Boris Johnson will say no, so it’s time to enact Plan B - Readers' Letters

In 2017 Nicola Sturgeon went cap-in-hand like Oliver Twist begging weak Theresa May for “permission” to hold an independence referendum. “Now is not the time,” was the reply. The country had to wait until the Brexit process was complete.

Boris Johnson has made his opposition to Indyref2 clear

In the General Election of 2019 Sturgeon said a vote for the SNP was a mandate for another independence plebiscite. The SNP won and again Sturgeon then beseeched the blond buffoon to “allow” another referendum. This was refused. This time the fairy-tale was that 2014 was a “once in a lifetime” event which all sides had agreed to.

Fast forward to 2021 and the SNP has won yet another election. There is a pro-independence majority in Holyrood. The Unionists tried to game the system to stop this via tactical voting. The Tories’ only policy was no to another referendum.

Nicola Sturgeon is insisting that she will again meekly enquire if Westminster will consent to a new referendum at some point when Covid-19 is dealt with. The SNP flunkeys insist Boris Johnson will have no choice but to say yes. He has already said no. Doing the same thing over and over an expecting a different result is how Einstein defined insanity.

SNP MSP John Mason has already said that it would not be “the end of the world” if there was no new vote for ten years. This will be seized upon by the Unionists to deny democracy.

In supporting the right of Kosovo to break away from Serbia the UK government sent an opinion to the International Court of Justice. In it the UK government argued that the domestic law of Serbia preventing independence was irrelevant. This was because the right of nations to secede was enshrined in international law which took precedence over laws of the state.

This should now be the Plan B to independence that the Scottish Government should be following. Completely cut the Westminster Tory brigands out of the process. This and a mass campaign of civil disobedience in tandem will achieve the desired outcome.

Alan Hinnrichs

Gillespie Terrace, Dundee

Kicking the can

Now that the hoo-ha has passed, the First Minister will be pleased with the results. A successful plan put into operation resulting in the SNP returned as the largest party and in government for the foreseeable future. The Alba Party has been seen off and it’s a close enough result to kick independence down the road once more.

Once again the "two votes SNP" tactic prevents having to deliver Independence for now, with the added bonus of two experienced MSPs – Joan McAlpine and Paul Wheelhouse – being replaced by pliable rookies. Congratulations to team Sturgeon for a job well done, commiserations to those who thought they were working for independence, duped again!

It reminds me of the Irish Parliamentary Party under John Redmond before the First World War, piling up votes and getting nowhere. Time to stop simmering the pot and turn up the heat to boiling on independence or the time will pass and with it Scotland as a country. If Mrs Murrell won't rise to the challenge, it's time for her to move on.

Welcome to Greater England!

Drew Reid

Bruce Crescent, Carronshore, Falkirk

No trickery here

Brian Wilson (Scotsman, 8 May) seems to think that any move by the First Minister to progress to a second referendum will be a trick worked on the voters. Having coped competently with the pandemic, she will work a “bait and switch” tactic and surreptitiously use this success to advance the cause of independence.

Will the voters notice this sleight of hand? Will they be surprised and shocked if the SNP start talking about a referendum?

It seems unlikely. All the Unionist party leaders have claimed loudly that a new SNP government would put the constitutional question before recovery from Covid. The Tories have been the most vocal, saying the only way to stop a new referendum was to vote for them.

If, as looks likely, the voters have put in another pro-independence administration, they have known exactly what they are doing. It insults the electorate, surely, to suggest otherwise.

Lyn Jones

Tollcross, Edinburgh

Not so terrifying

Despite most of Scotland's electoral map turning banana republic yellow again, close examination of the results makes it a less terrifying spectacle.

There was no "super majority" and no working majority either. Even with Sturgeon's Green allies helpfully standing aside in most constituency votes to give her a free run, many seats won by the SNP had combined Unionist majorities well over 50 per cent.

