IN the aftermath of the 2019 General Election, many political commentators across the UK have focused on the demise of the Labour party with only cursory attention paid to the dismal failure of Jo Swinson and the Liberal Democrats to advance, never mind achieve the huge gains some were predicting, in spite of neither of the leading candidates being “fit to be Prime Minister”.
Perhaps before Willie Rennie again stands up in the Scottish Parliament and mindlessly regurgitates his opposition to a second independence referendum he should not only reflect on the increased support gained by the SNP (264,811 votes ie 10% of turnout) but on some of the other numbers associated with the result. At 7,796 votes (0.3% of turnout) the cumulative majorities of all four successful LibDem candidates were less than that achieved by the single successful Labour candidate, Ian Murray, in Edinburgh South (majority of 11,095).
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon makes indyref2 case in Holyrood speech
Of course it should be of no consolation to the LibDems that the Conservatives not only lost seven of their 13 seats in Scotland through focusing solely on preventing a second independence referendum, but saw the cumulative majorities for their party fall to 19,210 votes (just 0.7% of turnout and less than the 21,599 votes for Laura Mitchell of the SNP, who lost to Douglas Ross in Moray with a majority of 513).
Given that the electorate did not support the undemocratic propositions of the party in Scotland or rUK, where revocation of Article 50 was rejected even by traditional party supporters, it seems it is also time for the Liberal Democrat leader in Scotland to consider his position and possibly move aside for an MSP who is in principle both a liberal and a genuine democrat.
Stan Grodynski
Longniddry, East Lothian
AT last, at long last, someone who has a clear understanding of the Treaty of Union. I refer to Lorna Campbell’s excellent Long Letter (December 18) which rightly describes the international treaty to which Scotland is a party. Some time ago I proposed that Scotland has since ceased to be in a legally binding union with England due to English violations of the articles of the Treaty; violations that have proceeded from what Lorna so correctly describes as English assumption. The English regime
has assumed to itself dictates and powers for which it has no legal competence under the Treaty. That regime has proceeded by stealth and got away with it because the very people who should have protected our rights have remained silent. Nor has it helped that we have political ideologies intruded into our borders like a Trojan horse from another country under the guise of branch offices.
As to the Section 30, none of us voted for that in 1997, or the annexation of Scottish maritime territory to England, all brought in through stealth and secrecy by Tony Blair and Donald Dewar after we had voted and without the consent of the Scottish people.
Linda Horsburgh
Dundee
THE letter by Lorna Campbell where she discussed the need to use international law to assist in the case for our independence was really interesting, putting a different slant to other “legal route” articles I have read. A must read for everyone, but particularly Joanna Cherry and her legal pals.
My view is that our fight with London has still got a long way to run. All avenues should be used at the appropriate time. That time, I feel, will be after the 2021 election for Holyrood when, if London is still intransigent, we should use Lorna Campbell’s legal path along with serious levels of peaceful civil unrest targeted at the UK state.
Robert Anderson
Dunning, Perthshire
REGARDING the exercise to draw the Scotland/England border on a map (English people can’t draw Scottish Border in cringeworthy video, thenational.scot, December 17), I think in all reality that the majority of Scots would fail.
I know daughter number one would – which isn’t so good as she has Geography degree. So would her sister, but she’s a marine science graduate. My wife would probably get it, or know that Berwick is a start point. Nae excuses.
Dougie Gray
Dunbar
SELMA Rahman (Letters, December 16) seems to imply that Ian Murray retained his Edinburgh South seat simply because of fellow Hearts fans. I can tell her that if I lived in his constituency – and I’m not that far away – I’d have voted SNP as I would anywhere else, and I’ve been a Hearts man all my life. I know I can speak for others as well. I usually enjoy and agree with much of Selma’s writings, but she’s miles out on this one.
George Foulis
Edinburgh
IN the Spiral puzzle on Monday, clue 9 is “Gaelic” and the answer appears to be “Erse”. Since this is a Scottish newspaper, you do indeed seem to have made an erse!
Alan Y Lawson
Dundee
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