I WOULD like to echo Sandy Witto’s views on tackling inequality in Scotland (Letters, January 14). This letter outlines practical solutions and Sandy rightly mentions meaningful land reform, housing and taxation as priorities.

I would add that addressing the lack of affordable housing to buy and rent should be one of the main objectives of the current land reform agenda. Hopefully the Scottish Land Commission will agree!

From an equality perspective, I think the lack of access to secure, affordable housing is one of the major structural inequalities in Scottish society. Tackling the housing crisis could be an economic driver, however it will cost money. Money should be raised through taxation to pay for this and I believe a Land Value Tax is the way forward. This might raise money for public services and redistribute wealth as the ownership of property is an effective way to consolidate wealth.

Taxing wealth rather than income is fundamental in tackling inequality. Introducing a Land Value Tax would also require further land reform as currently we do not know who owns large parts of Scotland.
Kenny Wright
Inverness

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With a hard Brexit, an indyref2 red line is crossed

SINCE becoming PM, Theresa May has stressed that “Brexit means Brexit” in order to placate the Eurosceptic wing that dominates her party outside Parliament.

She has now rushed headlong into a so-called hard Brexit, withdrawing from the single market, the Customs Union and the European Court of Justice. This will cause untold economic damage.

May’s mantra that “Brexit means Brexit” can no longer conceal the air of crisis and paralysis surrounding the Government. The intractable political conflicts within the ruling elite evidenced in the referendum campaign not only remain unresolved, they have been exacerbated by the Leave vote.

Theresa May has decided to try to secure UK global interests through developing the closest possible relations with US president-elect Donald Trump.

In rushing to endorse Trump, the anti-EU wing of the Tories has amplified Trump’s statements – made during the US election campaign – supporting Brexit and pledging that under his presidency the UK would receive a favourable trade agreement with the US.

Placing the UK’s fortunes in the hands of a reviled and unstable figure such as Trump is a measure of the Government’s political desperation.

May’s position as the leader of a crisis-ridden party and Government is increasingly untenable.

The willingness of May now to endorse a hard Brexit is the crossing of one of Nicola Sturgeon’s red lines for calling indyref2. Scotland can only protect its interests through independence. The choice is stark. The other option is dysfunctional Tory misrule.
Alan Hinnrichs
Dundee

THERE has been much debate recently about tying indyref2 to Brexit, with genuine concerns aired from both Leavers and Remainers.

However, I’d ask all supporters of independence for Scotland to look beyond their personal preferences for a future in or out of Europe, and consider instead the democratic principle of where we find ourselves.

Irrespective of how you voted in the EU referendum, if you don’t feel the trajectory we’re on regarding a UK-wide Brexit should be challenged, then what we’re in effect saying is that it’s OK for another country to decide our future, that we agree to a Government that Scotland didn’t vote for enacting a referendum result Scotland didn’t vote for, which will have considerable social, cultural, economic and legal ramifications across Scotland, yet which Scotland will have minimal voice in shaping.

Surely this is the most stark example of an unequal union, of a constitutional set-up where it’s made apparent that Scotland’s wishes will always be subservient and expendable, and a place where three of the five parties currently represented at Holyrood, who purport to work for Scotland’s good, will actively seek to promote that other country’s wishes over ours, even if they previously agreed that this would be damaging to Scotland.

If we as the independence movement can’t unite to craft an alternative and compelling narrative for an independent Scotland’s future in these sharply delineated circumstances, if we can’t make the case for nationhood and autonomy now, then when?
Karen Campbell
Gatehouse of Fleet

I DO love the Scottish Daily Express. After goodness knows how long of us being told by Unionists of all political colours that Scotland is in debt to the tune of (now) £15 billion a year, they finally let the cat out of the bag on Thursday by claiming that Scotland would be “plunged into the red for the first time in more than 300 years” by Derek Mackay using the Scottish Parliamant's enhanced borrowing powers.

Strangely, they did not say why we would need to use those borrowing powers. Could it be that we need them to offset the austerity that their Tory masters love to inflict on the poor and disabled so much, or could it be to plug the gaps in tax revenue which the Tory government allows to go unpaid by businesses doing sweetheart deals with HMRC?

So there it is. We cannot have incurred any debt, never mind £15bn, as legally we are not allowed to, or certainly not more than a nominal amount.

So we cannot be in debt at the end of a financial year, and – oh yeah – we must be able to manage financially after all, because we have been doing that so far. Remember that next time your work colleagues/friends/family/etc dismiss Scottish independence in the simple phrase “GERS figures”.

Just in case you think I have gone over to the dark side by reading the Scottish Daily Express, I have not, but while mooching round Tesco caught yet another SNP BAD headline. Still, as they say, every little helps.
Julia Pannell
Friockheim

THANK you so much! The National is a great newspaper, but you have really excelled yourselves with “Indy Week”!

This is exactly what we need – a combination of evidence-based facts, together with informed proposals on the future directions that Scotland could take.

This is imperative to counter Unionist lies and misrepresentation and also to reassure waverers and to change minds and hearts.

In spite of being an English-born pensioner, I am strongly in favour of independence and joined the SNP after the disappointing result in 2014.
Shirley Robins
Dunoon