What would be the build-up to a 2026 de facto indyref?
evidenced on most episodes of Question Time when Scotland’s governance is raised as a topic of discussion). Perhaps, therefore, it might be more instructive to ask why people “down south” do not appear confident in England becoming an independent country.
Perhaps they do not wish to have nuclear submarines moored next to their most populous city. Perhaps they still wish to control the huge oil and gas resources still remaining in the Scottish sector of the North Sea.
Perhaps they wish to continue to benefit from Scotland’s leading progress towards net zero in terms of renewable energy generation (massive tidal generation still to come) and measures such as extensive tree-planting and future carbon sequestration.
Perhaps they do not wish to see public services deteriorate even further and the enormous UK debt of almost £3 trillion rise higher due to missing advantageous infrastructure investment (Scotland now only
Ask why people ‘down south’ do not appear confident in England
READER Gordon Walker took this great shot, with Madras College in the background, in St Andrews during a holiday at Kilconquhar in the East Neuk of Fife having 3.5% of UK Government spending, the lowest percentage since devolution 25 years ago).
Perhaps they do not wish to lose direct access to the personnel who have been called upon to lead their academic, commercial and military ventures in pursuit of the UK’s global ambitions, or who in the past have disproportionately given their lives on foreign battlefields.
Perhaps they do not wish to face up to the dire legacy of imperialist plunder and exploitation that contributed, and still contributes, to the tide of refugees around the world.
Perhaps they are simply scared of constitutional change and are not even ready to listen to OECD advice that the focus in education should not be on narrow exam targets but on the holistic development of young people so we can together happily build an ambitious, healthy, prosperous, democratic, socially just and egalitarian society.
Stan Grodynski Longniddry, East Lothian
WITH the recent local elections in England and Wales, we’re witnessing the blurred battle lines being smudged even more between Tory and Labour as they square up for the coming General Election. Tory battle lines are turgid and mired in 14 years of failures, ranging from posturing leaders to corruption and scandals and then all the way round to the actual inability to govern effectively.
Labour are in the enviable position of watching the Tories commit political suicide, providing them with the opportunity to say little, renege on earlier offerings, promise nothing, and provide nothing more than name change.
What is more frightening in Labour’s push to power is their willingness to evolve into a less democratic party: appeasing big business over workers; flirting with international court censure over their failure to condemn the actions of the state of Israel; chasing votes and abandoning principles.
At exactly the same time, I don’t know if Scotland has just experienced a crisis or a blip on the road to independence. Claims of independence being either off the agenda or already terminal following the latest Scottish upheavals are way off the mark.
I wonder, though, how we square the circle between party politics and people’s political aspirations. Will we stutter on with a proindependence and, let’s face it, pro-European majority in the Scottish Parliament as it somehow seeks to avoid confrontation and fallings-out, or will we thrive and progress?
The nature of the D’Hondt system does require consensual cross-party working, previously achievable. The bedrock commonality of independence doesn’t cut it, not if recent events are anything to go by.
Surely the challenge to the parties seeking to deliver independence is to help establish a vision of independence and identify policies of change that are driven by civic society.
That vision, of what independence could mean, what change independence could offer, has been reduced to an intangible soundbite, paraded on marches accompanied by flags whilst the political parties have battled for supremacy and political survival.
What an irony that the efficacy of the Scottish Parliament to date, such as years of mitigation, the Scottish Child Payment, the Domestic Abuse Scotland Act, and so much more are overshadowed by gender/ identity policies, bottle banks and ferries, all aided and abetted by a biased media.
So, in the coming months, will the Scottish Parliament address the day-to-day issues that are possible within the scope of the “devolved” agenda? To interlink, agree and act on the urgency of climate change, business, environmental transition policies, education and health should not be beyond the capabilities of pro-indy parties. Where is such a strategy, or will it act out as silo working, isolating and self-destructive?
If 2026 elections become a de facto referendum, what will be the build-up? How do we prepare, how do we generate the required political momentum? It has to be the people’s democratic change articulated and formulated, local up to national.
Can we start the conversation asap with conventions, congress, reigniting a Scotland-wide debate, engaging outwith electioneering times and drawing in civic society from beyond our bubble?
Selma Rahman Edinburgh
THE problem for me with the SNP indy strategy is a lack of firm commitment to using Holyrood 2026 as a de facto referendum. But that can be sorted. Rosemary Champion via thenational.scot