I PERSONALLY wouldn’t trust the Westminster government, whether Conservative or Labour, to run a school tuck shop, never mind a country. What do you think?

Since the late 1960s we have become poorer with each successive government inflicting stealth taxes and austerity upon us, closing down our manufacturing base and relying on the City of London financial district to make the country rich – although if it wasn’t for oil and gas revenues during the 1980s and 1990s, Tory fiscal policy would have failed miserably to achieve this.

However, when bankers catch a cold – eg the European Exchange Rate Mechanism crisis, the 2008 bank crash, Liz Truss economics – then the UK stability rocks, which has a dramatic effect on the everybody except the top 1% who can shift their portfolios elsewhere.

READ MORE: 'The world is watching': SNP MP lays out six points to 'underpin' indyref2 debate

The top 1% in the UK are becoming even richer, the so-called middle class are now the new poorer class and the poorer class are fast becoming destitute. Government and personal debt over the decades has been allowed to rise to unmanageable levels, adding to the cost-of-living crisis.

Things are not going to get better at the next Westminster election, with the blue-rinsed Labour party following the same economic policy as the Tories with a few minor tweaks here and there and going down the same Brexit rabbit hole – not into wonderland unless you’re in the top 1%, but further into the mire and chaos.

Pay deals that tout automation and so-called productivity improvements only make the 1% richer, with fewer and fewer jobs for the masses. Monetary and fiscal policy are broken in the UK and unlikely to be fixed any time soon.

Scotland as an independent country can reset these injustices and allow Scots to have a better future. This is why independence is so important. History has shown with the suffragettes, trade union movement etc, and American pressure after World War Two for the UK to reluctantly and very slowly give up its colonial rule across the British Empire, that Westminster only does something for the good if sufficient pressure has been brought to bear.

READ MORE: Pope interventions on Scottish independence through the years

I firmly believe the SNP need to pressurise the Westminster government. The SNP, which is the largest Scottish Westminster party – well, the only true Scottish Westminster party (I exclude Alba MPs as the electorate didn’t actually vote for Alba MPs at the last election) – should withdraw the Scottish electorate mandate that allows Westminster to be sovereign over Scotland. There is no need to wait for the next election, as the mandate is already there. When you vote SNP you are giving your vote for independence. It was parliamentarians with a lesser electoral mandate and certainly no popular mandate that took Scotland into the ill-fated Union; it should be the existing Scottish parliamentarians at Westminster that take us out of it. This should panic Westminster, maybe even to agreeing to another independence referendum, as the eyes of democratic nations across the world would be watching them.

Unfortunately, the SNP which are now firmly part of the political establishment at Westminster – happy sitting on committees, having five minutes of fame at PMQs and the odd political interview – and just don’t want to rock the boat at Westminster! Even the Pope says the “the English” have dealt with Scotland on independence. No mention of what the Scottish people want!

READ MORE: In this extended independence campaign, there’s no single magic bullet

Even though 50% of the Scottish electorate are in favour of independence, only one out of 14 Scottish or English-with-Scottish-edition national newspapers (excluding evening newspapers) support independence, which is statistically odd. However, because these papers are typically UK “owned or run” by the top 1% (rich and Unionist leaning), they can control the Scottish narrative and this makes wider independence acceptance more difficult as they generally only report the negative aspects of independence. Remember The Vow splashed all over the Scottish tabloids just before the independence vote in 2014. This had a massive effect on the outcome of the vote.

Many voters were also put off by some of the personalties involved – some of the SNP leaders had “Marmite” status. Again, the next independence vote needs to be more about the case for independence and Scottish sovereignty and less about the personalities involved. It is difficult to find anyone that is universally popular to lead the cause.

If countries like Malta (no disrespect intended) can continue to prosper 58 years since they became sovereign from the UK, why is so difficult for people to accept Scotland can survive without England telling us how to run our affairs!

A Wilson
Stirlingshire