IT is time for the broken Treaty of Union to be declared null and void and renegotiated as a trading partnership between Scotland and England.

Westminster is (has always been) the Parliament of the English State and Crown; it is governed by English Law – a law of “precedent” where earlier decisions are the guide (if you can do it once you can do it again), and has its own bank. Its only aim and purpose is to keep this dictatorial power at all costs. The English Parliament was not “dissolved”, as first suggested, but “continuing”, incorporating (swallowing up) the Scottish Parliament, into a body with an absolute majority of MPs from England and Wales (then Scotland had 25 per cent of the population, now it has 8.2 per cent).

The power of the Westminster Parliament is such that it can do as it wants by Act of Parliament, or even Order in Council, with no vote – as when 6000 square miles of Scottish waters, with six oil rigs and fishing, were transferred to English jurisdiction in 1999, just before the Scottish Parliament was reconvened, in order to reduce the already meagre benefit Scotland would get from oil. It has therefore easily breached almost all of the clauses protective of Scotland’s rights in the (imposed) Treaty of Union – Scots law, Scots mint, Scots burghs, university and other education, etc. All community hydro schemes in Scotland are under English Law.

Over the last 100 years Westminster (which includes the huge unelected, heavily subsidised House of Lords) has refused point blank to return any real power to Scotland, where sovereignty resides with the people. Westminster has the power to remove all devolved powers at any time (“no English parliament can bind its successor”). Even Attlee, who did many good things, failed to honour his 1945 Manifesto of Home Rule for Scotland (“not needed now we’re in power”) and although he nationalised all the Scottish companies (mining, railway, etc) to London, with good intent, when they were privatised they did not come back to Scotland to deal with but were sold off cheaply to friends of the Westminster ruling class, with no benefit accruing to Scotland at all.

A new democratic Treaty of Union, negotiated with good will, would be of real benefit to everyone: to the people of England who are defrauded by the London-centric Westminster dictatorship, and to the people of Scotland who wish to have their sovereignty back – their human rights.

Susan FG Forde, Kinross-shire

I REFER to an article published some weeks ago in The National. This commented that the Tory party “threw everything they had” into work in some targeted parliamentary seats in the 2017 General Election, resulting in the defeat of arguably our two strongest Westminster MPs, and the near defeat of Pete Wishart. What is it that they threw?

Money? I have commented on figures that stated that a Tory vote cost 96 pence against an SNP vote of six pence.

Manpower? Does a strong canvassing, and work on the day really make a difference? How does it do that? The voter is cynical, and the content of door-step debate does not in itself, I feel, always do the job. Not obviously and immediately.

Weather? It poured with rain all day. A comment from a fellow worker was: “The Tories always come out to vote.” My reply was: “They have more to lose.”

Is loss a stronger incentive than gain? Does our average vote truly tend to be indolent and apathetic against the industry and fear of the average Tory voter? The election material received through my door on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives was “posh”. As my father said of his army days: “Bull baffles brains”. Posh or bull costs money which we have much less of. I suspect that just the presence and dignified dedication of our canvassers and activists is sufficient for many of our undecided voters. This is the posh we can afford.

A final thought. Was the 95 per cent return of SNP candidates to Westminster in the 2015 General Election a reaction to the aftermath of the 2014 referendum? When it was then seen how powerless our MPs were in Westminster did some of the 2015 independence vote decide in the 2017 election that it was a waste of time sending them there?

Victor Moncrieff, Lanark