THE current mess the SNP has got itself into has been building for some time as the party became complacent with electoral success and ignored its core reason for existing.
Since the 2014 referendum almost nothing has been done to promote Scottish independence, despite annual promises that next year would see a new referendum or an election based on the single policy of independence. Compare this with efforts to promote fringe policies such as gender reform, which could well have been left for later discussion.
As for the endlessly repeated “Scotland will not be dragged out of the EU”, there were lots of words but precisely NO actions.
READ MORE: We need to do more than wait around for change to happen
The wider Yes campaign has been ignored, with few SNP ministers prepared to support rallies and marches or engage with fellow independence seekers, like Alba, who are treated as enemies.
Even brilliant SNP members – like Joanna Cherry, who has twice beaten the Westminster government in court – are excluded from any influence by the inner circle who seem to fear the competition. The secrecy over membership numbers and finances is disgraceful and the changes to the National Executive Committee by the same small group of favourites has removed any influence by SNP members.
I hope Humza Yousaf is not the “continuity” First Minister but is committed to quickly rebuilding and reforming the party which I have supported for more than 50 years.
James Duncan
Edinburgh
SUNDAY’S headline is in danger of being overly simplistic. Yes, we demand independence, but as we have seen it is far from simple, and not in any individual’s gift. It is very easy to demand that someone does something, but without the power it becomes meaningless.
Along the way we have to get permission, as the legal position stands, to hold a test of public opinion. While that is hard enough, in order to actually gain the test result we want, the rest of the team (ie the rest of us) have to help with generating widespread public support.
READ MORE: John Curtice: Yes support steady but SNP must hope voters remain loyal
Internal bickering, misguided public complaints about malpractice and also perhaps focussing on narrow but well-intended policies all need to drop down the priority list, as they divert attention from what we need to do. After independence we will have all the time in the world to resolve such matters, but until then we have to ensure we carry on with administrative competence and gain the wider trust of the persuadable public, while undermining and countering the entrenched Unionist views.
The party in administration, in order to remain there, has to comply with the law as it stands, so while they can create the climate for change it is still up to us to keep them in power by not undermining their position and also to persuade the wider public of the actual benefits of independence. Until we do the latter we will never win.
Nick Cole
Meigle, Perthshire
THERE is a vast opportunity we have never really looked at. Laying aside the present distraction (which has nothing to do with the case for our independence), we have a whole world waiting for us to join them and it is a massive opportunity we haven’t really looked at yet. The United Nations Charter, adopted in1946, is unambiguous: “All peoples have the right to self-determination.”
What perhaps is as significant in this context are the Scots and the Scots DNA all across our world.
READ MORE: Speakers revealed for SNP youth wing's first international conference
There is no other little nation that can match this – and no other better opportunity that we have not taken advantage of.
Whether it be Australia or Canada or New Zealand, Newfoundland or Nova Scotia or North America or our Nordic neighbours and so many others, there is no other thread that runs through the DNA like Scots DNA. And I have little doubt those with that DNA are waiting for us to join them on the benches of the UN.
It is now relatively easy to make contact through all the media in all the world, and provide contact to our world-wide Scotland to get behind us as we drive onwards to our proper place in this world.
David McEwan Hill
via email
WHEN there is potential evidence of major financial shenanigans relating to government spending, I support the need for a full investigation by the police. I therefore look forward to seeing tents pitched in the gardens of Conservative ministers and their streets blocked with police vans and the massed ranks of right-wing press. We have all heard that potentially billions of pounds have “allegedly” been siphoned off into the accounts of Conservative Party friends during the pandemic.
Harry Key
Largoward
ROZ Foyer writes that “when the time comes and the Tories have been carted out of office, the next Labour government [should] devolve employment law as quickly as possible to the Scottish Parliament”, I think she should dwell on the fact that the “next Labour government” will only exist if England votes for it (STUC Congress will send out a loud message to both the FM and Labour, Apr 8). Her plea/hope for further devolution will almost definitely fall on the terminally deaf ears of Mr Starmer. As long as we remain in this sham Union, we will always get what suits the English ruling class, which Mr Starmer seems currently beholden to. At age 76, I can remember when Labour WAS the workers’ party – NO LONGER!
Barry Stewart
Blantyre
TWENTY hours in a queue at Dover! Cheer up, at least thanks to me your tax haven arrangements are safe from “Johnnie foreigner”. Enjoy your bottled water. Yours truly, Boris, “the comeback kid”.
Iain R Thomson
Strathglass
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