Scotland – are we stronger in or out of Europe?

Topic of the week: lessons from the General Election

COMPARED to garish headlines and assessments by true blue newspapers, your election coverage gave Scottish readers a balanced view, apart from not a mention of the Green Party. The issue lacking among party leaders’ rhetoric was any real show of concern for the environment. Leave the EU and its green credentials? After a lifetime in farming, with practical experience of the safeguards placed on land management and food safety, I question the priorities of politicians and public alike. Loss of the single market could decimate Scottish farming and our rural economy. Enlightened leadership says “a fair deal”, rather than the May/Davidson mentality of “I want the best deal to make Britain great again”. Westminster will be mauled by Brussels and the DUP. Many young people must despair at the inbuilt greed of right-wing politics, or the left’s inability to deal with major tax evasion.

Mention of global warming is too boring, apparently. Yet the rate of climate change is accelerating. Enough of political ego-maniacs, we need young, intelligent brains coming forward to give a fair-minded, independent Scotland a voice in Europe, the UN, and a chance of influencing our planet’s future. It will be in their hands. Iain R Thomson Cannich YOUR leader on the Westminster election misses out on two vital points (The lessons to be learned from destruction, Editorial, June 18). Firstly, the baleful spectre of an imminent second independence referendum, played by all parties except the SNP, haunted the campaign. This was not properly contested by the SNP and cost it a lot of seats and votes.

Secondly, the SNP failed to deal with Brexit, and the one-third of independence supporters who voted Leave because they did not want Scottish sovereignty to be lost to the EU. The SNP treated these people (many of whom were party members) with disdain and often abuse. This abuse went right to the top of the SNP. One prominent MEP, in a public debate in Edinburgh, even referred to Brexiteers as “xenophobes” and “racists”. The SNP allowed no internal debate on its ill-starred policy of independence in Europe. To his credit, Jim Sillars spoke out against this policy before the referendum, but he was almost a lone voice in the SNP.

All this has cost the SNP dearly in votes, seats and reputation. It is letting the country down by not recognising the reality of Brexit and not campaigning to return control of fisheries and agriculture to Scotland. Worse, it doesn’t even recognise that, to have radical policies at all, such as plans to nationalise railways, banks and public utilities as Corbyn is proposing, it is necessary to leave the EU. That’s why Brexit is so important. If the SNP doesn’t wake up to this soon, it will be courting even greater electoral disaster, in both Westminster and Holyrood. Randolph Murray Rannoch