ANGUS Brendan MacNeil raises questions about the current SNP leadership’s approach to independence or rather the lack of one (Letters, Feb 26). Let’s hope it stirs the pot and gets some action.
I won’t raise any hopes though. I’ve raised similar points in letters over the years to no discernible effect. At least the public, if not the SNP heidyins, are now aware that there are no nice people in Westminster to appeal to in the hope of a referendum.
If there is no movement on independence in the near future then the SNP vote will collapse, and the cushy numbers that the current hierarchy occupy will disappear.
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Maybe that’s what is needed to bring an awakening that the current policies of mitigation, in respect of Westminster’s doings, have run their course. Being seen to be putting a sticking plaster on UK policies is no longer enough, and a more robust approach is necessary.
It’s time for our elected representatives to put sticks in the spokes of the UK ‘s wheels if any progress is to be made. Wringing hands and moaning afterwards is not enough, and neither are expressions of indignation after events have taken place.
The lack of progress towards independence over the last decade exposes the failure of current SNP policies and those promoting them. Both the policies and promoters should now be set aside and a more vigorous approach taken if independence is still an objective of the current leadership. Or is it?
Drew Reid
Falkirk
WITH only months until the General Election the SNP have lost yet another council by-election. The Conservatives won 58.5% of the vote – a rise of 8.2% in terms of first-preference votes – to win the Jedburgh and District seat on Scottish Borders Council. The SNP’s vote share fell to just 17.4%, down 5.7%.
Numbers don’t lie, so surely it is time for the SNP to abandon its futile attempt to make us “Tory-free” and look towards holding on to the seats we already hold. The Labour Party are just waiting in the wings, ready and sadly able to steal those seats and condemn us to yet another five years of the Union.
READ MORE: Furious SNP hit back as Speaker denies emergency Gaza ceasefire debate
The Scottish Parliament elections are just over two years away and unless there is a real turnaround in the SNP’s fortunes, Anas Sarwar could be the next First Minister of Scotland and any hope of a referendum let alone an independent Scotland will be off the table until at the very earliest 2031.
Iain Wilson
Stirling
THERE is now no doubt that the main objective of the Labour leadership’s urgent action to get a ceasefire motion on the agenda in the Westminster Parliament on February 21 had nothing to do with stopping the current genocide in Gaza.
If they had wanted to do that they could simply have put their support behind the SNP motion. No, their objective was to defend Israel from the obvious truth expressed in the SNP motion that Israel was involved in the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
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Everyone can see, and everyone knows, that Israel is applying collective punishment on the people in Gaza, where they are using aircraft to bomb residential areas and schools and killing thousands of children. This can’t be described in any other way than applying collective punishment on a defenceless population, and a war crime.
To pretend that this is not true is to tell an obvious lie, and a lie which every reasonable person can see as a lie.
So Starmer seems to have been motivated by his continued efforts to defend the indefensible criminal activity of the Israeli government and to ride roughshod over the SNP at the same time.
What Starmer should be doing, as leader of the Labour Party, is calling on the UK Government to stop supplying Israel with weapons in order to save the UK from being also involved in the crime of assisting in genocide.
If he had any decency he would do that now, even if he would again have to be following in the wake of the SNP.
Andy Anderson
Ardrossan
I MUST applaud Mhairi Black’s forensic account of the events in Westminster last Wednesday that appeared in the Saturday edition of The National. Her insightful interventions and willingness to stand up for her principles will be greatly missed when she steps down from her seat this year.
The only thing that I would correct from Ms Black’s column is that from my hearing Lindsay Hoyle did not apologise for “causing chaos” in the House of Commons, he apologised for how events turned out, taking no direct responsibility for his action that brought about the debacle.
Ni Holmes
St Andrews
AFTER watching the utter shambles caused by Sir Lindsay Hoyle at his the behest of Sir Keir Starmer and the walkout of the SNP, the corruption at the heart of Westminster was laid bare for even the blind to see. The SNP should refuse to return to Westminster until Hoyle is removed and Starmer should be held accountable.
I won’t hold my breath.
A Jaap
via email
WESTMINSTER Speaker Lyndsay Hoyle last week broke the rules, and this week he breaks his word.
Sums up Westminster.
Winifred McCartney
Paisley
WERE a copy of George Kerevan’s article in Monday’s edition (Britain is rotting from top down – and this is why) to be put through every letter box in Scotland, independence would be the cry from all corners of the country.
Carole Downie
Arbroath
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