Scotland Matters Letters

I had completely forgotten that Alba MPs Neale Hanvey and Kenny MacAskill were sitting at Westminster, so little have they done since that party came into being. Now we see their pointless protest and eviction (“The smiling backstabbers now patted Johnson on the back”, The Herald, July 14), which they think will win admirers, but which will ultimately be forgotten in a day or so. Who do they think they are? Alex Salmond in his younger days? Undoubtedly, he will have given them some encouragement, or perhaps he simply asked them if they were ever going to contribute anything from their well-paid positions. Goodness knows what their constituents will make of their meaningless tactics. I suspect they would like to see them ejected from the place completely. Even their SNP counterparts occasionally do something of value. These two, not so much. Victor Clements, Aberfeldy.

SCOTLAND MATTERS reached well over 1 million people at the Holyrood election, 1.4m at the Council Elections and in both elections the SNP’s vote and seats won were far below their own predictions.

Now they want another referendum in October 2023. We need to:

Hammer home their failures – trains, ferries, schools, NHS, jobs, deficit, housing, drugs – and Scotland’s decline since 2007.
Highlight the issues: the border, currency, NATO, pensions, the £180m debt, the COST and UPHEAVAL to all Scots.
Get the message to every one of Scotland’s 4.3m voters.
AND BOYCOTT any illegal IndyRef2!!

However, this costs a LOT of money. PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING TO OUR CROWDFUNDER AND LET’S DERAIL INDYREF2 TOGETHER!!

Hold the front page! Nicola Sturgeon has announced that Scotland needs the real and permanent alternative of ‘independence’. I certainly didn’t expect that. The woman whose party com-plained in 2014 about the pro-UK side’s `scaremongering’ resorts to… scaremongering. She predicts the UK Government will ‘shift even further to the Right’, with detrimental effects on tax, public services and support for families. In most statements and complaints from the SNP it seems as if the party and its members have not heard of devolution – the entrusting to an administration in Edinburgh of a broad variety of governmental responsibilities, including the vital ones of education, health, transport, housing and policing. Indeed, it seems as if the SNP tries to keep devolution a secret from its supporters, many of whom appear to be ignorant of what it involves. Thus, Miss Sturgeon ignores, in her public utterances, the powers that she already has on tax, public services and support for families. These are considerable. Miss Sturgeon is a past mistress of the art of pretending that she leads an insurgent opposition to HM Government when after 15 years she leads the establishment in Scotland. She is in permanent opposition to the UK and all its works. The shifting of the census timetable, and its risible outcome, are an example of that. But her party has been in power for a long time, and it needs to take some responsibility for the dire results of its 15 years in office. Miss Sturgeon’s constant blaming of Westminster for all our woes has worn very thin. Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh.

The cheap antics of the two Alba MP’s to get some publicity at Westminster by refusing to obey the speaker underlines the “loony left” of Scottish politics illustrated by two disgruntled ex-SNP members who were eventually escorted out of Parliament. This type of absurd behaviour has no place in UK politics and the good name of Scottish politics is tarnished by the association. Scotland deserves better. Dennis Forbes Grattan, Aberdeen.

Interesting comments from Kenny MacAsIdll on the Tory leadership contest (Perspective, Scotsman, 14 July), when he accuses them of holding a Dutch auction on who can promise the most tax cuts when there is no explanation as to how they can be funded. His comments pretty well sum up the nationalist position on independence. Willian Ballantine, Bo’ness, West Lothian.

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