Reader's Letters: Is SNP finally getting real on independence?

Kate Forbes, Ash Regan and Humza Yousaf at the Cumbernauld hustings (Picture: Andy Buchanan/Getty Images)

This seems to be Wednesday’s message from the leadership hustings (which I watched), and other senior figures. It was heartening to see the candidates’ enthusiasm while implicitly admitting indy has stalled and 50 per cent+ is only possible with massively improved policies and actual delivery. And, sensibly, they advocate outsourcing the campaign and proposition to the wider movement so they can focus on “the day job”.

I hope the next sessions produce more policy ideas. Some good ones came out on Wednesday night on the NHS, housing, and child and social care which will hopefully galvanise Labour and the Conservatives to come up with their own policies as opposed to simply highlighting SNP/Green failures.

The downside for the new SNP leadership, however, will be how to fix the damage their predecessors created and deal with the emerging truth.

My big wish for my children and grandchildren is for Scotland to be a prosperous, optimistic and secure place to live in, die in and be proud of, and whichever political party does that has my vote, in or out of the UK. But preferably, after 278 years of peace and the experience of the last 16 years, in.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

Oh Kate!

Apparently, in the hidden SNP hustings, Kate Forbes has said that she wants to “force” Rishi Sunak to hold a second referendum within three months of next year’s general election. Powerful stuff. Quite how she hopes to achieve this is difficult to imagine – cut off supplies of haggis to England, perhaps? That should bring the English to their knees.

Threaten to talk sense for a change?

She announced this at the Cumbernauld hustings. These were held with only one reporter being allowed to attend as candidates are so worried that their attacks on each other be seen by the people of Scotland. It also prevented their being questioned on our behalf. I think we can all guess which newspaper it was which was granted the exemption!Also, quite why the Prime Minister should be persuaded by someone who is rather young and extremely inexperienced to allow a second referendum when the first is still a recent (and much less than a generation) memory is not explained. Perhaps the PM would make things a bit clearer if he told Forbes and her fading party to get knotted in Gaelic?

Peter Hopkins, Edinburgh

Dream is dead

The SNP has been in power in Scotland for about 16 years under the big beasts of Salmond and Sturgeon. Neither of them could bring Scotland to independence despite the latter being, apparently, one of the most influential and successful politicians of our time.

Witnessing the three candidates for leader of the SNP and First Minister, it is fair to say that independence has gone for generations. And, if independence is “just round the corner”, why did Ms Sturgeon bail out just as her life’s work to destroy the United Kingdom was about to be realised?

Douglas Cowe, Kingseat, Aberdeenshire

Betrayal

Whilst I hold no truck with Matt Hancock, he must feel a real sense of betrayal by the journalist Isabel Oakeshott.

He put his trust in a journalist when he disclosed private information in the joint writing of his book. Will anyone again be brave enough or indeed naive enough to trust, never mind work with, Isabel Oakeshott again? One has a feeling that the real reason for her leaking the WhatsApp messages was self-interest and not for the benefit of the nation.

Richard Allison, Edinburgh

Cycle of idiocy

Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme is aiming to achieve a 90 per cent target for recycling drinks containers (glass/plastic/cans) which is clearly a good thing.

However, the existing glass recycling rate in the UK is 75 per cent so why has glass been included? Will the local councils remove bottle banks and stop kerbside glass collections? If they do what will happen to glass jars and bottles not included in the DRS? Will they go in general waste and reduce glass recycling? Why not exclude glass from DRS (as will be the case in England) to simplify the system?

For plastic bottles and cans, then, the most convenient system is to collect these from the consumers home – as councils are compelled to do. Folk not bothering to do this are unlikely to wash out the empties and take them off to a recycling point – especially if they need to travel by bus, bike or on foot. Does this scheme not just encourage the use of the car for those who have one, and make life difficult for those who don’t? With the increased use of supermarket deliveries it might have been an idea to have the “takeback” system – whereby online sellers collect empties, due in 2025 –working at launch.

