Will Sturgeon ever lift the shadow of the Neverendum from people of Scotland?
Alastair Cameron states in his 7July Scotsman 200 article that “The neverendum effect harms Scotland” and “has a chilling effect on business confidence”. It is an absolute disgrace that this threat continues to blight Scotland’s future and there seems to be no end to it. Add to this the Brexit effect on business confidence and this double uncertainty is really bad news for Scotland.
Why can’t the SNP accept once and for all the result of the 2014 referendum? Why? Because it wants a Yes vote and it will go on pushing for a Second and a Third and a Fourth Referendum until it gets the result it wants. Intimi- dation of individuals and businesses by SNP zealots will play a significant part, as it did in the 2014 Referendum, which Alex Salmond conceded was a “once in a generation” event but which to Nicola Sturgeon is an ongoing obsession. Now that the last General Election has inflicted such welcome damage to the SNP, it is vital for businesses to speak out much more vociferously and not keep quiet or up sticks and move south of the Border.
Hopefully, the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, the Scottish Labour Party and the Scottish Liberal Democrats will be able to go on cutting the SNP down to size until Scotland no longer remains a one party state.
The SNP is dedicated to the break-up of the United Kingdom and the subsequent impoverishment of Scotland would be disastrous. STEPHEN EDWARDS
Rowan House Inveresk Village Musselburgh, East Lothian When a politician feels the need to repeat a word or phrase time and again in the same interview, it suggests there is something fundamentally misleading about their proposition. They hope by simple repetition to convince those listening that what they are saying is true, even if the facts suggest otherwise. So it was in the Radio Scotland interview yesterday with Stephen Gethins, the SNP’S Europe spokesperson at Westminster. Again and again he told us that the SNP had tabled “compromise” proposals for Brexit. Knowing that so many leading figures in the EU consider it nonsense to contemplate the UK as a whole, or Scotland on its own, having the benefit of Single Market membership whilst no longer being members of the EU, he hoped to overcome rational thought by sheer assertion.
The reality is that the SNP’S Brexit proposals document, Scotland’s Place in Europe, is a sham. Its main purpose is to provide a framework for building grievance over the Brexit negotiating process, leading inexorably to an eventual conclusion by the SNP leadership that, when all their “compromise” proposals have failed to gain traction, the First Minister’s preferred option, as set out in the document’s introduction, can then become the main proposition – namely for Scotland to seek independent EU membership.
Interestingly, despite its title, that document omits the most significant issues about “Scotland’s place in Europe”. Just now the inconvenient truth about the economic hoops Scotland would have to jump through to achieve EU membership are considered too unpalatable to be shared with the people of Scotland. Instead we are to be fed a steady stream of manufactured grievance against the UK Government’s Brexit negotiations for the next 18 months. The none too subtle plan is to try to wear us all down sufficiently with this that we do not look too closely at what the EU will demand of us if Ms Sturgeon ultimately tries again to get her way on breaking up the UK. KEITH HOWELL
White Moss West Linton, Peeblesshire