THERESA May’s speech in Florence, where she committed the UK to essentially remain a member of the European Union – at least in large part – until March 2021, should crystalise our own strategy and timescale for gaining independence.

The SNP should consider positioning itself on the basis that the 2021 Holyrood election will be a “de facto” referendum and as such be fought on that basis. If we win a majority of seats and more than 50 per cent of the vote then that in itself will be the grounds to enter negotiations on independence from the rest of the UK.

We know, from this year’s General Election as played out in Scotland, that our opponents ran their entire combined campaigns on the premise that a vote for the SNP was a vote for another indyref . This would undoubtedly be the tack taken by them in 2021, so this time let’s get ready for it and fight on that battleground.

Not to do so will leave our movement open to new dangers. The recent acceptance by the UK Parliament of draconian so-called “Henry VIII” powers being given to the Prime Minister and Cabinet opens real and permanent dangers for Scotland.

It is not only indy supporters who are watching the Catalonia developments intensely. As I understand it the constitution of Spain, entered into by all regions on the creation of the modern state after Franco, enshrined the requirement that all constituent regions must vote in favour of the succession of any one member region for it to be legal in terms of the Spanish constitution.

The European Union has already publicly stated that they will recognise the vote of Catalonia only if it is within the terms of that constitution.

In other words supported by all regions of Spain. This is unlikely.

It would be naive of us in the SNP not to see the potential for our adversaries to latch on to a similar set-up in the post-Brexit UK. It is highly likely, in my opinion, that part of the process now being taken forward under the “Henry VIII” mandate will be the creation of a post-Brexit UK constitution and within it the incorporation of a similar constraint pertaining certainly to both Wales and Scotland.

It would be equally naive to think that such a constitution could not or would not be passed by the UK Parliament. The combined votes of both Scottish and Welsh MPs would be unable to thwart it, even if they were all of our persuasion, which they are not.

Scotland currently is recognised internationally as a country in union with another to form the UK.

Such a post-Brexit UK constitution would incorporate Scotland in a way that would all but bind us forever.

There are of course real risks with progressing on this basis, but the risks of not doing so are of equal magnitude.
Ian Stewart
Uig, Isle of Skye

WE have seen so many examples of the hypocrisy of the Conservatives that we should have perhaps become numb to the moral vacuum that seems to lie at the heart, or, rather, the head, of the party. But sometimes the latest example of this hypocrisy takes one’s breath away all over again.

Is the Theresa May who said in Florence last Friday that “the United Kingdom has never felt totally at home in the European Union” the same Theresa May who said on April 25 2016: “Remaining inside the European Union does make us more secure, it does make us more prosperous and it does make us more influential beyond our shores.”

Indeed it is.
Gavin Brown
Linlithgow