THE letter from S Mackenzie in Tuesday’s National seems to me to be particularly important in showing us a clear way forward to Scottish independence.

Alex Salmond led the SNP and the independence movement towards reaching an agreement with the UK Government on a route to independence which both governments could work on together. Alex made some progress on that which led to the referendum in 2014.

Alex was too trusting in the UK Government and was not properly prepared to deal with the currency issue, but in spite of that, a mass movement developed and it began to look like the Yes movement would win the vote. Faced with this, the UK Government offered new promises and issued threats in a desperate attempt to stop that from happening.

After that fright, the UK Government was never again going to offer co-operation to any Scottish Government to see this repeated.

Nicola Sturgeon copied Alex Salmond’s approach and tried to get a similar agreement, but this was no longer available to her. Nicola should have tried a different approach, but she did not, and she reinforced this policy by insisting that any referendum must be legal, which she failed to define.

This made it easy for the UK Government. All it needed to do was just to refuse to co-operate, at least for the time being, and this left the Scottish Government stuck.

Instead of relooking at its policy on this, Nicola proceeded with the same policy and foolishly asked the English Supreme Court for a judgement on the Scottish Government’s powers on this matter. The answer Nicola got from the English Supreme Court was clear. It saw the Scottish Government as no more than a creation of the Westminster Government and it reinforced the English feudal definition of sovereignty, which is that sovereignty in all Scottish matters is subject to the English concept of sovereignty that comes from “the King in the Westminster parliament”, not from the people, English or Scots.

That judgment, if the Scottish people were foolish enough to accept it, would mean that the Scottish people have no democratic rights – they are feudal “subjects” of the king in the Westminster parliament. To ignore this, and to carry on with the Sturgeon policy, is plain stupidity. This particular English legal route is a dead end.

However, as S Mackenzie has pointed out, King Charles III has sworn to uphold the Claim of Right which confirms that the Scottish people are sovereign – this somewhat upsets the English Supreme Court’s view on sovereignty. So if we pursue the Scottish view of sovereignty and the UK Government try to challenge us with the English “legal view”, they will be unable to sustain that and will be hoisted by their own petard.

Our approach now is as S Mackenzie suggests to get as many people as possible to sign the Edinburgh Proclamation and affirm Scottish sovereignty, then for the Scottish Government to acknowledge this sovereignty and respond to it.
Andy Anderson
Ardrossan

I WAS one of those who contributed to the SNP appeal for donations to carry forward a referendum for independence.

I donated about £50 over a period of time. I would like to state unequivocally that I do not want to be party to any complaint about the money’s misuse or misappropriation. Nor do I want my contributions to be included in the total sum of money which is being investigated for “fraud”.

I am confident that whatever that money was spent on was done in good faith and with the purpose of benefitting Scotland. Because the Westminster government made it impossible for a referendum to be held, and because the SNP’s raison d’etre is to achieve independence, I am satisfied that my money was spent to aid the cause in another way.

I am sure I am not alone in holding these or similar views, and I would like to see some arrangement whereby others who contributed could send letters declaring that they do not wish their contributions to be included in the allegations. We might find that the purported missing £600,000 reduces substantially – and demonstrate that there is still a deep reservoir of trust in the political party which is essential for the independence struggle.

I am not sure to whom such letters would need to go (police, procurator fiscal, SNP, etc) but this is a campaign that I feel needs to be undertaken to fight back against the Unionist pile-on.
David White
Galashiels