message was what? Not being Tories and standing up for Scotland isn’t really enough. The two election broadcasts were embarrassingly vacuous. The last two years have seen no big ideas for Scotland. This is the time to be bold, not to retreat.
Isobel Lindsay
Biggar

I AM very sorry indeed to see the political demise of Alex Salmond, who has given his life to the independence cause, but whom I am sure will continue to make a significant contribution to public life in various ways.

It is no mere accident that some of the heaviest losses which the SNP suffered in the General Election were in areas like the north-east of Scotland where Euroscepticism was high. But the haemorrhage of SNP seats to Labour, as well as the Tories, underlines the total sterility of the current SNP leadership strategy and means if the SNP are to recover then there must be a fresh leadership team at the top, and Nicola Sturgeon is clearly not fit to continue to lead the party.

Campaigning as an independent candidate during the council elections, I began to detect a discernible trend which was that long-term SNP voters — those who had backed the party through the lean years of the 1980s and 90s, and not just since 2014 — felt disillusioned and were drifting away from the SNP. It transpired that many of these were SNP Leave voters who felt totally marginalised by the SNP’s obsession with EU membership, and felt ignored and patronised. Inside the party, things were not much better.

Since 2014 there has been no intellectual life within the SNP, and the current leadership sees any form of legitimate debate as dissent to be crushed. The image of Blair’s New Labour with a tartan ribbon sadly comes to mind.

Under Alex Salmond’s leadership the SNP advanced a very strong pro-business case for independence which has stagnated under Nicola Sturgeon, and Michael Fry hit the nail on the head recently in The National when he pointed this out as a grave weakness in the SNP’s claim to the votes of middle-class Scotland.

A key visionary vote-winner for any party would be a serious attempt to re-industrialise Scotland.

This would not happen overnight but again this has led to a serious deficiency of SNP strategy in holding on to its post-2014 core working-class base. Unionists have simply parroted the lie that “the oil has run out”, while major new fields have been found near Orkney, and the SNP leadership ignore this for fear of offending their Green allies.

Of course, the Tories wanted to run Project Fear Mark III by raising a second independence referendum, but the antidote to Ruth Davidson, who has mined the rancid depths of Scottish Unionism in a way which Annabel Goldie and David McLetchie were far too respectable to do, is to ignore the mechanism and go on the attack on the principle of independence and what it will mean in real life.
Councillor Andy Doig (Independent)
Renfrewshire Council

THE SNP’s vote did not go down due to calling for a second indyref. It went down due to them pinning it on a pro-European Union flagpole. With despair I have listened to Nicola spend the last year obsessively talking up the EU and slagging off everybody who voted to Leave. Unfortunately, this huge misjudgment meant alienating a large number of working-class voters who were her natural supporters.

If, like Corbyn, the SNP had seized upon the opportunities for Scotland from being released from the EU and brought in a vision of an independent Scotland based on publicly-owned services, it could have been a very different night.
M Mulholland
Inverness

DOES this setback for the SNP mean that Scots don’t want independence? Or do they still want independence but by other means other than the SNP’s version of it joined at the hip with Brussels which is not independence or security for their nation at all? Independence for Scotland is not and shall never be dependent on blind support for the pro-EU SNP or any other party.
James Andrew Mills
Renfrewshire

I AM sure Sturgeon’s obsession with the EU lost the SNP votes to the Conservatives. Those who want real independence do not want to stay in the EU, so if you are for Brexit then your only choice of political parties is the Conservatives.
Izzy Mac
Dingwall

I AM disappointed by the Tory gains but, at the same time, very pleased that the SNP has retained its leadership of Scotland. I’m sorry to lose our giants, Alex Salmond and Angus Robertson, though I remain confident of their ability to assist the country.

It is hard to believe, based on the Tories’ dismal performance in the General Election, let alone on their past record and future aims for further decimation of public services, that anyone voted them in at all.

As regards Brexit, to which I am opposed, there is nothing much to do now but wait and see how much of a hash is made of the negotiations, and the fallout from that.

I truly believe the SNP will continue their great efforts on behalf of our country. Nicola Sturgeon is head and shoulders above the leaders of the other parties in Scotland, and the team remains a strong one.

That after 10 years they remain the leading party in Scotland speaks for itself and, in that context alone, the outcome of GE2017 has, I feel, been a resounding success.
Joan Summers

ALTHOUGH the SNP won the election in terms of number of seats in Scotland the share of the vote was well down on 2015. It is apparent that the party at least have to do some serious thinking on what the message needs to be.

The independence movement as a whole may or may not be damaged and any damage may not be apparent till the dust settles.

The Conservatives and Labour had a good night – that has to be acknowledged – and the SNP need to assess whether they misread public opinion in Scotland on both Brexit and independence. There is no doubt that, on the doorsteps, Brexit played its part and however distasteful that is, it has to be acknowledged.

I am not sure exactly where most of the SNP vote went but it did desert us in large numbers to Unionist parties and many supporters turned their coats.

I think it is correct for the leadership to take time and reflect why we lost so many great MPs to relative nobodies who will go to London as branch secretaries, take the money and do as their masters tell them. That is the sad part.

