Negative publicity

Published on 18/08/2012 00:00

So, Joyce McMillan is down in the dumps (Perspective, 17 August). She recognises that the “Better Together” campaign is odds-on to win the referendum, although, true to form, she cannot bring herself to recognise that this is something positive and denigrates it by calling it the “No” campaign.

There is no “No” campaign and that lies at the heart of the Nationalist angst as, in their heart of hearts, they know that theirs is the negative argument that will ultimately be rejected.

Until supporters of the breakaway movement recognise that we have something which is intrinsically valuable and which has, time and time again, delivered to the people of the whole of Great Britain and which will do so again in times to come, they are bound to fail.

The vision of the Nationalists is one based upon denial of facts and an impossible dream based upon a screwdriver economy, mostly owned by companies and institutions outside Scotland, a rapidly diminishing natural pollutant – sorry, resource – namely, oil and immersion in the greedy maw of Eurodom.

Scots would pay and pay and be nailed down, just as the Danes and the Irish have been in the past and as the Greeks, Spanish and Italians are at present, to a demanding, intrusive Brussels autocracy that keeps on squeezing more and more money from member states. 

Ms McMillan clearly enjoyed the Olympic opening ceremony. I thought it trite and boring and fell asleep. I mean, what has the NHS to do with the Olympics? And the closing ceremony was little better.

I am sure that many of the references went over the heads of 90 per cent of the people watching worldwide and half the celebrities who appeared were totally unknown to me.

What matters, however, is that the effect of the successes of Team GB and the proof, if 
needed – that, together, we are all better and far more successful than any other similarly sized nation – was borne out in the London Olympics.

Team GB and the reality of the United Kingdom as a united 
economic and political force which will be forging ahead again will be the realities when Rio’s time comes in 2016.

Andrew HN Gray

Craiglea Drive

Edinburgh

Bill Jamieson (Perspective, 16 August) speaks of voting for independence for Scotland as being like buying a house. His analogy is couched in everyday terms.

But the point is, if you buy a house it becomes yours. Of course it requires maintenance, maybe alterations.

It may be a costly endeavour but you, not the landlord (a landlord, incidentally, who has been siphoning off most of the oil from your tank ever since it was installed), have the last say.

Iain WD Forde

Main Street

Scotlandwell, Kinross-shire

Agreeing with David Stevenson (Letters, 15 August), Hugh Mackay (Letters, 16 August) amazes me by seeming to recommend the Irish example for an independent Scotland.

That country suffered badly at the hands of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, which fossilised attitudes, encouraging a preoccupation with the past and a corrosive cronyism in the present.

Neither did much to move the country in the direction of economic and social development or to make it any less theocratic. Ireland’s experience serves as a warning: for the SNP to flourish after independence would be a huge obstacle to achieving progress.

Andrew Anderson

Granton Road

Edinburgh