FOR me, and for many others I am sure, there is a narrative beginning to take hold in the independence movement that is disturbing and gives cause for deep concern and great disappointment.

Among our policy makers, there is developing a body of thought that would delay the next referendum until after Brexit has become a reality or even until after the 2021 Holyrood elections. Some are even suggesting as far away as 2025 or longer. Perish the thought!

We all know and appreciate that timing is everything and no-one wants to go too soon. It is, however, equally possible to go too late and some, perhaps a lot of us, fear that is the danger we are about to fall into.

In the first instance there can be no guarantee that SNP and Greens will win enough seats in 2021 Holyrood election to push for a referendum. The campaign statements from the leadership contenders suggest there is no prospect of Labour in Scotland being converted to independence. There is a real possibility therefore that all our progress in the past 10 years could be lost.

As for post-Brexit, say five years from now, we will have been so de-sensitised by then that UK outside of Europe will have settled down into the status quo, the new normal. Losers’ consent will prevail and Scotland’s place in Europe will no longer be a reason for voting for independence. There is also the danger that once out of Europe Scotland would no longer be able to fast-track re-admission, if the next referendum resulted in independence.

Delaying the referendum does not necessarily improve the prospects for a successful outcome but it does risk losing the current momentum and enthusiasm. Truly a difficult choice!
JF Davidson
Bonnyrigg

IT has been very good to watch the Labour Party conference thus far and I applaud the enthusiasm and dedication of delegates who are determined to build on their recent success and ensure victory at the first opportunity. It was wonderfully exhilarating to hear Dennis Skinner reminding us of the 1945 party which gave us our NHS. I was a boy of 13 and can remember the day it was announced that the Beverage plan had succeeded. And I remember what it was like before then when people were afraid to be ill.

But how was it that, as I anticipated, the first Scottish voice had to once again criticise the SNP Government? In Scotland it is the Tories who are our common enemy, even though we understand Scottish Labour’s desperate need to increase their share of the vote.

I was a Labour voter and a union member until only recently when I decided that Scotland’s best chance of ridding ourselves of the London Tories – forever – is to be independent. And we know that there are Scottish Labour voters who believe in independence. To the extent that the idea of a coalition with the SNP is being mooted within their ranks.

I wholeheartedly agree with the slogan “For the Many, Not the Few” and have the greatest pleasure in wishing Labour every success and will rejoice when the day comes that they displace the despicable Tories. But it is unfortunate that some find it necessary to ridicule the very people who once were their supporters and who they will have to persuade to return if their fortunes in Scotland are to improve.
Robert Johnston
Airdrie

DURING the last few days, my wife and I have been re-visiting the television series House of Cards – the original trilogy set in London in the 1990s. It was written by the now Tory peer Michael Dobbs, and set after the departure of Margaret Thatcher. It tells the story of the rise of Francis Urquhart (played by the late Ian Richardson) to become Prime Minister of a Tory government. He is Machiavellian (Machiavelli was born in Florence when it was a separate republic) as he does anything to gain and retain absolute power.

Watching it, we have been struck by how up-to-date it is. From more than 20 years ago we have the themes of recession, homelessness, poverty, a London tower-block of council flats being destroyed in an explosion with the deaths of 70 tenants, as well as terrorist incidents (in this case organised as a distraction by the secret services but blamed on the IRA).

We also have the mainstream media doing just what the government want to support them because they are all in it together.

House of Cards may be fiction, but it still shows that the world of Westminster has changed little if at all in the last quarter of a century.

Perhaps Theresa May went to Florence in the hope of getting herself a little Machiavellian dust to help her gain and retain absolute power over us all.
Robert Mitchell
Stirling