Scotland Matters Letters

The champagne corks were popping in Scotland on hearing the brilliant news that the Supreme Court had unanimously agreed that the SNP does not have the right to hold a referendum on independence. This finally closes the door on another vote which the vast majority of Scots did not want. It will now allow Scotland to tackle many of the major problems we are currently facing. This is the best news that Scotland has had for many years. Dennis Forbes Grattan, Aberdeen.

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The learned judges have ruled. I realise that grievance culture will now be in overdrive for some time, but could I respectfully request of Nicola Sturgeon and her motley crew that she takes a deep breath and starts actually governing the country properly for a change? Her obsession with independence for the last eight years has seen our public services such as health, education, the care sector and other essential resources slide inexorably downhill. These are the areas where the SNP Government should be concentrating its effort. Please give us all a rest from the endless whining about independence. Celia Judge, Ayr.

Nicola Sturgeon’s immediate reaction to the court ruling against her being able to hold a legal referendum on her own say-so makes an unwarranted assumption. She claims that “Scotland will not be silenced” and how “Scotland’s voice” must be heard. She knows very well that there is more than one voice in Scotland. Indeed, there is more than one voice in her own separatist movement, as will become increasingly more evident from today. In Ms Sturgeon’s world, the law is, of course, at fault. Today’s ruling “exposes as myth any notion of the UK as a voluntary partnership and makes the case for” secession. I do not know where this “voluntary partnership” myth came from. The UK is a sovereign state. The questions separatists cannot and will not answer are: 1. Which European countries allow their regions to secede? 2. Which democratic countries allow repeated referendums on the same major constitutional issue every few years? The answer in both cases is a big round zero. Jill Stephenson, Corstorphine, Edinburgh.

Well, the bluff has not worked and the case has been lost, to no-one’s great surprise. The exercise to determine whether Holyrood can hold another referendum or not has just been a waste of time and (our) money for all involved. I took two things from the judgment. First, it has been made clear that a referendum result would strengthen or weaken the Union, depending on the result. From this it is quite clear therefore that the 2014 result strengthens the Union, because that vote resulted from a legal process in which the majority of the population voted No. The second issue that should be obvious to all watching was that the Scottish Government/ SNP case was something thrown together by their spin doctors, with little legal input, and the result was that the case they presented was rejected much sooner than expected. We should be clear on this point. The verdict was unanimous. There was no ambiguity. Interestingly, journalists afterwards were very quick to say that this does not end the matter, but then, these are the people who are intrigued by the twists and turns of the debate, and who would like to keep that going. We should now be hearing a different argument. Democracy in this country requires checks and balances, and the most important of those checks and balances is the law. No political party should be able to put something in its manifesto which it knows to be illegal or outwith its realm of competence. And this is the argument that we must all now remember. It is the people of Scotland who have agreed what the Scottish Parliament can and cannot do. We agreed to a parliament with tax-varying powers in 1997. We rejected independence in 2014. Later that year, our representatives in the Scottish Parliament, all of them, agreed an enhanced set of devolution powers that were then enacted in full. We are therefore unanimously agreed on the powers that we do have, and we have rejected any other alternative. The law gives people protection from the government it elects, which is fundamentally important when that government is elected by a minority of the population. Victor Clements, Aberfeldy.

So they got their day in the Supreme Court, and the verdict went against them. That is what the justice system is all about. The SNP, since its inception, has never been able to see anyone else’s point of view. As a result of this its policies do not bode well for Scotland’s future politically, economically or structurally. What’s next then? Just more protests, woad/tartan-strewn rallies, and ongoing anti-British propaganda. Under the current minority SNP administration at Holyrood most governmental functions and public services have deteriorated markedly. Holyrood has become an over-priced, unsuccessful political pantomime. When can we the electorate expect to see major changes in the way devolved matters are handled? Improvements are unlikely to materialise under the SNP. So where lies the answer to the impasse which the political scene in Scotland has reached? Surely only the electorate can decide. Robert IG Scott, Ceres, Fife.

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