WHAT an excellent article by Ruth Wishart on Monday (The Yes Movement ignores at peril the signals the Tories are sending out, August 17).
Maybe it’s because Ruth and I are about the same age that I find myself agreeing with her more often than not. I refer to a phrase she uses in the article, although I would change it to “Never mind keep the heid, keep the auld heid and listen tae whit she’s tellin’ ye!” Because what Ruth says is very pertinent. There is no doubt whatsoever that these moves by the Tories are being made in order to undermine the devolved government and perhaps even close it down.
We are now hearing Lord William Hague has a three-point plan to remove Nicola Sturgeon from power and thereby kill off the independence movement. Couple that with the intentions that will be carried out at “Queen Elizabeth House” and its not the Yes movement who ignore this at their peril, it’s the SNP Government.
READ MORE: The Yes movement ignores at its peril the signals Tories are sending out
The Tories are playing dirty. They have played dirty right through the pandemic and don’t intend stopping. It’s time for the SNP to do the same. It’s all very well our FM behaving like the lady she is, but politeness and good behaviour counts for nothing in the Tory book. Pleasing the public is all very good. But looking good like that only annoys Westminster. We’re not allowed to keep doing things better than they do.
No matter how diplomatically or how well-mannered you behave, Westminster will never willingly let go of the vast majority of its oil and gas reserves. Scotland has about 95% of them. They will not willingly let got of more than half of their fisheries or the agriculture, fruit and whisky exports that Scotland has and that are so valuable to them.
They will not willingly let go of the military bases they have in Scotland, including their only nuclear naval base and the dumping ground at Rosyth for their out-of-date nuclear submarines. Where will the current fleet be anchored up after the upgrades arrive? No doubt they are planning for that to be somewhere in Scotland too!
Ruth is 100% correct in highlighting the dangers as she does, because Westminster will do everything it can to prevent independence, including shutting down Holyrood. After December we will lose the small residue of protection from the EU that still remains.
I believe it is therefore very important that our elected representatives make some sort of move before that protection is lost. Whatever they decide to do, they must do it soon or face the possibility of being prevented by Westminster from doing anything at all to achieve independence.
I sincerely hope that someone in the upper echelons of the SNP has read Ruth’s article and they will pass it on and act on it. No matter what some people think, Boris will not give in to a referendum even if the SNP gets a majority at the next election. They have an 80-seat majority in Westminster and that’s where the power lies. They will do what they want to do and not what Scotland, or its people, wants.
Charlie Kerr
Glenrothes
RUTH Wishart is spot-on in pointing out the Westminster tanks which are rolling into Scotland with the mission to sideline the Scottish Parliament.
This is only the start of the campaign to undermine independence. Watch out for the blitzkrieg of lies and “independence bad” choking the social media airways as it moves into top gear closer to the Scottish Parliament election.
Meanwhile, the SNP seem to be more concerned about navel-gazing and pontificating about Plan B than preparing for these attacks. If a drop in support for independence is achieved, Number 10 will have the excuse it needs to refuse a referendum.
Mike Underwood
Linlithgow
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