I AM struck by the apparent claim that there is not a mandate to call a second independence referendum, given that by itself the SNP does not command an overall majority.
To initially highlight the scale of the SNP victory, the party achieved 47.7% of the constituency vote in these elections, the highest achieved by any party since Labour’s victory in the 1966 UK General Election, when it achieved 48% of the vote, including 49.8% in Scotland. The SNP now holds an amazing 85% of the constituencies in Scotland, smashing the 63% of seats won by Tony Blair in Labour’s 1997 landslide victory.
Let us not forget, prime minister David Cameron enacted a referendum on Brexit with a paltry 36.1% of the vote and this was enacted by Boris Johnson with a mere 43.6% of the vote.
The Scottish Parliament now has a pro-independence majority of 15 (64 SNP MSPs plus eight Greens) matching that of the 2011 election which resulted in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. In that year, the SNP achieved 45.4% of the vote on a turnout of just over half the electorate, considerably less than the 64.2% turnout achieved in the 2021 elections.
People can disagree on how the UK Government should respond to demands from a pro-independence majority in the Scottish Parliament, but the party-political composition of that majority is of no constitutional significance and shouldn’t in any way influence the decision.
Alex Orr
Edinburgh
I CAN’T believe that every Cabinet Minister in Johnson’s government is 100% working on the response to the pandemic or the recovery, whatever that entails.
Likewise for our government in Edinburgh, who should now be preparing a recovery that has independence at its heart.
A working party should be up and running to examine how best to set Scotland on a new and better course. Identify a coherent plan together with the Greens, within the devolved powers, but crucially highlight where we could go further as an independent nation, with full powers over the economy, trade, welfare, immigration, and the environment. On the latter point, if everything is to be delayed until the Covid crisis is over (how defined?), what about the climate crisis, do we down tools on that as well? Start by ditching the Growth Commision report’s austerity agenda ... reading the “Deficit Myth” would be a start!
We’ve been disparaged and ignored by Westminster for too long. They’ve had their chance. Now it’s time for our government to set its course on the front foot. Ignore the brayings of the Unionists, who were defeated at the election, and the distractions they will seek to raise.
The majority of people in Scotland voted for a referendum. Please answer that call as an urgent priority. Play into Westminster hands much longer (you can be sure they’re not twiddling their thumbs), and we’ll be sunk once and for all.
When the media ask (as they are already) if any civil servants are working on plans for an independence referendum, I don’t want to hear defensive mutterings in response. I want to hear “you bet!”
Roddie Macpherson
Avoch
WHY was the Scottish Government’s Covid briefing on Tuesday not broadcast on the BBC Scotland channel in full, as it has been previously?
As a licence payer to the state broadcaster, I should at least be able to access in full, statements from the Government regarding health and safety issues – especially during a pandemic.
Why are leaders of different political parties in Scotland given the opportunity, before the briefing is even finished, to criticise and analyse the Covid briefing from the Scottish Government on the BBC when this is not reciprocated to the leaders of political parties following a briefing from the Westminster government?
These questions, of course, should be put to the BBC. However, I’ve as much chance of getting a satisfactory answer from them as our MPs do at the mis-named Prime Minister’s Question Time.
I have therefore posed my questions to you, in the hope that someone at The National could publish the easiest way to live stream the briefing, as I’m sure I’m not alone in struggling to find it quickly.
Sally Ann Urry
Edinburgh
THE Unionist media are going through a period of denial and employing downright misinformation tactics in the aftermath of the SNP’s clear election victory. Heard Murdo Fraser on the BBC’s Newsnight programme saying there should not be another independence referendum since the SNP had been thwarted by the Unionist parties in their attempt to gain a Holyrood majority.
Leaving aside the eight Green MSPs that were returned, the election saw that 31 Tories, plus 22 Labour, plus four LibDems were elected – and that equals a total of 57 Unionist MSPs.
The SNP returned 64 MSPs, Murdo, so that, in my opinion, results in a clear majority of seven independence supporting SNP MSPs over Unionist parties.
Add in the eight Greens and it’s game, set and match with an independence majority of 15!
Time to get back to the classroom Murdo and learn some basic maths. Maybe that is why you are so critical of the education system?
George Dickie
via email
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