I AM sure I, like many of your readers, have been spending a considerable amount of my time talking to “non believers”, I mean in terms of the benefits, indeed the necessity now, for Scottish independence. People within my friendship group, not total strangers but those I know or suspect are not yet with us as “Yes” voters.

A startling revelation has emerged, one that we, as a Movement, really need to consider for the coming indy2 campaign.

The majority, yes majority, I have talked to are under the impression that a vote for independence is a vote for an SNP government in perpetuity!

As a life time supporter of independence, now stretching back well into last century, it had never occurred to me that a significant element of the voting public, those unlike ourselves, not political nerds, but normal decent people, appear to be under the impression that a vote for Nicola, or vote for the SNP, is a vote for a single party independent Scottish state ruled forever by the SNP.

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These people are not fools, they are intelligent people, and I for the life of me could not understand how this unhappy misunderstanding has come to pass.

Not until questioned by a staunch Labour supporter who asked me “where in your manifesto does it indicate otherwise”?

Of course I would not expect it to be in our manifesto for a Holyrood election but certainly would in the forthcoming referendum campaign.

So, while it being essential to present a positive case for independence, achievable only by a strong vote for the SNP and Yes as appropriate, it will be equally important to spell out, in the independence campaign, that the Yes vote is not for an SNP government in perpetuity, but a vehicle to deliver independence by implementation over a transitional period followed by Scottish multi party elections whereby this section of society can return to voting as they wish in a normal multi party state.

After clarifying this point and explaining the situation, I have secured several new recruits to Yes.

It is a classic case of “never assume the (for us) obvious”.

While we need to engage people with a vision of the better and fairer society that is possible through independence, one where we are really free from Westminster control, with our own central bank, treasury and currency, let's keep it simple but not over look the – for us long-in-the-tooth die-hards, bleeding obvious – “ a vote for Indy is a vote for independence not for the SNP in perpetuity.”

It might just push that figure well above its current stubborn 50% for Yes.

Ian Stewart

Uig, Isle of Skye

TWO recent articles in The National caught my attention. Both were in the Saturday the October 2 edition and were linked to the forthcoming COP26 conference. The first was headed “Green Zone at COP26 to host 200 events”. It seems that young people, businesses and community groups will hold events, open to the public, in the Glasgow Science Centre during the conference. The Scottish Government has backed this and some other community based events to the tune of around £500,000. The programme of both these events makes no mention of the word independence.

The second was headed “Details released of indy march to take place during COP26”. It seems it has again fallen to AUOB to organise what looks like the only independence related event to mark COP26. However its proposed route is somewhat distant from the conference venue.

I have tried to find out what political events have been organised by the Scottish Government or the SNP, the party of the Scottish Government, to take advantage of the fact that the eyes of the world will be on Scotland for this short period. I can find no evidence of any.

When asked on September 16, Alok Sharma, the UK Government minister tasked with organising the conference said “Nicola Sturgeon will play an important part. There is work going on at an official level looking at this. I’ve said very clearly we want this to be a whole-of-the-UK approach, and I’m sure you’ll hear more shortly from the UK Government on this issue. This is something the Prime Minister leads on.”

Over two weeks later there seems to be no clarity on this issue but I think we could be forgiven for thinking the First Minister will have very little or no role to play and need not clear much space on her diary for this period.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that both the SNP and the Scottish Government have failed miserably to make the most of a unique opportunity to raise the profile of the Scottish independence movement in the eyes of the world.

Iain Wilson

Stirling

KEVIN McKenna’s Wednesday article should make thinking people be very worried about where this corrupt Westminster administration is heading (Is it finally time to look inside Pandora’s Box?, October 6). We have never been more in danger of extreme right policies being the norm and that is the road to fascism. Our SNP MPs sit in parliament and must know that they are spitting into the wind and making not one bit of difference, they don’t even call Boris Johnson out for the liar he is because “that wouldn’t be cricket” ; they’re playing the game you see.