If you collect a week or two of containers to return them to a retailer in bulk they don’t have to accept them – “the operator can refuse to accept scheme packaging if the container is soiled, broken, not empty or not identifiable as being part of the scheme; the return point is full and waiting for collection or uplift; or a consumer attempts to return more empty scheme containers than the number of drinks normally sold in a single transaction” (SEPA Regulations).

So after years of crushing cans/squashing plastic to fit more in our home recycling, we must now wash the undamaged empties so they can be returned – which encourages more water use (washing), more car use and requires an additional fleet of recycling transport vehicles.

The other issue raised is littering – but would this not be solved more easily with the provision of adequate, frequently emptied public waste bins and recycling bins combined with a campaign to educate folk? Drinks purchased from a kiosk or similar already come at a higher price than a supermarket – so will the consumer really notice the extra 20p?

Chris Rix, Elphin, Sutherland

Close to home

Mary Thomas (Letters, 2 March) repeats the calumnies that we “have left Europe” and that Brexit has been “disastrous for our economy”.

In fact the record shows that we have increasing trade and tourism with Europe, and believe it or not Brexit isn’t the cause of poor weather in Spain and Morocco, the suppliers of much of our non-indigenous vegetables and fruit.

If we wish to identify the real causes of the calamities afflicting Scotland we need look no further than than the communication issues associated with our rusting ferries, our unreliable railways and our crumbling roads; our failing education, policing and national health systems; our rising fuel costs as our homegrown and reliable oil, coal and nuclear power stations have been replaced by largely imported and always unreliable wind turbines; our increasing crime rate, drug deaths and number of families which have never, ever worked; and an incompetent and myopic national leadership.

By coincidence those problems, and a dozen more, have occurred since 2007, which is when the Scottish National Party took over here. By coincidence?

Tim Flinn, Garvald, East Lothian

Freedom for TV!

On news that the Scottish Affairs Committee calls for free TV access for viewers in Scotland to the Scottish national football team (your report, 2 March), it seems to me that this will never happen until broadcasting is devolved and we have a Scottish Broadcasting Corporation that properly reflects 21st-century Scotland, and not just in sport.

In no other country in the world are TV viewers regaled with another county’s domestic football for two successive evenings on both major channels at peak viewing times.

As it is understood that the BBC pay £30 million a year of our licence fees to cover the English FA Cup and ITV must have paid a sizeable sum to win their rights from BT Sport, there is no excuse for them not to bid a sufficient sum in order to secure the rights to Scottish international games.

Fraser Grant, Edinburgh

Sl e eper agent

As a regular user of the Caledonian Sleeper I am saddened by all the negative comments regarding the recent news that the service is probably being taken into public ownership. I've used the sleeper numerous times over the last few years to get from London to Fort William/Corrour and Aviemore. Always with a bike, tent and everything that goes with it. You can't do that on a plane or coach. And I can't afford a car anymore. I've seen some comment that it is a luxury and should be allowed to close if it is not viable, but why should it be? Given how bad for the environment flying is, it is outrageous how many cheap flights there are; flying short distances from Edinburgh and Glasgow to London. City centre to city centre rail is quicker than flying as it does not require the logistics of airport transfers and time-consuming security checks.

Governments and industry need to work in tandem to find a solution. It is possible – just ask the Dutch government and KLM, who have come up with a scheme to divert people to trains instead of flying, for example, Amsterdam to Paris. If the Scottish Government find themselves unable to work out a plan to run the sleeper perhaps they should give it to OBB (Nightjet), the Austrian company that has set up a network of sleepers all over Europe and it is continuing to expand. Just imagine being able to sleep your way from Fort William to Vienna!

It is the sleeper's 150th anniversary this year. I sincerely hope it is still around in some form in 2173.

Scott Whitehead, London

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Reader's Letters: Is SNP finally getting real on independence?

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