IF the only purpose of a December UK General Election is for the SNP to take seats from the Tories, or other British parties, then it is likely to be a triumph. But if you have more ambitious aims, then it achieves nothing. In terms of Scotland’s cause, the practical difference between the SNP having 35 seats and 59 is zero.
A 2015-style landslide for the SNP may be claimed to prove support for a new constitutional referendum and/or for independence, but Westminster doesn’t care. If there was a 100% turnout and every single voter in Scotland voted SNP, it would make not the slightest difference to the British state’s position. And the British political elite has all the power it needs to defend that position. They get that power from the Union, augmented by the No vote in 2014.
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The British state can prevent Scotland’s independence being restored. And it can do so very easily. That is the reality of Scotland’s predicament. 59 SNP MPs with an indisputable mandate does not alter that situation one iota. Scotland’s independence will not be won at Westminster.
This is most emphatically not an argument against voting for the SNP at every opportunity. They remain the only party which can be relied on to govern well in Scotland and represent Scotland in the parliament of England-as-Britain as effectively as they can. The trouble is that they simply cannot represent Scotland effectively enough. The Union prevents it. The Union prohibits it. The Union was devised, and continues to function, as a device by which Scotland’s needs, priorities and aspirations will always be subordinate to the interests of the clients served by British political elite.
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If you care about Scotland; if you care about our public services; if you care about democracy; then you must vote SNP. You must give the SNP the most powerful mandate possible. But you must also demand that the SNP use that mandate. You must demand that they focus on breaking the Union which denies the people of Scotland the full and proper exercise of the sovereignty which is theirs by absolute and inalienable right.
The SNP didn’t drag the people of Scotland along on its quest for power. The people of Scotland pushed the SNP to the vanguard of our fight to restore Scotland’s independence, maintain our distinctive political culture and preserve our national identity. They have a responsibility to serve Scotland’s cause.We have a responsibility to ensure that they do.
Whenever the next UK General Election takes place, we all must put our best efforts into sending as many SNP MPs to Westminster as possible. Our target should be 59. But it must be clearly understood by every single one of those MPs, and by the SNP leadership, that we are sending those MPs to Westminster for one purpose – to bring about the end of the Union!
Peter A Bell
Perth
THERE has been a stated need in The National to “encourage” the Tory voter to vote for Scottish independence for a considerable period of time, essentially requiring many Tory voters to become simply less Tory. It also requires the LibDems and some Slab to become less Tory, and some Slab to become less Marxist.
If an independent Scotland is to be a “fair” society, then the proportions of just how much public revenue should be recovered from wealth taxes, income taxes, expenditure taxes, and business taxes – and the proportions of just how much of public expenditure should be allocated to Scotland’s public institutions – needs to be clearly stated.
The people of Scotland can then decide what sort of “fair” society they want, who can best deliver it, and then who they should vote for.
For the avoidance of doubt, a “fair” society will require a significant redistribution of both wealth and income, as well as increased expenditure. Anything less, such as simply targeting “encouraging” key swing voters, would be largely as pointless as Brexit.
Stephen Tingle
Greater Glasgow
I WAS delighted to see that the Greens will not be standing candidates in the General Election in any of the Tory-held Scottish seats, other than Stirling (SNP’s chances of ousting Conservative MPs boosted as Greens opt not to stand, October 27). I hope the local Greens in Stirling will revisit this and change their view.
I am not a member of the SNP or the Greens, but I strongly support Scottish independence and my wife and I, and any others we could persuade, voted to give independence-supporting candidates the best chance in the Scottish elections.
We were living in Argyll then and we voted SNP for the constituency seat and Green for the regional seat. We managed to get the SNP into the constituency seat and at least one Green into a regional seat.
It seem obvious to me. The Westminster first-past-the-post system is undemocratic and not the system we would have in an independent Scotland. We have to use it for now, so we should use it to best advantage to get rid of as many Unionists as we can.
If the Greens take this view, they should give the SNP a clear run in Westminster elections and keep their powder dry for the Scottish election.
In the Scottish elections the Greens should target the regional seats, and we who want to ensure a majority for independence in the Scottish Parliament should vote SNP for the constituency seats and Green for the regional seats, as we did last time and intend to do next time.
Every Green we get elected will remove a Unionist from the parliament, and that should be our objective. So pay attention Greens in Stirling, and SNP voters all over Scotland.
Andy Anderson
Saltcoats
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