IT absolutely amazes me that a anyone in Scotland is duped by Keir Starmer. He has broken just about every promise he made in order to get the Labour leadership and people up here still think he will actually deliver on his promises if he wins the next General Election.

You really have to ask, just how stupid are people. Like the Tories, he will be an absolute disaster, but still many Scots are too feart to wake up and realise unless Scotland goes its own way and becomes just friends and neighbours with England, things will NEVER improve.

I hate to say it but, let’s be honest, England is absolutely falling apart. It’s a catastrophic mess on every single level and still Scots vote to remain in abject poverty and be treated with absolute contempt. In doing so, they are voting to ensure their children and future generations are denied the chance of a far, far better life, when a so-called Union has been dead in the water for years.

Many a potential prime minister comes along announces grand plans, which are never be delivered. It’s all simply churned out to win votes from the gullible and people fall for it time and time again.

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We know an independence referendum will never be sanctioned by Westminster. We must inform it that after the next GE we are going to use our own elections as a de facto referendum ourselves.

When it delivers a majority for independence, if Westminster does not play ball, we will have no other option but to take it over their heads.

As for this nonsensical idea of the SNP’s to somehow get a majority at the General Election when they cut out huge swathes of indy supporters. The party is now in complete disarray due to several years of idiotic, self-harming policies. Yet the SNP continue to turn their noses up at the idea of working with other parties. Do they not realise that there’s a reason why their support is falling through the floor yet support for indy is over 50%.

If the SNP completely fail us and fail to work with others to deliver indy, they will never be forgiven. When, oh when, are people in Scotland – and also the SNP – going to wake the hell up?

Iain K

Dunoon

IN the aftermath of the recent Rutherglen by-election result, I note a number of strident calls for a switch of emphasis from the independence cause to domestic issues, such as the increasing cost of living crisis. I do not understand the thinking which motivates these calls.

My own main motivations for my desire for Scotland to become independent, are:

1) The shockingly bad decisions taken on these same domestic issues by the London-based Unionist parties. All of these seem to be aimed at gaining some financial benefit for the rich benefactors who donate to these parties (with no consequent benefit to the general population) and the hidden long-term aim of stripping (ie: stealing) from Scotland its significant natural assets(such as an abundance of renewable energy); and

2) In stark contrast, the wise decisions taken by other countries, which have population sizes similar to that of Scotland (or perhaps, like Iceland, very much smaller).

What exactly – and this is not a rhetorical question, I would really like a coherent answer – is the point of winning an election based on sensible domestic policies only to have those wise decisions overruled and snatched away by a larger and avaricious neighbour due to it having a larger population size?

I see no long-term advantage in that (for ourselves or for anyone else). I do, however, see a significant benefit in being able to convince enough of the Scottish electorate that there is a direct causal and beneficial consequence in taking all those decisions on domestic issues for ourselves. I would like to see that message being hammered home.

And this idea really alarms me. Currently, the Scottish Government has the power to withhold planning permission for siting nuclear power stations or nuclear waste dumps in Scotland. I fear that power may be over-ridden and our wonderful beautiful land could be contaminated and made uninhabitable for thousands of years by a thoughtless, short-term desire to pour unlovely profits into someone’s pocket.

Hugh Noble

Appin

GRANT Frazer (Letters, Oct 9) blames the “Unionist media” for the SNP’s defeat in Rutherglen and Hamilton West. I suppose this makes a welcome change from blaming Margaret Ferrier and the bad weather on polling day.

The media are easy targets to blame for the policy failings of political parties. SNP branches are now, as Mr Frazer suggests, “scratching about” for candidates.

However ,while the “drive and energy” of youth might seem an attractive proposition, some of these folk appear to have made a very rapid journey along a short career path from school to university to employment by MPs and MSPs to being SNP candidates, without stopping to include any life or work experience outside the bubble of politics.

Mr Frazer suggests Alex Neil and Fergus Ewing MSP “gracefully retire”. Mr Neil did retire from Holyrood in 2021. Both were ministers in an SNP government which exhibited a degree of competence sadly lacking at times in the present administration.

If it were possible, I would have both gentlemen back in the SNP Cabinet tomorrow perhaps as, in football terms, half-time substitutes for the current two Green ministers.

Dr Iain Evans

Edinburgh

LABOUR conference headlines about rebuilding Britain over next 10 years – SNP highlights to look out for seem to be most votes/most seats at the General Election and more cash for SNP branches!

Anyone else fearing a damp squib this weekend? Hopefully I’m wrong and there will be headline-grabbing discussions on what we will do with our independence.

C Tait

Glasgow