I AM sorry that Sarah Mackenzie of Lochbroom (Letters, Aug 31) needs to ridicule my comments and views on her campaign to enforce the claim of right by reducing them to a children’s game of knock knock. I think Ms Mackenzie should try, as I have suggested previously, my own wee game of knock knock by knocking on the doors of, say, 20 random voters and using her extensive, complex and debatable historical arguments to try to persuade them to support an independent Scotland.
I am unsure if Ms Mackenzie has ever put her arguments to the ultimate political test – standing for election – but I do not recall her or anyone else winning an election based on her strategy.
It did come as a genuine surprise to me that I and my family are entitled to a rental from all the properties on the Royal Mile based on a legal document she has seen from 1689. Should we expect the cheque in the post fairly soon? Will we also get all the back rent from 1689? Given the impending fuel bills we could certainly do with the cash.
I did spend some time looking at the Salvo website. I am sure that some considerable time and effort has gone into it. Perhaps that time and effort would be better spent convincing the voters of today of the potential future of an independent Scotland based on policies for 2022 and beyond. I attempted to see how many voters had signed the petition mentioned by Ms Mackenzie but oddly that does not seem possible.
To take a paragraph from the site as an example: “The compact was embodied in two separate assemblies. One which represented the people called the Convention of the Estates (Assembly of the Communities), represented the lenders, the nation or people, and the other, the Parliament, or Three Estates, represented the ‘borrowers’ of power, those who made the laws and conducted the business of government on behalf of the nation.”
I confess I have no firm idea what that actually means. In my almost 50 years of political campaigning I do not recall anything like it forming a discussion with an undecided voter. I suspect it would not be foremost in the mind of, for example, a voter in Shetland currently facing a £10,000 fuel bill. In 25 years of holding councillor’s surgeries I cannot recall a constituent who felt the need to raise the subject of ancient treaties which require to be dusted down from government archives.
I was going to end this letter by wishing Ms Mackenzie and her supporters well in their endeavours but I fear their attempts to enforce legislation from the dim and distant past is already subject to ridicule and in danger of damaging and greatly reducing the credibility of the current campaign for a modern independent Scotland.
Brian Lawson
Paisley
CAMERON Greer and Jake Stevenson have started up Scottish Liberals for Indy, as mentioned in the issue of August 31. At last we have young, enthusiastic people looking to the future of Scotland and their particular party. I feel sure there will be people of the same ilk in the other London-based parties who would like to follow suit.
It is obvious that the Liberal, Labour and Conservative organisations can only survive and thrive north of the Border by becoming Scottish entities. In an independent Scotland they would become stronger and perhaps even form or be part of the administration in years to come.
I feel sure there are people of all political persuasions giving thought to this eventuality. Well done lads, you have smelt the coffee, now enjoy the taste of the journey to independence.
Sandy Coghill
Sligachan, Isle of Skye
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