AS the outside temperature drops to freezing, the political temperature is beginning to heat up, thank goodness! There are many positive signs on the horizon exactly when needed. The Alba conference on Saturday, to which all indy supporters were invited, went ahead with great and varied inputs,despite the snow and sleet and travel disruption.

Stephen Flynn, the new SNP leader at Westminster has made some interesting choices for his front bench, notably Philippa Whitford and Carol Monaghan. He is says he is open to joint working on independence which will be very welcome in the Yes movement.

Good luck to him in his new leadership role!

Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp has announced a conference to bring the Yes movement together and to act as a bridge between the movement and the Scottish Government.

All of these measures point to new energy and enthusiasm in the indy movement after a long period of depression and division.

At the Alba conference we heard Jenny Smith from Dunfermline SNP speak about bringing together all the strands of indy activity – Pensioners for Indy, Believe in Scotland, Common Weal, constitution and currency activists and others – and this is beginning to happen.

There have been many debates about the way forward to claiming our independence and many valuable contributions about plebiscite elections, the United Nations and the Claim of Right.

Alex Salmond, Alba’s leader, has constantly stressed the value of a Scottish constitutional convention, bringing together all civic and political elements and a plebiscite election in order to ensure political legitimacy in the international arena. Sara Salyers researches into the different aspects of Scotland’s ancient constitution are enormously valuable in educating Scottish people, giving us confidence and challenging the deeply rooted damaging effects of centuries of cultural imperialism.

All of these efforts feed into the whole of the Yes Movement. In the words of our beloved national poet: “Then let us pray that come it may, As come it will for a’ that.”

Maggie Chetty

Glasgow

CRAIG Meighan’s reporting of the Alba special assembly in Perth on Saturday was correct that the meeting overwhelmingly favoured utilising a Holyrood poll rather than a Westminster one for any “plebiscite election” on independence.

The advantages are obvious. The franchise for a Holyrood poll does not exclude 16 to 17-year-olds or European nationals resident and contributing to Scotland, from voting. It would also avoid the ballot rigging identity checks about to be introduced by the Tory government.

Most importantly, it would be much easier to focus such a poll around the single question of Scotland’s right of self-determination, particularly if the independence supporting parties fought under a Scotland United banner.

However, the proposal is not to wait until the elections scheduled for 2026 for such a “de facto referendum”, as has been mischievously reported in some of the Unionist press. On the contrary, urgency in securing an independence vote was one of the sentiments of the conference, since the people attending believe that the cost of living crisis is a reason for accelerating the move to independence, not one for delay.

A precise proposal canvassed was to dissolve the Scottish Parliament to force a ballot on Thursday, October 19, 2023, the date promised for the “no ifs no buts” referendum before it was scuppered by the move to the Supreme Court.

The Holyrood poll was only one of a range of options discussed by the Perth meeting to galvanise the independence cause and Alba are still a fledgling political party and but one part of the indy movement.

However, it was an energised conference and, given the prevailing weather conditions, hugely well attended. For that reason it will be reconvened on January 14 in Edinburgh to take all the proposals from Saturday forward into a fully formulated independence strategy – one which is badly required if we are to harness current and clear pro-Alba independence support among the people.

Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh

Chair, Alba Party

IN an interview with the Tory propaganda organ the Daily Telegraph, Labour’s shadow English health secretary and Blairite clone Wes Streeting, declared war on the NHS.

The explicit aim of the Blairites is back-door privatisation and public money going to fat cat “healthcare” companies run by the likes of Richard Branson.

Streeting attacked the BMA and he has condemned striking nurses and has said their demands for a pay rise is “unaffordable”. Streeting argued that Labour would have gone further than the Tories in using private hospitals for NHS patients.

Any illusions about the “progressive” nature of the British imperialist Unionist Labour Party should be permanently discredited and discarded. The Labour Party is an arm of the British state. Since the election of Starmer there has been a war on the membership, paeans to the royal family, an embrace of militarist rhetoric.

In Scotland, this abomination of a party are in cahoots with the Tories in eight local authorities, even voting to dent hungry children hot soup and a roll over the winter. This is depraved.

All because Labour are Unionists and preserving it at all costs is their sole aim.

Labour Unionists who are the Tories complicit enablers need to be held accountable.

Alan Hinnrichs

Dundee