Why we should wait for normality to return before a referendum

Last month, the SNP won 62 of Scotland’s constituency seats, while the Unionist so-called opposition couldn’t muster a dozen amongst them, and Nicola Sturgeon was re-elected as First Minister of Scotland on a pledge that her first priority would be tackling the coronavirus pandemic. Mr Pratt acknowledges that Scotland, like the rest of the world, is still in the grip of the pandemic, indeed case numbers have been reported as being at their highest for months. I think the public would rate stabilising that situation and getting more normality back to their lives as their first priority.

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During the campaign Ms Sturgeon was also adamant that when the crisis was over, the people of Scotland would be given the opportunity to choose their own future, and while we are all desperate to campaign for and win our independence asap, as Mr Pratt admits, “it’s never tactically wise to telegraph your intentions to the opposition”; I doubt if, on the eve of Bannockburn, Bruce toured round his foot soldiers asking what they thought he should do. So, let’s put our trust in Nicola and keep our powder dry.

Mr Pratt tells us his mantra to date has been “Patience, bide your time, choose your moment, maintain solidarity”. I would agree with that 100%. The campaign is coming, the referendum is coming, independence is coming. Hold the line.

Ruth Marr
Stirling

THAT was a good article by Kevin McKenna on Gordon Brown and his ludicrous loose talk about conflict between England and Scotland (June 16). My support for the self-determination of the people of Scotland is primarily peaceful and non- acquisitive. I do not want anything England has to offer. I do not want the House of Lords or the undemocratic House of Parliaments. I don’t need The Queen or the Church of England or their admittedly fine cathedrals. I do not crave after the news on the BBC and most of all I want them to take away all their nuclear junk.

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I am broadly satisfied with Scottish democracy, education, egalitarianism and culture. I welcome people coming here from abroad and hope that Scots will be welcome there. I look forward to the Scots becoming the vanguard in the war to save the planet, for which we must use all our self -discipline and intelligence.

Sadly Unionists transfer their own aggression and possessiveness on to such as myself that are satisfied with their own little bit if the world. They fear that there must be something uniquely valuable in such a place which, and, though they don’t understand it, fear that they must hold on to it until they can discover this hidden treasure. It is of course peace of mind.

Iain WD Forde
Scotlandwell

ONE thing that can’t be denied is the fact that England has inflicted, either by design or by just sheer incompetence, a great deal of pain on Scotland down through the centuries. Now I realise I’m going to sound like the stereotype private Fraser from Dad’s army and I apologise for it but “we are doomed” if we retain our unfair unjust ties with England. In 1746 the British Government banned the kilt in an attempt to ethnic cleanse the Highlands. Things haven’t changed much!

More recently successive Westminster Governments have ripped the heart out of Scottish steel, mining and shipbuilding. Mrs Thatcher’s disastrous poll tax experiment.

There butchering of public services and the NHS. Imagine how better we could have coped with the pandemic if it wasn’t so! Why the Holy Loch for the American’s nuclear submarines? Why Trident at Faslane? Why not nearer London? Why dump Nuclear waste at Dounereay? Why as the wee ginger dug highlighted in March the MOD would like to discharge more radioactive waste into the Firth of Clyde? What’s wrong with the Thames? I hope you get my drift.

We give them whisky, Irn Bru, Tunnocks caramel wafers,and what do we get back? Buckfast! Things have got to change.

I haven’t mentioned our oil, our stolen waters, and now we’ve got Brexit, a weakened fishing industry, a threatened agriculture industry, more foodbanks that I care to mention. Union Jacks flying round every corner. Need I go on. Enough’s enough. So like Charlie Kerr in Monday’s long letter, what are we waiting for? We need to get control of our own destiny. We need to sort out the mess the country is in now. Work out our own immigration policies. Initiate our own methods to tackle our mounting drug problem. We certainly can’t expect any thing from Westminster just more of the same red tape, nonsense and shambles.

Robin MacLean
Fort Augustus

SCOTLAND does not have to have Bank of England as lender of last resort. On independence we must free ourselves from this institution where Westminster pulls the strings. Mark Carney himself said Scotland could manage on independence.

The Isle of Man manages well with the Manx parliament; Scotland’s wealth is substantially larger. We must scrap Trident – trillions wasted is saved when this goes. Monarchy must go – they gave royal assent several times to deny Scotland’s democratic voice to suit warmongering. Westminster rogues should have been locked up years ago – their so-called sovereignty is a political trap. The division of wealth will come to the forefront when we leave and become a proud nation again. We do not have to ask for Scotland’s independence – we should demand and declare it .

Glen Peters
Paisley