I WOULD agree with Hugh Noble (Letters, May 2) that the SNP have made a glaring strategic mistake in regards to the independence campaign.
To win independence it is the hard-working people of Scotland who need to be convinced, because they make up by far the majority of the population. If the working class are won over, then independence will be secured.
However the SNP have chosen to try to win over what they perceive to be the small 5% of wavering voters by adopting the Growth Commission report which, in essence, offers an economic model no different to that of Westminster; and this lurch to the right cannot help but alienate a lot of working-class support who formed the bedrock of the 45%.
READ MORE: Don’t be so sure you know the real motives of older No voters
They also stand to lose the support of environmentalists because the Growth Commission report is entirely at odds with the UN Environment Annual Report (as noted by George Kerevan), and current thinking.
Independence without economic independence is no independence at all, as any child will be able to tell you. And to offer to take a “share” of Britain’s national debt and pay the interest on this debt is quite simply ludicrous. How many countries have gained independence only to agree to become economically subservient again immediately upon independence?
And this is the problem I have with the Growth Commission report – it will be extremely harmful to Scotland and does not provide any hope for a better future, especially for our children, keeping us forever indebted to Westminster as it does.
And as regards the currency question, there is a very simple answer which the SNP do not seem to even be conscious of but which has been mentioned in your letters page by the exceptionally erudite Tony Perridge – the establishment of a non-transferable currency.
Solomon Steinbett
Maryhill, Glasgow
THERE may be truth in your reader’s surmise that many No voters are middle-class snobs. It’s such an interesting point to raise, and how best can we relate to them – or manage to allay their fears that independence can only drag society down to the lowest common denominator? Perhaps one way is for middle-class Yes voters to put their points across in the same “language” as their peers!
Seriously, isn’t it encumbent upon all of us, who see our Scotland as having room for everyone and all sorts, to focus upon building community and to allow even the snobs the time to travel along their own life journey? They’ll never be truly happy until they realise that we are all Jock Tamson`s Bairns and that we rely upon each other to thrive, no matter what our circumstances.
Janet Cunningham
Stirling
NOW I can quite understand why Mrs May does not want to call in the polis to investigate the workings behind the door of 10 Downing Street and why her government will not complain to the Metropolitan Police about the blatant betrayal of national security inherent in revelations about meetings of the National Security Committee.
However, the facility with which this episode may be glossed over does little credit to the mythology of Scotland’s role as a partner. The fact is that the leakage of intelligence from the National Security Committee is more dangerous to the citizens of the Central Belt of Scotland, where the UK’s nuclear capacity is based, than it ever will to denizens under the protectorate of the Met.
Under Scots Law there is no need for a complaint by the victim, and given that the particular breach of the Official Secrets Act (which many of us have signed and respect) is quite simply treason it seems to me that it would be perfectly proper for the Lord Advocate to institute proceedings directly. As this affair covers the security of the entire United Kingdom I would expect that the police forces and laws of our four nations would have their part to play.
Living, as I do, in the likely nuclear shadow of Faslane, I do not hold my breath.
KM Campbell
Doune
IF a signee of The Official Secrets Act is not being pursued in law for breaching the trust placed in him at ministerial level, then surely that means under the English law of precedent that all people (including myself, I signed it in 1968) can spill as many beans as they see fit with impunity?
Richard Easson
Dornoch
MAY is causing actual mayhem with her Cabinet and the country. Chris Grayling, the man who is responsible for travel around and in and out of the UK, has finally cancelled all the ferry contracts he arranged pending the March departure from the E.U. This has cost us, the taxpayer, £50 million on top of the £33m lost through the non-existent ferry contract last year.
It’s time Westminster placed a vote of no confidence on the weakling of a man who is a total embarrassment to the country. Time he went, Theresa. If you can sack a minister over a leak of a bit of news about a contract with a computer company, not withstanding the fact that the whole world knew about it anyway, then you can equally sack failing Grayling for the billions he has cost the country with not a jot to show for his employability skills.
Alan Magnus-Bennett
Fife
IT’S hard to credit that yesterday in Westminster Abbey the Church of England held a service to glorify 50 years of Britain’s nuclear submarines.
It must bring home to the people of Scotland the massive disconnect between us and the British establishment. While the majority of Scots abhor these weapons of mass destruction, the Church of England, with due pomp and ceremony, sanctifies them.
Terry Keegans
Beith, North Ayrshire
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