Let’s change Groundhog Day

IT’S Groundhog Day yet again. Nicola Sturgeon is about to push ahead with a new drive for a referendum (“Sturgeon accused of ‘plotting to divide people’ with new indy call”,the Herald,

August 3, and Letters, August 4). I think it’s correct to say that she has done this every year since she became SNP leader. This is, of course, hedged – as always – with conditions. It is to be held “at the earliest moment” after a “clear end” to the public health crisis.

It’s “how long is a piece of string?” again.

Ms Sturgeon has to have some red meat for her followers at the SNP conference to be held next month. It is always the same. There is no economic or financial plan. A lot of goodies are promised, without any attempt to compute how much these would cost or where the money would come from to pay for them. But the promised land is in sight. Most SNP members seem unaware that they are routinely marched to the top of the hill, and then abandoned there by their leader, although some now seem to have twigged that.

Let’s have some real plans for a referendum – for example, an acceptance that 50%+1 vote is not an adequate majority for momentous constitutional change. The SNP’S own constitution requires a two-thirds majority for change. Would the SNP leadership really argue that what is good enough for the SNP is too good for the people of Scotland? Momentous change requires overwhelming support. Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh.