I USED to live in a country, England, which has the power to define itself. I came to a country, Scotland, where this was not the case. Scotland is a land without power. Many of your writers and correspondents don’t get this. They are continually surprised by it.
Kevin McKenna recently stated: “Now it seems neither the opinion of First Minister, nor the Scottish Parliament .. are considered worthy of consultation on the change in the nation’s history.” Of course they’re not. CG writes in to say that “our elected, devolved administrations are to have no say” (Letters, January 25). Of course they won’t. TM observes that “Westminster alone will decide what is normal” (Letters, January 25). Of course they will. England has the power in this relationship. Their population is greater; their economy bigger; their armed forces larger. Their MPs will always control Westminster. Get used to it. Continually defining the problem stops us from getting beyond it.
Forget “the family of nations”, “the Union”, “the Vow”, and all the other soft power phrases which mask the hard power beneath. Stop being surprised. Your excellent paper should focus, with courage, confidence and self-belief only on answers. Neil Ascherson was correct to urge Scots to act as though they were already independent.
Frances Roberts Ardrishaig, Argyll
IN the “old days” (1970s) it was popularly understood that in the event of the SNP winning the majority of Scottish seats at Westminister, it would be taken as a mandate for independence and the 1707 Act of Union would be repealed. There was no mention of any referendum.
So how is it possible that today the SNP is the governing party in Holyrood and has almost every single Scottish seat in Westminster yet here we are still shackled to a discredited, dysfunctional, disagreeable and disconnected UK? What happened to democracy?
Scotland is treated by Unionist politicians and media with contempt, derision and ridicule. Realistically SNP MPs in Westminster have no power to exert even moderate influence on decisions made by the UK Government ... witness the cavalier disregard of Scotland’s position regarding the farce known as Brexit. There’s nothing a Westminster Tory loves more than “sticking it to the Scots”. They see us, even more so since September 2014, as gutless, spineless, easily duped and easily cowed.
It’s time to fight back and, to use a familiar slogan, “take back control”.
Hopefully indyref2, whenever it is held, will be successful but we need to have a strategy that continues the fight should the referendum fail ... we need a Plan B. Firstly, the SNP should stand in UK elections post-indyref2 as a strictly one-policy party.
Secondly, the SNP manifesto for each election must clearly state how a prospective independent Scotland would operate regarding, among many others, issues such as currency, state pensions and our share of the UK national debt.
Finally, the leadership of the party should make a clear and unambiguous declaration that:
- Henceforth every vote cast for the SNP in every UK General Election will be taken as a vote for independence … no more, no less.
- Should Scottish voters return a majority of SNP members to Westminster, then Scotland will declare itself an independent, sovereign nation.
- All other issues such as membership of the EU, Nato etc will be decided by referenda put to the people post-independence.
No more a “once in a lifetime” event, but a continuous five-yearly one. No more worry that “if we lose the next indyref that’s it for a generation”. It would certainly focus minds.
Alex Henderson, Glasgow
FROM listening to the news and reading articles in papers from throughout the UK it appears that the welfare of young people in Scotland has reached its nadir (Child health cause for serious concern, The National, January 26) .
But the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s 135-page report reveals a completely different scenario.
The report states that the performance of the UK as a whole is better than the US but worse than many European countries, with stark inequalities in child health which have widened in the last five years.
Here are some of the facts relating to Scotland that seem to have been ignored or inverted by a large section of the media.
At 3.6 per 1,000, Scottish infant mortality rate is the lowest in the UK. The Scottish one-to-nine-years mortality rate is the lowest in the UK at 11.1 per 100,000. Self-reporting figures for smoking by mothers during pregnancy were 11.4 per cent in England compared to 14.7 per cent in Scotland, and continuing to fall in both countries. There is no data for Wales and Northern Ireland.
Breastfeeding at six to eight weeks was recorded 43.8 per cent in England compared to 38 per cent in Scotland. They report no change in England since data collection commenced and minimal improvement in Scotland.
For the last five years Scotland and Northern Ireland have had similar 5-in-1 immunisation rates at around 97 per cent, with Wales improving to 96.6 per cent in 2014. England’s current 93.6 per cent is down from a peak of 94.2 per cent in 2014/2015.
MMR vaccination rates in 2014 for Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland were all around 93 per cent in 2014, with England at 88.6 per cent.
Scotland leads on Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination rates on 88.8 per cent, with England at 86.7 per cent, Northern Ireland at 87.25 per cent and Wales at 83.5 per cent. The proportion of children at a healthy weight when starting school in England and Scotland was 77 per cent, with Wales on 73 per cent.
England led the proportion of 5-year-old children with no obvious tooth decay in 2013 on 69 per cent, followed by Scotland 68 per cent, Northern Ireland 60 per cent and Wales 59 per cent.
Non-intentional injury hospital admission rates per 1,000 population for children under five years were 18 in England, 14 in Wales and 11 in Scotland. European comparisons in the 0-to-19-year-olds group measuring 115 safety indicators in 2012 put England and Scotland above and Wales just below average.
The percentage of 15-year-olds recorded in England, Wales and Scotland as regular smokers has fallen from between 20 per cent and 30 per cent in 1998 to less than 10 per cent, with girls one per cent higher than boys.
Similarly the proportion of 15- year-olds drinking alcohol weekly has fallen from 40 per cent to 60 per cent to 12 per cent boys and 10 per cent girls in England, 14 per cent boys and 12 per cent girls in Wales, and in Scotland the highest at 16 per cent boys and 12 per cent girls.
The rate of children in the child protection system per 10,000 in is highest in Wales, followed by Northern Ireland, then England at 43, while Scotland records only 27. Scotland has some way to go in the context of international standards of welfare but is far removed from the media portrayal of the most impoverished region of the UK.
John Jamieson, South Queensferry
RULE Britannia! Land of Hope and Glory! God Save the Queen. Slogans the Supreme Leader May might take with her as she heads to meet the Great Dictator Trump. Fool Britannia! Land of Dopes and Tories! God Help the Queen!
Ronald Langlands Menton, France
THE UK PM is looking forward to meeting the protectionist, isolationist, xenophobic President of the USA, who was happy to adopt her party’s slogans for his presidential campaign (Make America/Britain great again, Take back control etc).
It should go well. They have so much in common.
James Stevenson, Auchterarder
TOMORROW’S headline: “On her return from Trumpton, Theresa May vows to rebuild Hadrian’s Wall, and the Scots will pay...”
Richard Easson, Dornoch
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