It could be a levelling of the playing field or the beginning of a decline. Either way, the party requires a change in approach and to get back into the fight to protect Scotlands interests because, as we know, none of the Unionists care about that or even acknowledge Scotland as a country.
Bryan Auchterlonie
Perthshire

THE SNP now need to do some serious soul-searching and strategy formulation; focus on the long term and as much as it pains me, take another independence referendum off the agenda for the foreseeable future.

There is no positive spin that can be put on the result. Losing our two heaviest hitters at Westminster is a damaging blow. A hoped-for spike in support for independence following the EU vote simply didn’t happen.

Outside the core supporters, independence is still a divisive and hotly contested issue. It drove voters into the Tories’ cold dead embrace. At the next Holyrood election, it is perfectly possible pro-independence parties will lose control of the Scottish Government.

So what’s next? Holding the Tory minority Westminster Government to account, voting against their policies and widely publicising this. Shine glaring spotlights on Brexit plans, be as bloody awkward as possible. Drop indyref2. It has to be done as it’s becoming a millstone round our necks. That’s not the same as giving up on independence.

All that has to be stated is that the SNP have listened and accept the public do not want a referendum now. But depending on the effects of leaving the EU, it could be held some years in the future. Playing short term hasn’t worked, so it’s time to switch to the long game.
Christopher Bale

WHAT a shambles! The term “booze-up and brewery” springs to mind. They are all like headless chickens completely unaware of what they are doing to our country, and it is OUR country.

Firstly, Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP should have kept quiet about an indyref2. This was obviously a big turn-off to a lot of people and it has turned out to be a very damaging foot-shooting exercise. They should have promoted heavily a much bigger presence at Westminster to make Scotland a priority there, and made changes from within.

Done properly, that could have made the SNP highly influential within the UK as a whole as well as in Scotland. It’s going to take some time to recover this lost ground and re-establish some credibility.

Secondly, this General Election should never have happened. From “strong and stable” we have gone to “weak and unstable” in one fell swoop. Even if Scotland was to become independent tomorrow, we don’t want a chicken-hearted lily-livered neighbour squabbling over who governs it.

Finally, as good and desirable as democracy is, it never fails when you let the general public loose on something. Sense and sensibility go out the window and emotions decide the results. This result is bad for everything – business, finance, the value of the pound, our reputation ... and me!
Robin Davey

THE General Election result should be taken as it was meant by the people of Scotland, a reaction to 10 years of SNP government. As many will know, there is always a backlash to a sitting government that has been in power for so long and the SNP are no different.

If you listen to Ruth Davidson or any of her fellow Tories, you’d think there had been a landslide in their favour. However, the true picture is entirely different. The SNP have 35 MPs, or 59 per cent of Scottish MPs. The Tories have 13 MPs, or 22 per cent. So, despite claims to the contrary, Ruth Davidson is STILL less popular than Margaret Thatcher was in Scotland.

It should also be noted that Ruth Davidson fought the election on an anti-independence ticket. That worked well for her, didn’t it? The people have spoken, Ruth, and they aren’t saying what you hoped they would.

Despite three long years of you, Dugdale and Rennie talking about nothing else, independence is still firmly on the table and we’ll see what happens once the details of the Brexit deal are known. Only then will the people of Scotland answer your question properly.

For folk who shout about democracy and the need to respect the decision of the electorate, Ruth Davidson and her red and yellow Tory chums seem hell-bent on denying the people of Scotland their democratic right to a say on the future of their country.

I believe the people of Scotland deserve better than to be told what they can or cannot do or say. I also believe ALL politicians should be reminded that they work for us, not the other way around.

The Brexit negotiations begin in earnest in just under a fortnight. Once they are concluded, the people of Scotland shall have their say. It’s only right and it is only democratic. At best, Scotland stands on its own two feet for the first time in three centuries; at worst there is a vote and Scotland remains a junior partner in an unequal union.
John Mollins
Kemnay, Aberdeenshire

THE SNP now have to make an excellent job of running Scotland so as to win people over, and to shelve indyref2 until it’s an obvious and certain Yes.
Douglas Clement

THE result was not a disaster. It’s not what I wanted. But this was just a battle. The SNP are still the biggest party in Scotland by far. The war will continue, hopefully with renewed vigour.
Phil Devitt

RUTH Davidson is right to demand that a second independence referendum be taken “off the table.” If I was leading a party which only had 13 MPs, I would be afraid to face the judgment of the people.
Euan Macpherson
Dundee

AFTER a disappointing night, it is perhaps as well not to lose sight of the positive aspects of the new political situation. The loss of the Tory majority at Westminster means there is now a chance that trade access to the single market will be maintained. It is difficult to overstate how disastrous loss of this would be to the Scottish economy.

The SNP, with 35 seats, will be able to exercise more pressure on a minority government than was the case previously with a Tory majority.

Finally, let’s not forget that the SNP won the election in Scotland with more seats than the other parties combined. No small achievement.
Peter Craigie
Edinburgh