Cheerful Scots

Scotsman columnist Lesley Riddoch suggests Scots are cheerier than English voters and it’s down to the political culture north of the Border.

Ms Riddoch appears to be conflating “less gloomy” with “inability to accept democracy or reality”. The only political culture I am aware of is one of hatred, grievance and division, the flames of which are fanned at every opportunity by the refusal of the SNP to accept the results of two democratic referendums. She seems to be trying to suggest that it is somehow inherently positive to tenaciously cling to the rainbows and unicorns and magic money trees vision of separation, comprehensively rejected by the Scots on pragmatic grounds in 2014, then again at the general election of 2017.

Margot Stewart

People like yourself always seem to conveniently forget to mention any of the reasons why the SNP have a mandate and a right to challenge those votes. The 2014 vote was full of lies, vote no to stay in the EU, vote no for as close to federalism as possible, vote no for an equal place at the table, oil is running out, The Vow. All lies, nothing delivered. The SNP got the mandate for another referendum from the Scottish electorate when it won on a manifesto that stated we could challenge another vote if there’s a material change to Scotland exactly like being taken out of the EU against our will. Not one mention of any of that in your statement.

Andrew Doak I often wonder why Ireland doesn’t opt to leave the EU and rejoin the UK. It also occurred to me when Trump was visiting and trade deals became the topic, why doesn’t the USA not just opt to rejoin the British empire? For the life of me, I can’t quite