Nicola Sturgeon’s pathetically fawning address to the Queen at the opening of Holyrood was undignified, embarrassing and untruthful, she could have pointed out that the gains and rights that were hard fought for by so many from past generations were being destroyed.

So, we play the same game as Westminster, meanwhile the country is going down the tubes but who cares, certainly not some of our MPs and MSPs who have well lined pockets while watching our poorer citizens struggling and having to be fed at soup kitchens and our NHS is being privatised by stealth.

Our bonnie fechters will be turning in their graves at the state of this country, We have every right to Independence, why are we not taking it? What or who is holding us back?

Revolution is in the air – I hope.

Rosemary Smith

East Kilbride

THE ruling by the UK Supreme Court that the Scottish Parliament exceeded its authority in passing two bills is a deliverance.

It finally and permanently discredits Nicola Sturgeon’s embarrassing and ludicrous plan to beg Boris Johnson for “permission” to hold an independence referendum.

John Swinney, who is frankly as much use as a turnip as a politician, said he was “disappointed” with the ruling.

This is the political equivalent of shrugging you shoulders and letting out a large sigh.

Since 2015 the Tories have had a full-frontal attack on devolution. The response of Blackford and Sturgeon has been empty rhetoric and faux outrage.

The Westminster gravy train gives the SNP a stipend. From this the generous salaries are paid to various woke cult cretins for whom real employment would be a pipe dream. Scottish independence would threaten this income stream.

Sturgeon is more interested in student politics and appearing trendy to Metropolitan Guardian reading Identity Politics fanatics. As such her pursuit of unpopular “woke” polices has split the independence movement

In order to achieve independence there is going to be a conflict with Westminster. This is inevitable. However Nicola Sturgeon seems either unwilling or unable to accept this. Consequently there will never be an independence referendum while she is SNP leader.

People often ask what’s Plan B for a referendum. Sturgeon and the SNP don’t even have a credible Plan A.

There needs to be a referendum held on independence. Then Scotland can simply withdraw from the Treaty of Union.

Using international law would mean Westminster would be superceded.

Alan Hinnrichs

Dundee

NERO infamously fiddled while Rome burned. Marie-Antoinette disregarded the acute poverty in pre- revolutionary France by extolling the peasantry to simply eat cake. And now we have been presented with another historical era-defining moment in the shape of Therese Coffey, the dispassionate and boorish Secretary for Work and Pensions.

At the Tory Party Conference, Ms Coffey was witnessed dancing the night away and singing “I’ve had the time of my life”, karaoke style at the very time when the £20 a week uplift for Universal Credit was being dumped by her department.

The contrast between the apparent callous and wanton hedonism on display and the abandonment of the most vulnerable families in the UK is transparently stark and sums up the amoral and heartless nature of the Westminster government and its leader.

Ms Coffey whose previous utterances have included “it’s not my job to worry about people starving to death in the UK”, views the poor and helpless in society with an apathetic disdain at best and contempt at worst.

History will judge her lack of humanity harshly.

Owen Kelly

Stirling

TOMORROW, the UN biodiversity summit opens with virtual talks on a global plan to protect and restore nature. Face to face negotiations, originally due to take place in China in 2020, have been delayed three times due to the pandemic and are now scheduled for April 2022.

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While these delays are understandable, just like climate change the biodiversity crisis is still escalating. More than ever, world leaders must seize the opportunity to better protect the planet and all its habitants. Failure to act now will only make halting the loss of species and habitats more difficult.

Through a Natural Environment Bill to be introduced in 2023-24, the Scottish government has promised to set legally binding targets to stop and reverse biodiversity loss. This is very encouraging and indicates that nature is being taken seriously.

ut with one in nine species in Scotland at risk of extinction, if it is to succeed, work to halt and reverse the loss of Scotland’s nature must happen now - not just in two or three years’ time. The Scottish government can deliver its commitment by galvanising action across society to protect and restore our precious natural environment before it’s too late. People today, and future generations, rely on it.

Deborah Long

Perth