Mandates abound

Many of your correspondents since the election have focused on the SNP’S vote share of 45 per cent and whether or not it constitutes a mandate for indyref2. John C Davies, for example, points out (Letters, 16 December) that some who voted SNP last Thursday will have done so for reasons other than independence. That is true. But it is also true that many who support Scotland’s right to determine its own future will have voted for parties other than the SNP. For example, two recent polls suggest that at least 40 per cent of Scottish Labour supporters back independence.

The only way to determine where public opinion lies on a single issue is to hold a referendum, and mandates for referenda come from multi-party elections such as the one held last week.

David Cameron’s mandate to hold an EU referendum stemmed from a Tory vote share of less than 37 per cent in 2015. Alex Salmond’s mandate to hold the 2014 referendum came from a vote share of 45 per cent. Boris Johnson’s (in his words) “stonking mandate” to “get Brexit done” comes from winning only 43

per cent of the vote across the UK last week.

The SNP’S landslide, winning 81 per cent of the seats in Scotland, on a 45 per cent vote share, some 20 percentage points ahead of the party in second place, constitutes as watertight a mandate for a referendum as we are likely to see within the UK political system. For the sake of democracy, it cannot be blocked.

C HEGARTY Glenorchy Road, North Berwick

It is imperative that a united front of Unionist parties is formed against the so-called mandate for independence mounted by Nicola Sturgeon. Right-thinking Scots voters know full well that the General Election had nothing to do with the case for another independence referendum; it was principally about Brexit.

The total number of votes cast for the political parties which support the Union was higher than those cast for the SNP, but our system in the UK is, unfortunately, still first past the post. Furthermore, the dominance of the SNP at the Scottish Parliament is only due to an alliance with the largely unelected Greens.

Since it is a fact that the Scottish Parliament, or Scottish Executive as it was known at its inception, is a devolved legislature with the power to pass statutes only affecting Scotland, on matters affecting its legislative competence, it must be noted that such devolved power does not include the constitution – that is a matter reserved to the UK Government at Westminster.

So, any attempt by Nicola Sturgeon and her acolytes will quite rightly be dismissed. At the same time, should any future referendum be authorised by Westminster, a majority in favour of change of at least 60 per cent must surely

be achieved to reduce the divisiveness of any result in a poll of this type.

In any case, just how democratic was the recent election in Scotland? It should be

noted that the SNP got 80 per cent of the seats with only 45 per cent of the votes cast – this was only fractionally higher than the 44.5 per cent of the votes received by them in the

independence referendum in 2014. There is no real upsurge in support for independence – it is simply Sturgeon /SNP propaganda!

ROBERT I G SCOTT Northfield, Ceres, Fife

So despite the gifts of Brexit and Boris Johnson as a convenient Tory bogeyman, the SNP and Greens still wound up with 46 per cent of the vote.

No surprises there, it shows that opinions on independence have scarcely moved an inch since 2014. Now that the Prime Minister has politely declined indyref2, what will Nicola Sturgeon’s next move be when her threatened court action fails? An unauthorised Catalan-style referendum, perhaps? The First Minister would doubtless be praying that Bojo sends in the riot police like the Spaniards did, so she and her followers could bask in glorious victimhood.

Do the nationalists have a Plan B if (horror of horrors!) Brexit actually turns out to be a success?

MARTIN O’GORMAN Littlejohn Road, Edinburgh