Unionists are on the ropes, but unity is needed to deliver the knockout

No-one should be sacrificed because of their personal beliefs, as Joanna Cherry certainly was – a new ruling brought in at the last minute requiring her to give up her Westminster seat before submitting her name for consideration to enable her to contest the Edinburgh seat if chosen.

Rather than taking action to right this situation to help pull people together, the National Executive Committee (NEC) and the leadership are digging their heels in because their ultimate design is to ostracise Joanna Cherry as a candidate.

This has certainly nothing to do with her ability. We can all remember Joanna Cherry and Ian Blackford exiting the Court of Session with their hands raised in victory over the Westminster Government. They faced the mass media together.

A few months later the NEC failed in a bid to stop her fighting the Westminster election in 2019. They won the vote but failed to get the two-thirds majority required to eliminate Joanna Cherry. However, they succeeded in preventing her putting her name forward for consideration to fight the Holyrood seat. If she had gone along with this new ruling her staff would have found themselves out of a job and she would have found herself out of politics if she had lost the Holyrood vote.

READ MORE: SNP insider warns there is no chance of U-turn on NEC election rule

Rather than taking action to resolve this situation with a view to bringing people together for the biggest fight of our political lives the NEC and leadership are digging their heels in because their ultimate design was to remove Joanna Cherry as a candidate. It has been an unsavoury business but it’s not too late to play fair and bring everyone together without losing face.

If the SNP leadership believe they can get Boris Johnson to grant a Section 30 then they can get the NEC to extend the hand of friendship and do what is right and lift that late ruling, then we can be more united in delivering a knockout blow in a future independence referendum.

Bill Clark

via email

IT would seem most fair-minded people would agree that the Kirsty Wark debacle was a premeditated hatchet job on Alex Salmond that didn’t quite go to plan due to the not guilty verdict. However, some of the comments and blogs written about this unseemly affair were deplorable well before the programme went to air.

In some quarters there is a twisted logic that the not guilty verdict clearly proves that 10 women got together and all of them lied with the sole intent of bringing down a powerful man.

Having not been one of the jurors I don’t know if this was the case or not, but I am certain of one thing. One outcome does not imply the other. Many people have experienced a decision going against them in a court of law.

Imagine the added burden for anyone seeking judicial justice to have at the back of their mind that society will automatically brand them a liar if they don’t win. Anyone who has ever been a juror (and I have) or has experienced being in court will be aware that there are many reasons why jurors come to the conclusions that they do. Most will agree that the “beyond reasonable doubt” bit is a difficult hurdle to navigate.

Aiming derogatory terms such as “alphabet woman” towards these women is cheap and adds nothing constructive to a horrible situation. The demands for them to give up their anonymity is equally bewildering. It is difficult to imagine who in their right mind would wish to be exposed to further ridicule whilst going about their daily business.

As a middle-aged male supporter of independence, I can only hope that the make-up of an independent Scotland will be progressive enough to allow a woman to step forward in a court of law without the raw fear of guaranteed humiliation should a jury decide your case should have been more compelling.

Alan Black

Paisley

HAS the new Scottish Tory leader his deputy at Holyrood fallen out? I ask the question as on Thursday evening Ruth Davidson tweeted: “Testing is the key to reducing risk and exposure to care home staff – and residents. Staff were promised weekly tests. Thousands are being missed.”

However, a brief (albeit enlightening) perusal of Hansard (June 24, 2020) showed the latest Scottish Tory leader voted against a motion calling for the routine “Testing of NHS and Social Care Staff”, despite the then deaths of 312 NHS staff and care staff (12 in Scotland)!

A further browse of that particular debate showed Douglas Ross hedging his bets.

“As this debate is largely about testing, could the honourable member perhaps get back to how the Scottish Government are doing on testing, given that they are only meeting a third of the capacity for daily testing?”

READ MORE: Is Douglas Ross any more than Ruth Davidson's sock puppet?

Although I couldn’t find an answer in the debate, I noted Mr Ross attempted to answer himself.

The scenario of the Scottish Tory deputy leader and the actual leader seemingly unaware of each other’s position on such a vital matter is an ugly one, but (and I have to say not just a little amusing), potentially offers an even more entertaining First Minister’s Questions were Ross to actually win an MSP seat next year!

Piers Doughty-Brown

Glasgow

THE UK media in places is drawing attention to the ladies golf tournament at Troon this week and enlightening us all about the links Prince Andrew has to the R&A and to numerous golf clubs across the country.

