SNP’s newest release offers little on top of resources in 2014

Let’s start with your front page: “Work on a new Yes campaign is under way – Russell to update the SNP’s NEC on independence unit’s drive to re-ignite the Yes cause!” Great! He’s going to give us some sort of detail about how we can progress in the cause of independence. Well, actually, no he’s not.

READ MORE: Scottish independence: Michael Russell to update SNP NEC on Yes campaign drive

In the article, there was nothing there about how he was going to get the “Yes Movement” moving again. Merely a reference to the fact that he has produced a leaflet, with lots of reasons in it why we should become an independent country. Yes, that’s fine. But there’s nothing new here. All of this was available to us in 2013 and 2014 for the last referendum. I have loads of leaflets that provide everything his leaflet tells us. I downloaded it and printed it and have more or less read it word by word.

But, nowhere in his leaflet does it tell us that the combined GDP of Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia (five independent countries) amounts to £181.53 billion, whereas Scotland’s GDP on its own amounts to £179.96bn. If five countries can be independent on £181bn between them, then surely Scotland can be independent with £179bn on its own! Nor does it tell us that in 2017-18, the UK exported 29.2% less than it imported (ran at a loss). In the same period, Scotland exported 16.5% more goods than it imported (ran at a profit). The leaflets I have tell me that. They are 2014 leaflets.

All this SNP leaflet does is tell us some of what we already knew in 2014. But does it mention anything about the matters that people at the doors are going to ask – like taxation, currency and pensions and even education or the NHS? No, it doesn’t; except to warn us that Boris is likely to open the NHS, even in Scotland, to the American drug companies. But it doesn’t tell us what the SNP will do to rectify all the failings.

Then, to make matters worse, we have Kathleen Nutt’s article on the same page, “MacNeil: 2026 election may need to be our indy vote”. Why? If Boris won’t give us a referendum, and our First Minister breaks her promise to give us a referendum in the early part of this parliament, then she can forget all about the 2026 election. Because by then Alba will be much stronger and the independence vote will be split. We are quite likely to see the Tories as the largest party in Scotland. Or, if not, then a Tory/Labour amalgamation. That would kill any chance of independence for the next 10 to 15 years.

READ MORE: Angus MacNeil says 2026 election may have to be our independence vote

The other point about the article concerning Angus MacNeil’s statement is that the SNP have obviously not considered anything other than “Plan A” which is now dead in the water. We were told in 2016 that we are a partnership of equals. A great deal has been debated about the Treaty of Union being a voluntary matter. So, considering the Westminster Tories have now made it abundantly clear that they will not “allow” another referendum, the Scottish Government should be meeting with the Greens, who provide the independence-supporting majority along with the SNP, and drawing up a plan to withdraw from the Treaty of Union. I know of no treaty anywhere in the world in which one signatory to that treaty cannot withdraw from it without the permission of the other parties. This article puts us at the point where we have to consider what Ireland and many former “Empire” countries did to gain their independence. They just walked away from the UK. We’ve given the SNP mandate after mandate. They have an independence-supporting majority in the present government, so why not take that last election as the referendum?

Perhaps, if you look carefully, this is just the SNP punting the independence issue even further into the future. Angus MacNeil's article suggests 2026 as a date for a referendum based on an election vote. On the front page of the new leaflet, it states the MSPs “stood on a manifesto commitment to hold a fresh independence referendum once the Covid crisis has passed". I think we are all very well aware that it is NEVER likely to have passed. Professor Leitch has already warned its likely to be with us for some time. We need the SNP to start behaving like sensible adults and deal with the referendum issues at the same time as combatting the pandemic. Or is this leaflet just another SNP delaying tactic?
Charlie Kerr
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