I HAVE been giving thought to the state of our independence fight in Scotland. We are on the cusp of an all-out indy campaign – low-key activities can now blossom. Some independentists are despairing at the lack of bite and aggressiveness by the SNP government and its MPs. What will change and make both those elements of our struggle forceful and pugnacious will be a mass independence movement, in all its diversity and with all its ideas, supplying the backbone.
I frown at those in our movement who constantly snipe at or criticise the SNP government without offering views as to what could or should be done. I consider such gets negative and counter-productive.
READ MORE: Blow for Sarwar as Unite candidate signals Scottish Labour funding may end
Voters have given the SNP government the responsibility to govern Scotland, and contrary to the claims of some it still has the basic aim to deliver a referendum and win it. It is well aware that we will only get one shot at this, and it will require serious consideration as to how and when that aim can be realised. A dummy run is not an option.
What at this time is the condition of the Unionist forces in Scotland? Their organisations are proving to be ineffective, causing Westminster to take over the running of the show. The Scottish Tories, faced with the growing awareness of the people of Scotland that Johnson’s government is one of lies, corruption, cronyism and incompetence, are unable to defend it or even justify it and as a consequence have taken a vow of political silence.
The Holyrood Labour party (with a few exceptions) are unable to attack the rotten Johnson regime, restricted in doing so by their hatred of the SNP and a fear of being accused by other areas of Unionism of betraying the Union should they given any support to SNP proposals. Their political position now may cost them dear at next year’s council elections.
READ MORE: Unite frontrunner Steve Turner says indyref2 'matter for the Scottish people'
Unite, which is my trade union, is electing a new general secretary. Steve Turner, who is the favourite to win, is supporting the democratic right of an indyref2. If this happens it will create a dynamic within the Scottish trade union movement because the unions have a role in strengthening the fight for a referendum and, if it is won, a role in the establishment of a new state.
Just a final comment regarding England. The fightback against the Johnson regime appears now to be the responsibility of the trade union movement.
Bobby Brennan
Glasgow
BILL Clark (Letters, Jul 24) makes the very valid point that the SNP should be working with allies to promote the cause of independence.
I wholeheartedly agree and am pleased to see broader cooperation with the Scottish Greens, far and away the second-largest pro-independence party on the political scene, and I would like to see much broader cooperation and coordination in future.
However, in my view he makes an error in suggesting a closer relationship with the Alba Party.
READ MORE: SNP should cut out the attacks on allies and work together with Alba
I fail to see how it would assist the cause to be seen to be in league with a fringe party that fared no better than other fringe parties in the latest Holyrood election and who have a figurehead whose personal brand is now so toxic that his personal approval ratings are worse in Scotland than those of the profoundly unpopular Prime Minister.
Colin Wilson
Alford, Aberdeenshire
AFTER reading pages four and five of Monday’s National I had to re-check the front to see if I had mistakenly picked up a copy of the Express or Mail or indeed any other “Unionist rag”. Two connected pages of SNP and Yes movement baaad stories.
Whilst accepting that you can not be slavish in your support of the independence cause or indeed the SNP hierarchy, we have more than enough negativity from the overwhelming majority of mainstream media.
Derek Attfield
Port Glasgow
TO help cheer me up, I decided to re-read that memorable history of England called 1066 And All That by the Scot WC Sellar and the Portugese-born RJ Yeatman.
In it I came across the passage: “The childless Scotch King Alexander the Great had trotted over a cliff and was thus dead; so the Scots asked Edward I to tell them who was King of Scotland, and Edward said that a Balliol man ought to be.”
It may be several centuries later, but that Balliol man seems to believe that it is his destiny to be King of Scotland – possibly the last King of Scotland. Alexander the Great seeks to control the people of Scotland in what he hopes will make him a strong king, though we would see him as a bad king or even an awful king like King John.
1066 And All That was first published in 1930. Alexander Johnson was born in 1964. What did Sellar and Yeatman know?
Robert Mitchell
Alva
MONDAY’S article “Protest for backing Scottish producers positive” and Mr Newton’s sterling action highlighted what I’ve suspected for sometime, that most supermarkets are branding most produce with a Union Jack.
Is this as a consequence of Brexit or a command from on high?
READ MORE: Protest at Morrisons after manager and customer clash over Union Jackery
Either way, I want no part of it, so I have been taking my business to small, independent shops and delis who value my trade and farmers markets and farm shops where I know the provenance of the produce. Not to mention less food miles.
When will supermarket chains realise that Scottish-branded produce is a premium product and is often sought out by consumers, as Ruth Watson of Scotland the Brand has discovered? They are in fact devaluing the product.
After this incident of telling a shopper to go elsewhere I will never set foot in a Morrisons again.
Iris Graham
Edinburgh
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