With a new SNP leader at Westminster will we see a change of tactics?

Whatever we do there is no possibility of a referendum unless the English MP who holds the office of Prime Minister allows it, and that is never going to happen. No PM wants to see the break-up of the UK during their watch. The English will never vote for a party whose leader is not English (remember Gordie doom Broon was never voted in by the people as PM).

We have disappeared as a news item from the front pages of the Telegragh, Express and the Mail because a referendum is now impossible and Scotland is no longer of interest. The Union is safe.

If pro-independence parties win a majority of votes in Scotland at the next General Election the British state will still not engage in independence talks.

The SNPs MPs, at least to me, have been absorbed into the British state. Their sole objective, and our only option, is to bring Westminster to a grinding halt and prevent any meaningful legislation being passed; something they should have done right from the start. Perhaps with a new leader at Westminster we may witness a change of tactics to get them around the table.

I am 62 years of age and unless the SNP MPs at Westminster don’t start being more radical I doubt if I will see independence in my lifetime.

Kenneth Young
Edinburgh

WITH the impending election of a new SNP leader at Westminster, most supporters of independence would seem to agree that it’s time to step up the campaign for independence and to be less courteous of outdated conventions and more direct in the condemnation of the undemocratic Anglo-imperialist government.

A focus for that change in approach by SNP MPs and MSPs could be to more assertively attack the authoritarian decisions of the Prime Minister, especially the discrimination evident in denying the Scottish Government its parliamentary mandate while accepting a seven-year referendum frequency for Northern Ireland.

If a Russian “republic” was overtly subjected to such totalitarian governance the UK mainstream media would be loudly critical of the acts of a strident dictatorship. It is time to demonstrably hold Rishi Sunak to account for continuing to reject the Scottish Government’s request for a Section 30 order (if not submitted already, a new request must be formally made to the new PM following the recent Supreme Court judgment).

All supporters of independence should now work together to persuade Mr Sunak to aspire to the motivations of Gandhi, not Putin.

Stan Grodynski
Longniddry, East Lothian

MARKET forces are a very prominent factor in our lives, and really the concept is very easy to understand: supply and demand.

The supply is basically something that society needs or wants. It could be foods, technology products or skills and expertise.

Depending on the demand and the level of need, or the level of supply then the price will rise or fall.

For example, if the grain harvest fails in any particular year, then because we need bread, the price of grain will rise, regardless of the price levels in previous years. The reverse will of course happen if the grain harvest is extremely high. This, as we all know, also applies to domestic energy prices!

You might also expect this to be the case if skills are required. Lack of skills and high demand would, you would expect, mean those who can supply the skills would receive higher wages or other benefits that the employer, or society in general, could provide.

This is a concept well understood by, for example, financial institutions or top football clubs that will pay seemingly exorbitant salaries to those managers or players who can provide the skills that seem to be in demand.

There are other areas in society, however, where skills are in short supply and demand is high, but in these areas the concept of “market forces” seems to be less well understood. Most of us don’t need healthcare or personal care all of the time, but when we need it we “NEED IT!”

Currently there is an acute shortage of health workers, eg doctors, nurses and personal care workers, and something must be done to encourage staff into these sectors. Salary levels are probably most important, but we might also want to examine such features as conditions of service, training opportunities and potential for career advancement.

This is undoubtedly a huge problem and I will most certainly not have all of the answers, but as I said previously when our society needs those services it NEEDS them!

Alex Leggatt
Edinburgh

ASSUMING the forecast for Scotland is accurate, the cold weather is likely to kill people sleeping rough. SNP, please ensure that there will be night shelters across Scotland.

Isabel Cooney
via email