Scotsman Letters: Regan's dream of independence is deluded

I would like to assure readers of The Scotsman that, despite her latest, totally deluded comments, Ash Regan is not representative of most people in Glasgow, even SNP supporters.

Ash Regan is fighting to become SNP leader and First Minister (Picture: Lisa Ferguson)

The suggestion that she would unilaterally declare independence if the SNP won a majority of votes, or of seats in the next election (I don't know which one she means) is, quite bluntly, insane. For a start, the police, the courts and armed services are answerable to the King, as far as I am aware, and he certainly will not allow that. There is also no mechanism for doing what she suggests and it also conflicts with the democratic decision made on that very subject in 2014. She cannot ignore that and in the court of international opinion, that will count.

Perhaps Ms Regan is inspired by the case of Ireland, which was, as she will know, conquered by the English over several centuries and was, effectively, an English colony. It never held the same position as Scotland, which voted to join England in creating the United Kingdom. Her references to Ireland and former colonies of the UK have no legal basis as precedents and I am perfectly confident that any attempt to announce UDI would constitute an offence which probably carries a prison sentence.

Although the Government at Westminster would probably avoid adding fuel to the flames by not sending her to prison, she would inevitably be forced from office by her own party, which wishes to achieve its aims legally and not in an act of idiotic bravado.

John Fraser, Glasgow

Taking a Stan

I’m not sure who Stan Grodynski is aiming his letter at when supporting Kate Forbes’ suitably to stand for office while holding strong Christian beliefs (27 February). The only people I’ve heard criticising these are her own SNP colleagues. Perhaps they should be his target audience .

Ian Lewis, Edinburgh

Private fears

I was astonished that the letters and comments page last week was full of arguments about Kate Forbes’ religious views having an influence on her politics, while there was nothing said about Humza Yousaf, whose Muslim faith could also have an effect on alcohol and marriage laws if he were elected. Why should this be ?

Personally, I would be more concerned about the possibility that we could have Labour and the SNP led by privileged private school boys at the next election, thus following Westminster's undemocratic tradition of seven per cent of the population ruling the 97 per cent for most of the time.

Bill McKenzie, Penicuik, Midlothian

On a string?

It is a mystery why anyone should think Humza Yousaf fit to lead a party, far less a country. He epitomises the Peter Principle – he has failed upwards. Nicola Sturgeon, however, has chosen him as her preferred successor. No-one can doubt that this is because he is the candidate that she and her husband can manipulate from behind the scenes.

Yet perhaps there is another reason, too: he represents a Glasgow seat, as neither Ms Forbes nor Ms Regan does. Ms Sturgeon will want the interests of her home base, Glasgow, and of the whole Central Belt, to continue to prevail. Ms Forbes’ roots are in the Highlands, and she has shown her allegiance by supporting free ports and now by saying that she would not accelerate the running down of the the oil and gas industries. Mr Yousaf, by contrast, would continue Ms Sturgeon’s policy of acceleration, regardless of its effects on the north east.

The question is whether SNP members really want the puppet rather than the person with her own views and agenda.

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Warm welcome

In Andrew HN Gray's patronising response to Leah Gunn Barrett he asks whether she would suggest that California or Texas should declare independence (27 February). I can assure him that a UDI Texas, with its redneck politicians, high rates of gun ownership, incest, domestic violence and low levels of educational attainment, just like the other “red” states which voted for Trump, would be most welcomed by residents of “blue” states which have to subsidise the red states via the federal government.

I am delighted he mentions my own home state California, as in some ways it is indeed analogous to the Scottish situation, not in population numbers (44 million) but in that it has two of the main drivers of the entire US economy, Silicon Valley and Hollywood, along with a plentiful supply of offshore oil and solar and wind energy

I am sure Mr Gray will retort that the City of London’s financial sector is something Scots would no longer benefit from. He's right – Scotland would set up an economic and financial system not based on casino speculation, but on sober and reliable economic stability, something Scots are known for historically.

