IT is clear to me from looking at the letters in The National that most indy supporters, and even most SNP members, are not impressed by the SNP leadership’s policy of driving the Tories out of Scotland. This is the tired old slogan that the Labour Party used for years in Scotland.
It is not Tory voters, or Tory journalists, or even Tory politicians that we need to get rid of, it is right-wing Tory policies which need to be attacked and alternative policies put forward in their place, so that the voters can see the positive side of our ideas.
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We can’t condemn the Tories and continue to apply Tory policies. Labour and the LibDems are already doing that.
What the SNP need to do is to start implementing policies that challenge the existing Tory establishment in Scotland and show a better way forward for the people. If the SNP leadership started to do this now, they could turn their electoral prospects around in a very short period of time. That is what SNP members and the broader indy movement are desperate for.
Once again Graeme McCormick has clearly pointed out the failure of the SNP leadership to grasp the nettle of land reform in Scotland. If this subject is addressed in a much more open-minded way, instead of the government being tied to vested Tory interests and led by civil servants to pander to the wealthy land owners, we could open up a whole new fiscal policy opportunity that would enable an SNP government to abolish the council tax, while reducing income tax for the lower-paid working people, and investing substantially in the NHS and social care in Scotland.
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This is not an impossible dream, it is entirely economically possible in an independent Scotland with its own currency, and it can be started now before we are independent, but in political terms it needs people with the political backbone to challenge powerful vested interests.
Can the SNP find such leadership? Or are they just slogan-chanters with no real intention to fight for the rights of the Scottish people? As Burns once wrote, “noo’s the day, and noo’s the hour, see the front o’ battle lour.”
So the SNP leadership should not insult the people’s intelligence by a bogus fight against the “Tories” in abstract. The should make preparation for a real fight against Tory-entrenched power and vested interest, and if they do that on land reform they will have the people with them.
Andy Anderson
Ardrossan
DURING my “never-ending tour” that is a continuous informal routine of speaking to people about Scottish independence, our movement is accused of just about everything. This is aided and abetted by the mainstream media. In fact, it was recently stated on a documentary that public opinion is now formed by the media rather than by independent thought.
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With regard to one of the accusations may I quote Robert Cunninghame Graham. Paraphrasing is used for clarity: The English? The English are not our enemy (on the road to independence). The English are most often a generous race and they are quick to seek justice. Scotland’s enemy walks among us, our own people, and they have little or no imagination.”
There is a recent book on the life of “Don Roberto” – that is, Robert Cunninghame Graham – about his involvement with the Labour Party and eventually the National Party of Scotland.
WJ Graham
East Kilbride
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