By enfranchising certain groups it believes are more likely to favour it, the Scottish Government has legislated hard to maximise the number of potental indy supporters. However, the total separatist vote was 49.6 per cent, so had this been their yearned for referendum they still would have narrowly lost.

It was encouraging to finally see large-scale tactical voting, and Unionists can perhaps even join the First Minister in quiet satisfaction that Alba, for all its bluster, didn't actually win any seats.

Martin O’Gorman

Littlejohn Road, Edinburgh

No indy majority

The results of the Scottish election are interesting. They show that the SNP, who continue to be the largest party had 30.16 per cent of the vote and 64 seats. The combined unionist parties (excluding minor parties like George Galloway's party) had 31.8 per cent and yet Nicola Sturgeon claims that she has the right to demand a second referendum. That position would be one that someone who had a majority of votes could claim, but not a minority. She has neither a majority of seats, nor a majority of votes and she knows it.

There will, of course, be a lot of hot air and anger expressed by the nationalist party running Holyrood, supported by their little Green chums, but nothing that need trouble the Government overly. However, we can expect there to be stand-offs as the nationalists push through demands for a second referendum and the Government faces them down through the courts.

Meantime, the Government will be pushing through more investment in Scotland and the UK will be racing forward as the economy picks up to put us back where we were at the end of 2019, when we were still in the EU, of course.

In 2022, we can expect to see the economy forge ahead as more trade deals are signed up in the big, wide world and the EU continues to struggle with its inherent bureaucracy and vaccination problems. The UK should have completed vaccinations by August, no thanks to the SNP who wanted the UK to be mired in the EU system.

The SNP had to win this election to hope to break up the UK. They failed.

Andrew HN Gray

Craiglea Drive, Edinburgh

Leaders’ failure

So, Party Commanders Sarwar and Rennie refused to engage in tactical voting manoeuvres, preferring to entertain the troops instead.

Anas looked good on the dance floor, while Willie was a veritable one-man circus – such versatility, so many ways to make a clown of himself.

Thank goodness for the foot soldiers who worked it all out for themselves. Lions lead by asses, you could say.

Andrew Kemp

Mossbank, Rosyth

Blown away

I note from the final results of the Scottish Parliament election that the SNP Energy Minister, Paul Wheelhouse, failed to get a seat in both the Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire first-past-the-post and again in the regional seats for Edinburgh South.

As far as wind farms are concerned, he was the one who kept overturning applications refused by the local authority and backed up by a huge number of objectors.

Perhaps he will enjoy his leisure time and come and see the damage he has done to the Highlands of Scotland in his overturning of wind farms like Golticlay.

Michael Baird

Dornoch Road, Bonar Bridge

Labour pains

There is a majority for independence in Holyrood and we must not forget that the majority of Scottish MPs at Westminster are also pro-independence. The media down south and the Unionists here seem to have a blind spot about this.

In fact, under the Westminster system the dominant Scottish party is the SNP. The Tories from Scotland don’t even have double figures, the same for the Lib Dems, and Labour has a mere one. Their MPs collectively are a meagre bunch.

Given Labour’s meltdown in England, starting to mirror its collapse in Scotland seven years ago, it must doubt its future as a UK-supporting party. Even propped up by tactical voting, It has been overwhelmingly rejected here now.

The membership will start to rebel and secede.

John Edgar

Langmuir Quadrant, Kilmaurs

Offer solutions

Recent correspondence observing the irresponsible fatuity of abandoning fossil fuel use before adequate alternatives are in place has an interesting parallel with the irresponsible foolishness of those seeking independence before a credible master plan for adequate post hoc national survival is provided.

I think that the UK Government would be quite in order to refuse an Indyref2 unless and until the independistas produce such assurances.

An Indyref that requires us to vote in hope and ignorance cannot be morally justified any more than can be the demand to abandon fossil fuel ahead of an in situ, fully working and adequate substitute energy system.

Tim Finn

Garvald, East Lothian

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