They seem to be associated with prestigious clubs. The pattern, as a conspiracy theorist might say, is that the “Windsorian footprint” extends to the four corners of the country.

In an attempt to find something for them to do, it begs the question in this period of lockdown where is the royal presence, despite the fact cringeworthy attempts at releases in Hello and other similar publications has all but vanished?

Prince Andrew has also been airbrushed out; to what extent does a mature democracy really need such “institutions” to patronize us? We have managed well this year, the usual organised events with celebs and royal celebs have not run to “cheer” us up with banal comments from the media. Yet we all managed our daily lives with its ups and downs equally well!

People have not needed the often purported “royal glue” to hold us together, another inane throwaway remark!

As the Covid-19 crisis continues there is now time for reflection and serious heart-searching.

The entitlement “factions” in our society from the monarchy via the House of Lords downwards must now come under scrutiny. The handing out of gongs and titles and other baubles, many granting favours for life and pots of money thrown in, jobs granted without scrutiny, must now end.

The whole Union edifice is on the point of absurdity as never before on the one hand, and on the other the unelected factotum in No 10 has power and influence which knows no bounds.

John Edgar

Kilmaurs

I’VE just read Robin McAlpine’s article on the Welsh people making plans for their country to become an independent country (Why we must follow the Welsh example in planning for indyref2, August 21). That is something Wales hasn’t been for well over a millennia. That is some distance to catch up with, compared to Scotland’s 300 years.

READ MORE: Why we must follow the Welsh example in planning for indyref2

The coronavirus months has put a stop to many activities for everyone. Robin McAlpine argues that the independence movement, being in the main, the Yes movement, has come to a standstill. Johnson and then our First Minister put a stop to our main activity (because of the coronavirus), which was eventually and through the coming together of the All Under One Banner, organising independence marches all over Scotland.

As highly significant as these events became, with tens of thousands of supporters of all ages taking part, it was the only main activity. Attempts were made by politicians and others to organise other activities where people came together to talk shop. These were not successful and have since disappeared.

Robin points out an interesting question diametric to the question: “Are you there, (or Yes), yet?” He points out that the real question should be: “Why are you not there,

(or Yes), yet?” The latter is more proactive than the former. It is asking people what is they need to know to convince them that independence is a good thing for Scotland.

We have the answers. We argue and debate the points on a daily basis through letters to the papers, Facebook and tweeting to all and sundry. But in reality we are debating with ourselves and each other, or as some might suggest, preaching to the converted.

We need to find other ways. In 2014, the one interest that informed myself was the various open public meetings about independence, always with a guest speaker, some I vaguely knew about and others I didn’t. But I was eventually convinced about independence being a good thing for Scotland.

So why are we not doing that now? Let’s stop preaching to the converted and persuade the unconverted.

Alan Magnus-Bennett

Fife

ALEX Salmond knew exactly the fastest, secure route to independence for Scotland after the 2011 election. This route cannot be challenged and holds for the 2021 election. We are in an even stronger position than in 2011. Let’s not blow it.

The SNP Scottish Government has demonstrated to the unsure and doubters that Scotland is better off running itself. The UK has never been in a weaker position and with Brexit on the horizon it will get even worse.

Scotland has never been in a better position with the popularity and confidence in the Government and the SNP soaring. However we can’t take anything for granted. The opinion polls before the 2016 election reached 60% the preceding August. Yet the SNP still lost the majority it had in the actual vote nine months later.

Our focus must be on getting the SNP majority government in 2021 which will make a refusal of a new Edinburgh Agreement “untenable” – as Nicola Sturgeon has said.

Independence supporters would be better concentrating on converting the remaining doubters to Yes. Let’s get the independence support to over 60%.

Tony Grahame

Edinburgh

I AM so relieved that Michael Gove has stepped in to save Scotland for the Union, and from Douglas Ross.

Hopefully he will follow through and stand for the Scottish Parliament in May as part of the now three-faced Tory leadership team. Of course, the franchise should be immediately extended to allow this. All expats should be included, especially tax exiles from the Caymans, and those from Pitcairn Island, where everyone is of Scots descent via the Bounty mutineers.

Michael is languishing as Boris’s back-room fixer for the unfixable. But destiny has called in a George Galloway tweet. This exiled yet proud son of Aberdeen can launch afresh and restore our faith in Brexit Britain.

Imagine his face beaming face over the gunwale as we sink...

Donald Smith

Edinburgh