LESLEY Riddoch seems to have her finger on the pulse of Scottish politics.
However, on Thursday I felt she was more “travelling hopefully” than hopeful.
I believe she is underestimating the shock wave that ran through the SNP party when the Alba Party arrived on the scene, far too many stanchion supporters of the SNP have become disillusioned with her “wheesht on indyref2, I’m concentrating on Covid-19”.
Sadly for Nicola that crutch of Covid-19 is looking more and more like her playing the old soldier. It is well-documented now that Covid -19 will be with us for many, many years to come, we are somehow going to have to live with it.
Lesley is asking the SNP branch members to act and push the leadership into declaring a fixed date for a referendum on independence, I think they would be wise to follow her advice, and for the SNP leadership to get their ducks in a line.
READ MORE: Claims Boris Johnson wants to reverse devolution is no surprise whatsoever
Some believe that the SNP have nothing to fear from Alba, after all, they only polled something like 5% of the vote, and won not a single seat at the Scottish Elections.
Take comfort in that if you like, Nigel Farage was never elected to a seat in the Commons, but his influence went right to the heart of the Brexit debate and some will argue turned the tables on Cameron to call a referendum on Brexit.
Ignore the mood of the country at your peril, Nicola.
Walter Hamilton
via email
THE pop-up diddy party for independence do seem to be good at one thing and one thing only and that is moaning and tweeting.
Alba has done nothing to progress the cause of independence since being formed, all they have produced is grievance and needless cheap shots at the SNP, the only party in a position capable of delivering independence.
I do urge one person to name one, just one, initiative suggested by the Alba party that has advanced the cause of independence because I am struggling to do so.
It is no coincidence that since the Alba party was formed support for independence has dipped. Opinion polling shows Alex Salmond is even less popular than Boris Johnson in Scotland and that takes some doing.
So, not only is the Alba party doing nothing for independence and just airing grievance, but they could be actively harming the cause.
The SNP is the party to appoint the incredibly competent and talented Mike Russell as political director to head up the independence strategy and will be introducing the Referendums Bill into parliament. There is no doubt in my mind who is advancing the cause of independence.
Stephen Sime
Stirling
ACCORDING to our all-knowing, straight-off-the-Tory-backbenches new Health Secretary Sajid Javid, “we will have to learn to live with Covid and find ways to cope with it – just as we already do with flu”.
Now, I have been on this planet for a good many years more than Javid and the last 11 years in Scotland. I have been receiving my annual flu jag every year for as long as it has been available.
During those years and before, the flu virus was never considered a pandemic to my knowledge. The hospitals were never overrun with influenza suffering patients.
Thousands of the population didn’t die in any one year. Unlike the facts and figures we have become used to reading about as a result of Covid-19.
It is interesting that public health expert Professor Devi Sridhar has been criticised for her opposition to Sajid Javid’s by some of Javid’s Tory colleagues, namely Kyle Thornton, Dean Lockhart, Stephen Kerr, and Jamie Halcro Johnston.
All Scottish politicians notably, and all in support 100%, (including their Scottish part time leader Duggie where’s the football Ross), of Johnson’s decision to relieve his UK English population of all Covid-19 restrictions.
What is it about these Tory politicians who cannot accept or even debate sensibly an opposite view to their own?
Why must decisions about peoples health have to be a political decision as opposed to a scientific and medical decision, even where and when Johnson’s own medical and science experts say differently?
Why am I even bothering to ask these questions when, in the back of my mind, I know that the Westminster government has become the most corrupt gang of so-called politicians which, because of a corrupt voting pattern, are in possession of a corrupt and indefensible majority.
Alan Magnus-Bennett
Fife
PERHAPS Boris should give his plans to introduce voter photo ID a little more thought.
READ MORE: Independence is normal – unbalanced political unions are not
He may be trying to exclude those he thinks do not usually vote Tory, but how about those he thinks do? That cohort is supposed to be the elderly. The one thing, however, that can be guaranteed about them is that they will get older, stop needing a passport for foreign holidays, have their driving licences removed as their health and competence deteriorate, may become housebound and not require even a bus pass and finally die off.
And all these factors may multiply with the spread of Covid and long-Covid over the immediate future during which Boris foresees his next election.
Be careful what you wish for, Boris.
P Davidson
Falkirk
RENNIE and Sarwar are among the first to shout “not now or any time soon to talk of a freedom plebiscite with plague still rampant “. Funny how they seem to find time to work on keeping us subjugated.
Next, you know, they will be telling us that the In(f)ernal Market Bill is a good thing.
M Ross
Aviemore
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