Groundhog Day

Six years ago, on 19 September ,2014, we had either been awake all night or woke up to the news that Scotland had voted to stay in the UK. We had been given the choice and we decided we did not want to separate from our nearest neighbour and our partner of 300 years.

Many voters woke up disappointed and those who had campaigned long and hard for the status quo would have been ecstatic. Many more though, like myself who were not heavily involved in politics at that time, were filled with relief.

We did not gloat; we did not take pleasure from seeing Alex Salmond driven away defeated; we did not rub the Yes voters’ faces in the outcome; we went to work as we would any other day and hop ed that it meant things could go back to normal. No more talk of division, no more campaigning, no more distractions from running the country and making our education system and health services the best they could be.

How wrong we were. Until Scotland rids itself of the SNP Government we will be kept in this Groundhog Day loop of ever y day being another day where independence is the answer, regardless of the question. Non-separatist voters need to realise that to defeat this divisive party and have an administration that governs we need to vote tactically.

Do we really want to be doing this six years, 16 years, 26 years from now? The SNP will keep demanding a referendum until they get the answer they want. The only way to avoid that is to not vote for them in May 2021.

JANE LAX

Aberlour, Moray