READING John Jamieson’s letter of July 25, I am in total agreement with what he has written.
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We are at present in a highly charged and rapidly changing political period. The only comparable summer politically in the last decade was 2014, which as we know resulted in a 45% vote for independence.
At this moment in politics, matters are becoming favourable for our movement. Polls are showing the SNP would make large gains in election for Westminster and Holyrood. But would that translate into concrete votes for Yes and independence? That is unknown.
Our watch words must be caution and patience in the overall strategy.
In the months ahead any serious observer realises that what is coming are explosive political scenarios that could or will create further favourable conditions for the independence movement.
Some of your letter writers say that we should grasp our opportunity in the constitutional crisis that is happening and suggest various types of referendum. I feel though, honest as this may be, it is emotional rather than analysis-based.
When I would agree with some writers, although I am not a member of the SNP nor any other party, I think the SNP should begin a general independence campaign. When one considers that they have over 100,000 members and a good campaigning machine, I think that to do so alongside the broader Yes movement and independence- seeking organisations would enhance the independence struggle.
And should a General Election or People’s Vote happen during its campaign, it could then redirect its emphasis, purpose and aim.
In case readers get the idea that I am some sort of armchair philosopher, can I just say that all my adult life I have been active in all manner of campaigns and that during our independence one spoke from the floor of all meetings I attended.
Bobby Brennan
Glasgow
DURING the run-up to the 2014 referendum a Unionist friend said that Scotland couldn’t be independent because the figures did not add up. He also claimed that 20% of Glasgow households were on welfare. My immediate thought was this: after 300 years of Westminster rule and decades of Labour councils, how could independence possibly make conditions worse for Glasgow’s people?
Since then the SNP Government have made many improvements to peoples’ lives, even though hampered by the constraints of the fiscal and political powers reluctantly given by Westminster. And now we know that the figures do add up.
There have been a few letters in The National recently from seemingly frustrated independence supporters. This is understandable but they must remember the balancing act Nicola has to perform, and that the SNP is the only party fighting solely for Scotland and which can deliver independence, along with the Greens.
The National quite rightly prints letters from many different viewpoints, but readers must be wary of letters with dubious provenance, such as those from people purporting to be independence supporters but have the whiff of a Scotland in Union author.
Richard Walthew Duns THE body language of the First Minister and Prime Minister on the steps of Bute House didn’t really need expert analysis.
One of them illustrated solid intellectual commitment to her presence, the other ineffectual floppy slitheriness to his existence. “Slitheriness” is a neat new word to label the UK’s Prime Minister ...
Kenneth HW Campbell
Troon
I HAD to read Christopher Bruces’s letter about UDI yesterday twice.
He referenced the UDI in Rhodesia in which the tiny white ruling minority declared UDI to retain control and prevent an orderly process towards a (limited) form of majority democratic government. The subsequent effects were a savage civil war and a parliament in Rhodesia in which the 10% white minority held 90% of the seats. The utter eventual folly of these actions resulted in the white minority deservedly losing everything and getting Robert Mugabe.
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Irish UDI led to the wars of independence, the Irish civil war and the partition of Ireland. We remember and honour the brave men who marched in Dublin in 1916 as we remember the brave men in Rhodesia who faced the white supremacist Selous Scouts.
But there are better ways and we haven’t got there yet.
UDI my arse.
David McEwan Hill
Argyll
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