I READ with interest stories about the gathering of culture “clans” in Perth and a shared exhibition about the First World War between Perth Museum and Art Gallery and the Black Watch Museum (The National, November 5).
The exhibition was shown at the National War Museum in Edinburgh Castle.
At the same time, Perth City Council is making a request to Historic Scotland to have the Stone of Destiny returned to its rightful home as part of its drive to become the City of Culture.
At present, the Stone languishes in Edinburgh Castle where it is overshadowed by the Crown Jewels. In Perth, it could be the centrepiece of a revamped museum, and contribute massively to the local economy.
I am originally from Dundee and did my national service with the Black Watch (1953-55). This influenced my nascent Scottish nationalist ideals.
Go for it Perth – all culture is not the prerogative of Edinburgh!
Jim Lynch, Edinburgh
Debate on our constitution is for after indy is won
HENRY McLeish argues that: “A new constitutional convention should get to work as soon as possible” (Scotland must be at the forefront of the battle to block Tory Brexit, The National, November 5). He wants a written constitution for Scotland to challenge the overriding sovereignty of the Westminster Parliament.
I disagree for the simplest of reasons – it won’t work. Under the UK’s unwritten constitution, sovereignty is retained by the monarch and Houses of Parliament in London. If we have any one primary constitutional rule in the UK, that is it. Our Scottish constitution could be the best ever drafted but it won’t matter a jot.
We already assert that the will of the Scottish people is sovereign and were probably the first nation on this planet to make such a claim in that wonderful piece of propaganda the Declaration of Arbroath. But Westminster will always override our assertion of Scottish sovereignty by asserting theirs.
And we just don’t have time to drift along, immersed in the minutiae of yet another convention. For the next year or two, our Westminster MPs have to make absolute pests of themselves to the extent that they are sent packing back to Scotland with the sweetener of full fiscal autonomy. The Brexit debate is their best opportunity to achieve this.
Having our own taxation system with exchequer will in effect create a Scottish (almost) free state. Almost free because defence and foreign policy would stay British, but our autonomy might be sufficient to persuade the EU that we can stay in the single market – so important for our prospects of success.
The constitutional problem would remain and, in due course, will need solving. The best time to do that is when we are fully independent or on the absolute cusp of independence. Then we can all get our wishlists out! My top three would be to assert our full freedom as a nation (no more almost free), to somehow incorporate social inclusivity and internationalism into our nation’s fabric, and to firm up a world-leading education system. Easy!
To draft a constitution is, in truth, an enormous task. Do we need two governing chambers? A president? Do we really still need a monarch? How do we best enshrine the independence of our legal system?
How do we provide against a poisonous media fostering prejudices against vulnerable minorities while still maintaining full freedom of expression? How do we best protect human rights? How to protect the environment? There is religion to consider too. Should our constitution be secular? Should we be a pacifist nation?
There are many more items to be considered, and then, as in Ireland in 1937, it has to be voted on by the people. But first things first. Let’s calmly build a coalition, perhaps including Scottish Labour, to enhance our powers meaningfully under devolution. If Westminster lets us down again and no meaningful powers result, then indyref2 is going to follow and Henry McLeish might then get his convention quite soon after all, with the task of drafting a constitution that cannot be overridden by Westminster.
David Crines, Hamilton
NIGEL Farage and his disciples in the Conservative Party clearly need to read up on the British constitution if they think “the people are sovereign”, to use his words. The people of England are not sovereign. The sovereign is sovereign. As a result of the English concept of “the crown in parliament”, that sovereignty is delegated to Westminster, where it is exercised by the delegated representatives of the people, MPs.
Furthermore, thanks to the “fusion of powers”, the executive branch is created from the Westminster legislature and can be voted out of office by that legislature, something Mrs May should bear in mind. If Farage and company want the people to be sovereign they must come to Scotland, where the principle of popular sovereignty has been built into its governance up to and including the present Scottish Parliament.
Peter Craigie, Edinburgh
THE caution exhibited by the English press post-Leveson has gone and in its place a toxic outpouring of hate is directed at almost every section of the community that displeases it (Carolyn Leckie: Beware the rise of fascism in the UK and US, The National, November 7).
If what they write is a mirror of their readership then we are witnessing the emergence of a movement not unlike the Milan Blackshirts of 1919, when Mussolini organised gangs to beat up socialists and communists. It’s happening now, although randomly and by individuals. The stupid and the dangerous, goaded by what they read, are attacking perfectly innocent people who are plainly not white or English. Death threats on social media are commonplace. How long will it be before these individuals are organised?
The English press is also united in its hate of the democratically elected Scottish Government. They have undermined a simple memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Scotland and China that could have led to deals boosting the economy. The MoU is now dead in the water. Even the mighty Chinese back off from the English press.
Mike Herd, Highland
AS a moderately right-wing person who is also a fervent monarchist, I have been distressed to find how often I have been in agreement with Carolyn Leckie of late.
R Mill Irving, Gifford, East Lothian
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