TOMMY Sheppard was spot on in his column in Monday’s National when he said we need a new strategy for the road to independence.

Indeed, the SNP leadership have needed this since Nicola Sturgeon’s legal move fell apart at the hands of the UK Supreme Court in November 2022. If the SNP leadership had addressed this positively in 2023, they would not have lost so many seats at the General Election but better late than never.

Tommy is also right that Alba are not presenting a valid option, and the Scottish people recognise that. He was correct to say we need an open discussion and debate about the way forward and not a lot of clever “I told you so” in hindsight claims.

The one glaring truth that we must face is that if we do not have the people with us, then we are going nowhere. So we need to start from there.

Fortunately, the Scottish people are more politically aware than most Europeans and have a wider understanding than most political activists think they have. Politicians, and political parties who do not live up to the standards which the people think they should have to pay the price eventually.

What most people in Scotland can now see and, I believe, have increasingly been made aware of for some time, is the very point that Tommy is now making but which the SNP and Alba have been ignoring.

The so-called strategy being followed by both these parties will never be successful even if we persuade 90% of Scots to vote for it. Any strategy which relies on negotiations with Westminster is bound to fail for the simple reason England can’t afford to lose the Scottish economy.

In any event, independence is not in the UK’s hands, it is in our hands, the hands of the sovereign Scottish people. So if we are serious about moving towards independence then we need to look to the Scottish people and give them respect.

The International Covenant on Civil and Public Rights (ICCPR), which the UK Government signed in 1978, confirms that every country has the right to political and economic independence.

In addition, Scottish constitutional law places sovereignty in the hands of the people. So we have a domestic legal right and an international legal right to independence.

If we had a policy which was used to bring these ideas across to the Scottish people we would not only have a legal way forward but we would encourage and motivate the people to take it. Why do we not use the power we have in the Scottish Parliament, while we still have it, to move positively in that direction? Is this not a good place to start in developing a brand new strategy, by respecting Scottish sovereignty and with it the Scottish people?

Andy Anderson

Ardrossan

TOMMY Sheppard reckons the Scottish Government tried to implement its 2021 mandate only to be told by the Supreme Court that it couldn’t. How misguided is he?

He and his party backed a loser by taking a Scotland Act matter before a court that was charged to implement the terms of – the Scotland Act.

Sheppard and crew handed the initiative to Westminster and were always on a loser. It would have been more impressive if the Scottish Government had sought a ruling on the Treaty and Act of Union 1707, Scotland’s Claim of Right, and the democratic deficit of denial by the Union of our right as a historic nation to determine our own future.

We don’t need to be bound by the Act to hold a referendum. We can declare any election as a de facto referendum on independence, we just need the courage to make it happen but Sheppard and his colleagues bottled it. They’re either afraid they can’t persuade people to independence or, more probably, fear the reformed Scottish political landscape after independence and its ramifications for the broad church that is his party.

The SNP’s performance in the General Election was woeful. Any mention of independence was timid and they lost a million votes. They got the hiding they deserved and we in the indy movement didn’t. What Sheppard and his colleagues fail to understand, and which is the nub of the matter, is that indy cannot be won playing by Westminster’s rules.

The party campaigned during the General Election not on Westminster’s failings and the worst Unionist government in history, but rather on the performance of a Scottish Government hamstrung financially and politically by Westminster and was always doomed to fail. Indeed devolution itself was deliberately set up to fail.

The Scottish Government mitigating the worst excesses of Westminster government policies – bedroom tax, two-child benefit cap and rape clause, prescription charges, tuition fees, bridge tolls and myriad others – comes at a cost elsewhere in its budget and each area affected is like a point of weakness for Unionists to stick their daggers in.

Ten years since the 2014 referendum of appalling Unionist Westminster government abusing Scots and Scotland, while nakedly expropriating its resources, and this SNP couldn’t explain to the electorate how this new Labour administration is no different to the old Tory government The 2026 Scottish Parliament election should be the defining de facto referendum.

But the SNP need to get off their high horse and work hard with the independence movement to show how Westminster fails us, rips us off and is laughing at us and by highlighting its deficiencies show clearly how only independence can bring political and financial justice and prosperity to Scots.

The question is, are Sheppard and his party colleagues big enough to put our country before their party?

Jim Taylor

via email

IN his letter in Monday’s National, David Roche poured scorn on Flower Of Scotland as a national anthem. I beg to disagree.

It has rightly grown to be a de facto anthem because it raises feelings of pride in our country. No matter what was produced to replace it, some folk wouldn’t like it and who would be selected to approve a replacement?

Roy Williamson wrote a great song. If it ain’t broke, don’t mend it.

Tony Perridge

Inverness