Great to see that the Scottish ‘Government’ has launched a consultation on restricting the sales of pies, quiches and garlic bread. Why not? No point wasting time fixing the education attainment gap, children living in poverty, education standards, building boats, stopping drug deaths etc. A shortage of pies might also be a great help to a certain humble crofter I can think of. Ian Balloch, Grangemouth, Stirlingshire.
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:
However, this costs a LOT of money. PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING TO OUR CROWDFUNDER AND LET’S DERAIL INDYREF2 TOGETHER!!
Psephologist Sir John Curtice has told us for some time that Scottish voters are alienated from the Conservative Party – and possibly the UK – by the UK having Boris Johnson as Prime Minister. That is pretty uncontroversial: the SNP has hammered away consistently about Johnson the bogeyman. But now Sir John tells us that Johnson’s departure will make no difference because Brexit continues. Does anyone need to be reminded that the Vice-President of the EU Commission, Viviane Reding, wrote to the Scottish Parliament on 20 March 2014 to explain to MSPs that, if a part of a member state left that member state, it would also leave the EU? That is to say, the UK was an EU member state. If Scotland left it as a result of the 2014 referendum, it would also leave the EU. In fact, the date of that Scexit would have been 23 March 2016, Alex Salmond’s chosen “independence day”, exactly three months before the actual Brexit referendum was held. Anyway, one million Scots voted for Brexit in 2016, and more than one-third of SNP voters were among them. Many of us do not like Brexit, but a substantial minority does. Sir John would do well to remember that. Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh.
With Labour solidly against a Section 30 Order and the Tories almost certain to follow suit, it looks as if Nicola Sturgeon’s cack-handed attempt to force another independence referendum has spectacularly backfired. She knows she is on a loser unless Westminster agrees. It is a self-inflicted defeat by her because even the slightest due diligence would have shown up the flaws in her argument. October 19, 2023, looks to be another Flodden for the nationalists rather than a Bannockburn. Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.
Can we now add the gift of precognition to Keith Brown, depute leader of the SNP’s, talents? How does he know that “the next prime minister will still not have Scotland’s best interests at heart”. If he is not blessed with these powers, did he ascend to Arthur’s Seat when the moon is waning crescent to speak with a shawl-clad crone to gain this insight? I’m no psychic, but there may be a general election soon. After this, the PM might even be Keir Starmer rather than the Tories of the SNP’s dreams. Either way, I expect Scotland’s interests will be best served by this clairvoyant of Clackmannanshire putting the tarot cards down, doing his day job and with Scotland remaining part of a political entity with a large tax base and long-standing economic clout on the world stage. David Bone, Girvan, South Ayrshire.
The Scottish Government having nationalised Scottish railways are now directly responsible for the current shambles with the struggling train services slashed to a skeleton timetable. The Open golf championship in St Andrews and the Edinburgh festival are about to start, with thousands of visitors from abroad faced with a train service which is now a total embarrassment to Scotland giving the impression that Scottish train services are more akin to a third world country. Dennis Grattan, Aberdeen.
Lorna Slater’s recycling scheme branded ‘complete b******s’ by...