THE more things change...

I was brought up in a “socialist” household. I’ve put socialist in quotations because I don’t think my parents, like most Labour members and voters, really wanted to end capitalism. But they all believed they were.

One of my uncles was SNP, and stood for the council elections in the early seventies. And that’s when I first asked why Scotland wasn’t an independent country.

When I first became a voter I followed my parents and voted Labour. Even after I joined the army, my father voted Labour for me by proxy. But I became more and more convinced Scotland would be much better as an independent country, asking him to vote SNP for me.

To my parents, voting was important. So was having an opinion about it. The only wrong way was neglecting to vote.

I remember well the slogans “Vote Labour, get Tory”, and my father saying “Labour left me”. 22 years since he passed I realise I now face “Vote SNP, get Woke” as well as “the SNP left me.” Talk about history repeating itself. Surely we must watch and learn.

I say it with no relish. Having spent more than a decade as a member and activist for the SNP, and Yes, I wonder have I been cheated these past seven years.

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From 2011 until 2014 we went at it. Unreservedly. But since then it has been “now is not the time” not from a Tory mouth, from our FM. There have been many mandates – almost as many as the promises, first half, second half, next term, we knew it couldn’t happen, obviously, et al.

This term was won on “indyref in the first half of this term, with or without a Section 30” which has since become “we will ask in 2023” knowing that the answer will be “no!” Have I been fobbed off again? Obviously?!

And then there is the gender debate. I certainly never voted for it in any way shape or form. There’s been no national conversation discussing and informing us on it, yet here we are facing a double whammo of the Gender Recognition Act and its henchman the Hate Crime Bill! Snuck in while folk thought they were voting for independence, in some shape or form.

Ostensibly I left the SNP. But I very much feel the SNP left me. The worry deepens, the similarities to my father and his Labour bear down. I know they were never socialists, but has Sturgeon’s SNP ever really been about independence? 2023 will tell that story. I can hardly wait.

Brian Kelly
Dunfermline

SO Mr Starmer has come up with his grand plan to “fix” the UK. His answer to all our problems in SCOTLAND is ... VOTE LABOUR! (shock) and we’ll get a wonderful fuzzy, caring federation, where our views will be respected, and even MORE powers will be devolved. Sounds great eh?

However, the teeny weeny snag ... we have to sit on our collective arses, put up with successive Tory governments, and HOPE that one day (and it won’t be soon) ENGLAND decides to also vote Labour, leaving us in the delightful position of STILL having nuclear weapons in Scotland, and STILL have our decisions overruled by Westminster. Suddenly it doesn’t seem so attractive, does it? Starmer is just a Blair clone with a charisma bypass and blew it.

Barry Stewart Blantyre

I HAVE noted discussion in The National agent the colour of our flag. I believe the Seannachie Righ or Lord Lyon has given his opinion on the matter, which is based on the legend of the flag’s origins. It is said our flag originated prior to the battle of Athelstaneford.

Stars or clouds forming a saltire in the dawn sky. Sky blue has been deemed to be the proper colour for our flag. What teams wear as strips is a matter of no consequence.

R Mill Irving
Gifford, East Lothian