This is democracy in action
Dear Editor, In reply to ‘Angry Voter’ (Fedup with referenda, March 15).
Why would you be “sick to the back teeth” about your country exercising democracy? We are lucky that here in Scotland, the citizens are being consulted about the type of country we wish to live in – that’s democracy in action. The first referendum politicised a lot of the population and that can only be a good thing.
Kezia Dugdale has admitted that other parts of the United Kingdom need some form of autonomy because she knows that the monies we send to Westminster are used mainly for the benefit of the ‘London bubble’ – is that fair?
If we don’t get independence, I can foresee the day when parts of England will be free of Westminster and blooming, whilst we will be stagnant and funding London billionaires. Scotland is a rich country but we don’t benefit from our assets.
It is not Nicola Sturgeon who is pushing for independence, it is the strong YES groups all over Scotland, whose members are from all political parties and people with no political affiliations.
Contrary to the negative publicity some party leaders (who should be ashamed) give us, we are a very happy and positive crowd, because we are working for a better Scotland.
We extend the hand of friendship to ‘Angry Voter’ and indeed anyone who wishes to come along and find out for her/himself why we want independence. R Smith, The Murray
Blindedbynationalism Dear Editor, Contrary to Linda Fabiani’s fantastical claim, the SNP do not stick up for Scotland. They promote independence, nothing more (We must have a choice, March 15).
The current constitutional debate reminds of the early 1990s when Czechoslovakia dissolved into the separate states of Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the so called ‘Velvet Divorce’.
Like the SNP, the Slovaks resented their closest neighbour and clamoured for more autonomy. Slovaks received a large annual subsidy from the Czechs without which they would have been hard pressed to balance the books. The Czechs were determined to press ahead with far-reaching free market reforms which, in the 90s, were much needed to break out of the communist rut, but the Slovaks reacted by pushing a socialist agenda.
Slovak nationalists assumed they could subject the Czechs to emotional blackmail, demanding more autonomy and larger handouts in exchange for unity. By 1992, elections produced a reformist government in the Czech Republic but a socialist one in Slovakia; they resolved to separate.
In the following five years, the Czechs pushed ahead with reforms and saw impressive economic growth rates and massive influxes of foreign investment. Whereas the early years of Slovak independence were close to catastrophic. In 1998, a centre-right government was elected. By 2005 the world bank declared Slovakia the ‘most reformist’ country in the world and it had a growth rate of 11 per cent. Blinded by nationalism, the Slovaks had underestimated the difficulties of establishing an independent state in a competitive world.
The parallels with the SNP are obvious, the subsidy allows them to maintain a socialist economic model that will be defunct in independence. As Scottish oil becomes scarcer and falls in price due to American fracking, we will become more dependent on union with neighbours not less.
The SNP will always be blinded by nationalism. What’s good for Scotland comes a distant second. Darren Clyde, Scottish Conservative candidate, East Kilbride Central North