I REGARD myself as a bit of a grassroots activist, cross-party, no party, but currently I am at my wits’ ends, a bit depressed, and in danger of becoming “Ms Angry”.

Is Scotland on the point of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory? I have no axe to grind regarding the SNP and individuals therein. In fact I believe the indy movement and progress to date wouldn’t be where it is without the SNP.

From a party political perspective, I did regard the SNP as the political party to spearhead independence, but my goodness, their current manoeuvring – and what appears to be internal score-settling – is stretching my patience.

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The Tory party’s men in suits delivered their latest killer blow to the failing politician Carlaw. But you have to ask, is their fear barometer so far off the scale that this is will be their main response to the rise in pro-indy support? I doubt it.

The ridicule that will be heaped on Ross, post-coronation, based on his voting record, his ability to cross the floor from LibDems to Tory, his twice “resigning” from Moray Council, and abandoning his constituents to run the line as a referee, should be political manna for the pro-indy movement.

All this highlights the obvious lack of talent, of political acumen, within the Tories so that they have to revive the failed “I will be the next FM” (not) Ruth Davidson. She who needed to feather her nest, empty of actual political victories, by taking Johnsons’s shilling (£350 daily) says all we need to know about the party that would continue to be Scotland’s lords and masters, via a defunct Union, prepared to rip up the sovereign will of us, the people, ruling through a democratic deficit, doing what is best for their Anglo-centric power base within England.

READ MORE: Scottish Tory goings-on are stranger than fiction

If ever we needed to see how they view Scotland, this is it. Kick out one incompetent, build up the fall guys for the looming failure that should be delivered in the 2021 elections, but make every attempt to block a pro-indy majority (again) in Holyrood. They will undoubtedly pull every dirty trick possible between now and next year’s elections. Adding insult to injury, we know that another pro-indy majority will neither change the collective mind of the PM and his svengali nor deliver a Section 30.

But what happens concurrently? The party in which we (non party members) have put our trust, given our vote, that has delivered an uber-sensible leader – cool, level-headed, authoritative, acknowledged as being one of the top 10 world leaders during the current pandemic – has gone and provided Unionists with the golden ticket of internal strife, a querying of processes and procedures, a complete own goal no less.

The Tories are obviously so very rattled at their failure here and across rUK, along with the increase in support for independence. The recent polls demonstrate that independence is not the province of a minority. The PM’s inability to engage with the public or govern authoritatively, and his Brexit plans, all should play to our advantage.

September sees an ancient birthday figure looming for me. I doubt I have 10 more years plus in me, waiting for independence.

Please, no more own goals.

Selma Rahman
Edinburgh

THE SNP are quoted as wanting to “minimise the disruption to voters” by having a UK by-election on the same day as the elections for the Scottish Parliament. This will thus deprive Joanna Cherry of her chance to fight for the Edinburgh Central seat.

If this is their true reason, why not make the May election a plebiscite one and forget the expense of referendum a few months down the line?

Alison Fraser
Inverness