And if Mr Gray would like me to “go home” after 40 years in the so-called United Kingdom whence my great great grandparents fled as economic migrants, I have to disappoint him. I will be collecting my pension in June, practically the worst in Europe at a measly £800 per month, and I do not want to miss out on that!

Marjorie Ellis Thompson, Edinburgh

Broken scheme

Thank goodness the UK Government, if not the SNP leadership candidates themselves, look like stepping in to block Scotland’s proposed Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). It will not cost us an extra 20p per drinks package. It will cost more. The 20p is what the producers pay to Circularity Scotland for a bottle, but they also pay potentially 4p more to them for administration, plus they have to pay 1p or so for labelling. That is 25p so far. Producers also have to pay a small fee for registration, but retailers have to pay an enormous bill for the proposed 17,000 reverse vending machines. I would guess that drinks will go up by about 30p, with only the promise of a 20p voucher back on the empties.

The Scottish Government details we have so far don’t offer enough information on covering any costs of collection or the losses that will be incurred by councils. The scheme also doesn’t include all sizes of plastic bottles either – only the larger ones – so the smaller ones (the ones that tend to get littered) will be labelled differently and still be problematic.

This Green scheme, as proposed by a pointless minister, is a shambles and will be very costly. Hopefully either the UK Government or one of the talented First Minister candidates will come to our rescue.

Ken Currie, Edinburgh

Wasted money

There is every indication that the (DRS) is going the same way as the ferry fiasco. In response to questions raised about the timetable a spokesman for Circularity Scotland, the company charged with overseeing the scheme, claimed it would be “ready” in August though it might not be “perfect". In other words it won't be ready!

Now we learn from a Scotland on Sunday report (26 February) that Biffa, the company appointed by Circularity Scotland to implement the DRS, is a serial polluter “pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere than the whole of Scotland”! I have often wondered how the collected items would in fact be recycled. The answer is they would would be handled by a company which “has multiple convictions in the UK for exporting poorly sorted and contaminated waste to countries in Asia”! The DRS should be shelved not only until serious concerns raised by businesses are addressed but until Scotland is capable of handling or recycling its own waste rather than shipping it out and dumping it on countries in Asia and Africa. Is it being recycled there or incinerated or dumped in landfill or the ocean?

Who can forget the fanfare in 2017 at the launch of a ferry with painted-on windows which six years later is still not ready to sail? The DRS is set to be another example of style over substance, presentation over delivery. How many hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money will be thrown at it and at what cost to the planet?

Colin Hamilton, Edinburgh

Be prepared

Malcolm Parkin implies that self-serving interests are driving pandemic preparedness (Letters, 27 February). He is unfair to virologists. We have been studying H5N1 bird flu since 1997. Our concerns are that while it finds it very hard to infect humans, when it does, it kills more than 30 per cent. We also remember the 1918-19 flu pandemic, which killed 179,624 people in the UK. Evolution is unpredictable. Being ready to develop an effective vaccine if H5N1 changes in ways that enable it to efficiently infects humans is our business. It could save Mr Parkin’s life if such a change came to pass.

Hugh Pennington, Aberdeen

Teasing trouble

Two of the more sensible comments on the Gender Recognition (Scotland) Reform Bill came from the Labour leader Keir Starmer, who suggested that it might be better to leave the age at 18 rather than 16; and from the Conservative Secretary of State Alister Jack, who suggested more talks because the bill posed problems for civil rights across the UK. This was obvious, with the possibility of someone having one sex in Scotland and another in England.

In contrast, the immediate reaction of Nicola Sturgeon and Stephen Flynn, her spokesman in Westminster, was to condemn the UK government's decision to block the bill, as a full-frontal attack on the Scottish Parliament and on democracy in Scotland. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that one of the reasons for pushing through this bill was to create another confrontation with Westminster.

David Hannay, Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries & Galloway

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