IAN Murray is excited. Sir Keir promises to make the UK a green superpower on the back of Scotland. He pledges to create hundreds of thousands of Scottish jobs, lower the highest energy bills in the UK, provide energy security and tackle climate change with his new green superpowers. Does anyone seriously believe that if Scots vote Labour, nirvana will arrive?
How will these jobs materialise when Starmer has no plans to bring energy back into public ownership? He intends to leave the robber barons in charge who are funnelling profits to shareholders and fleecing consumers. If he does manage to set up a public energy company headquartered in Scotland, all we’ll get is another brass plate.
READ MORE: Labour 'not proposing' devolving more benefits to Scotland
How will energy bills fall when energy policy is reserved to Westminster? Scots pay the highest standing charges in the UK, our producers are charged the most to connect to the private National Grid, and our renewable energy resources have been auctioned off for a song. The 2022 ScotWind auction yielded a one-off payment of just £700 million whereas an offshore wind auction off Long Island, New York – a quarter the size of the Scottish area – yielded $4.4 billion.
When Starmer’s English Labour party promises energy security for Scotland, he means for England. Without Westminster’s plundering, Scotland would be the most energy-secure nation on the planet. Instead, Scottish renewables are being cabled south with no new money, jobs or investment for Scotland. And as long as Westminster remains in charge, the rip-off will continue.
Finally, how will Starmer “find the money” for all these promises when he’s pledged to spend no more than the government’s tax take, a self-imposed fiscal rule that is both a con and a straitjacket?
Wake up, Scotland. Labour isn’t the answer.
Leah Gunn Barrett
Edinburgh
MANY who are against self-determination for the people of Scotland like to make out that our country is economically dependent on our southern neighbour.
That narrative was undermined in last week’s Question Time when Ben Habib, former Conservative Party member and Brexit Party MEP now with Reform UK, stated (during discussion on resolving the UK cost-of-living crisis and making Britain “Great” again) that this could be achieved “by using the resources in the North Sea which are in abundance”.
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Mr Habib argued that Brexit had still not been achieved, so it appears that he and his new party are on the same path as Boris Johnson, who recently coined the term “Total Brexit”.
Perhaps it is time for Labour Party supporters in particular to objectively reconsider their views on self-determination, which should help them to realise that the only path to enduring egalitarian governance and fundamental wealth distribution is via an economically thriving independent country.
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Like Mr Habib, Tony Blair Mark II has stated that if in government he would use Scotland’s resources (especially Scotland’s enormous renewable resources) to address the financial issues being experienced by those living south of the Border, but like his “Tory-lite” predecessor (who continued to hide the McCrone Report revealing the huge economic value of Scotland’s oil and gas resources) he will fail to deliver the long-term social aspirations of the people of Scotland.
Stan Grodynski
Longniddry, East Lothian
I AM really glad, from a political point of view, that I no longer live in England. When I first moved to Scotland more than 12 years ago I had to research the Scottish Parliament, being still a member of the Labour Party.
What I found for myself was that the Scottish Labour Party was nothing more than an opposition party, opposing for the sake of it without debating policies in order to reach a possible agreed compromise when necessary.
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Conversely, the SNP government appeared to be the socialist party I had always believed my vote for a Labour government in England counted for. At that time I knew nothing about the independence movement and its SNP roots, but this didn’t interfere with my decision to change my political party membership for the SNP.
Reading The National article about Alan Cumming and Anas Sarwar (Jun 19) left me without doubt about the worsening state of the Labour Party. If Sarwar wants to be in power regardless of the lack of socialist policies, then he is far from being ideological but rather a politician hell-bent on a career.
It is quite possible to be in power and to be “ideologically pure”. The current Tory government is the perfect example, but for all the wrong reasons. Once upon a time, way back when, the Labour Party was somewhat “ideologically pure” but for all the right reasons, so far as the working-class voters were concerned.
Today, it has become a carbon copy of the Tory party, complete with the red tie that is slowly turning blue. It’s tragic that the only proposition Starmer has for Scotland is to “reduce bills, create jobs, and provide energy security”, whatever that means.
Scotland can do all of that for itself, and so much more, as an independent country.
Alan Magnus-Bennett
Fife
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