Readers' Letters: Neverendum is a cosy status quo for SNP politicians

The SNP conference continues to seek a mandate for independence and after 20 years the dial has not shifted to a significant enough degree to suggest change is gonna come.

Having observed the promise of nothing more substantial than our own wee bit hill and glen, will it be another 20 years before the SNP provide the details we all require to make a reasoned decision: tax, borders, immigration, defence, pensions, welfare, health etc?

Surely the only way to move on is for the detail to be provided. If not, one can only speculate that the SNP either don’t know the answers to these questions or are unwilling to engage in a debate about the actuality of independence as opposed to the concept. The implication that the current neverendum is a cosy comfortable status quo for SNP politicians is hard to argue against if they continue to refuse to answer detailed questions.

First Minister John Swinney poses for photographs alongside his party’s logo at the SNP conference in Aberdeen (Picture: Jane Barlow/PA)

K Harvey, Edinburgh

One-trick pony

So it’s that time of year, time for the busted flush, one-trick pony conference. We really are on the slider of doom unimaginable to those with a grasp of financial spreadsheets, running a business and making people redundant due to the idiocy of the most useless group of people ever elected to posts of responsibility.

If this charabanc of an administration were on Bake Off the only debate would be are they a meringue or a doughnut. The answer would be – a bunch of doughnuts!

This latest “ push” for Indy2 is beyond comprehension, with the nation in tatters, no hope of anything getting sorted and all the lives of those who contribute to the coffers of Scotland left high and dry on the whims of zealots.

Honest John and the doomsters can bark all day and night, but they have no idea how to finance it. No, better to get in cahoots with the Welsh and the Sien Fein, who have never acknowledged the atrocities of the Troubles.

David Millar, Lauder, Scottish Borders

No leadership

It has become abundantly clear (if any further evidence was required) that “leadership” is not in either the vocabulary or the DNA of First Minister John Swinney.

He singularly fails to come off the fence when questioned about the approval for drilling of Jackdaw and Rosebank, continually hiding behind the “environmental “ issue simply to placate his environmental zealots in his own party.

He rails against the potential abolition of the triple lock and misleads pensioners about “losing their pension” yet fails or indeed won’t confirm that any increase in Barnett consequentials would be passed on by increasing pensions. He hides behind the comment “nobody can give me the guarantee” that the money will be there.

Just when will the myopic supporters of independence come to realise that the consequences of years of incompetent SNP government cannot continue and that our great country needs real leadership for real issues and not a fanatical, single-issue focus?

Richard Allison, Edinburgh

Dwindling support

With a conference under way and to encourage the troops, John Swinney will be trumpeting his call for a second independence referendum to divert attention from swiftly-diminishing support for his party. They had just over 50,000 members in June, having had 110,000 in 2015.

In the only actual poll in recent years, the entire separatist vote in May at the Holyrood election achieved only 952,296 votes out of an electorate of 4,283,300. Underwhelming for a party which claims to represent the people of Scotland. In fact, the total separatist vote constituted a mere 22.23 per cent of the electorate. Almost half of Scotland’s electorate couldn't be bothered even to cast a vote.

When Mr Swinney became friends with Sinn Fein, I think that knocked any electoral chances they may have had on the head. That is even before asking if they hadn’t had enough on their plate with officials imprisoned.

I don't think Andy Burnham, another politician who would like to hold a second referendum, will be too bothered about the SNP. Mr Burnham wants to return to the “golden age” of the 1970s. I remember what a disaster that time was. He is as deluded as John Swinney.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Lost cause

Yawn. Ni Holmes (Letters, 16 October) recites timeless SNP mythology about the 2014 referendum – that it was won by “Westminster interference… by lies, threats and false promises… from the south”.

I’ll tell you what the “lies, threats and false promises” were in 2014, and they all came from the SNP. The threat that a No vote would result in the closing of Holyrood – yet a No vote resulted in the strengthening of Holyrood with the Scotland Act 2016. Lies about an iScotland walking into the EU when no one of note in the EU had promised let alone guaranteed such a thing, when Scotland was not then and is not now qualified to join the EU. That we would all be £5,000 better off if Yes prevailed, promised in a propaganda news sheet. That iScotland would float on an oil bonanza, just at the point when the international price of oil was about to plummet.

The only “interference” from outside Scotland in our affairs has been from Russian and Iranian bots, for whose masters the break-up of the UK would be a major bonus. So let’s hear no more of this ancient and self-pitying nonsense that nationalists peddle to maintain themselves indynial about the fact that the cause that they keep boring on about is well and truly lost.

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Foot in mouth

One feature of our new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has been the entertainment value of his weekly missteps or foot-in-mouth disease.

We have had his rapid U-turn on political donations; the national security v welfare spending gaffe; downplaying the Manchester City cheating allegations; the unsubstantiated Russian involvement in Brexit claim; the Good Friday Agreement and Scottish indyref; missed homelessness targets despite his moral crusade; the early release of English prisoners; saying he had toured the UK (England and Wales); and downplaying the seriousness of Ukraine firing British Storm Shadow missiles deep into Russia, hitting civilian targets (contrary to the Geneva Convention).

Whether you find these bewildering or not, they highlight the fact it is unimaginable sure-footed Sir Keir Stammer would have stumbled around like this. He says whatever comes into his head then backtracks at PMQs later.

John V Lloyd, Inverkeithing, Fife

Reform’s woes

A few weeks ago we witnessed a “sting” showing how the upper echelons of Reform UK allegedly subverted political rules relating to donations and now an ITV undercover operation has revealed jaw-dropping racism and sexism amongst its electoral candidates and elected officials. The findings of these clandestine activities will have surprised no one.

The millions of pounds being thrown at Reform by overseas cryptocurrency billionaires and tax exiles who supposedly want absolutely nothing in return, highlights a level of corruption, financial and moral, within Reform which is unprecedented in British politics since the days of rotten boroughs. On top of this Farage will shortly learn his fate regarding his little £5 million sweetener. With Reform also plummeting in polls of voting intentions, it would seem small boats are the least of their worries.

Thankfully, Scotland has not been taken in by Farage as Reform failed to win a single constituency in the recent Holyrood elections. But other UK voters have a stark choice: do we want to live in a decent, caring, meritocratic society or do we vote to legitimise hate, division, violence and racism?

Those wishing the former know where to put their cross.

D Mitchell, Doune, Perthshire

Power politics

A McCormick claims that in the last year “96 per cent of [constraint] payments went to Scottish generators” (Letters, 15 October). ScottishPower is owned by Spain’s Iberdola but I do agree with the sentiment. Payments of £1.5 billion in 2025 and £1.7bn so far this year for turning off excess wind power seems ludicrous.

That’s what happens when governments fail to implement infrastructure to transmit power from Scotland to England first. Building more windfarms without the grid infrastructure will make constraint payments go up even further. Most constraint payments actually went to gas generators, according to Octopus Energy, when more expensive and mostly imported gas was needed as wind generated power got stuck in the grid bottleneck. This is why our bills are so high.

The solution, Octopus claims, is not just to build the infrastructure quicker, but prioritise making energy cheaper where supply is strong through regional pricing. This would bring down bills in Scotland by 5-10 per cent. According to Octopus CEO Greg Jackson it would give Scots the lowest electricity prices in Europe. The government rejected regional pricing as it would have increased bills in southern England, where most parliamentary constituencies are located.

It seems Scots have all the downsides of windfarms and pylons but no upside on bills. Not only do Scots subsidise southern English bill-payers they also get the highest standing charges due to transmission costs. Why should the coldest part of the UK pay the most for its power?

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

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