Readers' Letters: Scotland can’t carry on having independence taking the oxygen away from the real issues

The big story last week wasn’t John Swinney’s emotional appeal at conference for IndyRef2 but Andy Burnham and Kemi Badenoch popping up to talk about devolution. For Burnham it was to make devolution less centralised, which Swinney swiftly rejected, while Badenoch wanted a complete review of how devolution works. Given the standard of debate she has a point but to beat the independence argument Burnham has a better chance, moving powers away from a Holyrood of points scoring and self congratulation.

Burnham’s plans lack detail, however, he can’t take his Manchester model and plant it across Scotland to make devolution work better for everyone. Start by looking at the promises of the better together campaign, a devo-max model for more tax raising powers. The SNP can’t be trusted with this given the £5bn black hole by 2030 which Ivan McKee hasn’t started to tackle. A reformed devolution has to be presented as the alternative to independence.

Any vote should be conditional that if the SNP lose an election will follow, no more referendums at least until 2050 and the question should be “Do you want Scotland to leave the United Kingdom forever?”. A divorce with no way back. Previous polls framing the question like this suggest only around 40 per cent would vote yes. Scotland can’t carry on having independence taking the oxygen away from the real issues, put it to bed. Call Swinney’s bluff and lead the agenda.

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

Climate havoc

Professor Frank Biermann is right that climate change is accelerating and wreacking havoc across the globe. We have endured a summer of apocalyptic heatwaves, droughts, famines and destructive wildfires turning lush landscapes into scorched tinderboxes and barren ghost terrains. As the UN Secretary General put it every fraction of a degree will cost lives, wreack havoc, entrench inequality and drag ecosystems into irreversible thresholds, bringing us closer to the clutches of climate catastrophe. It is time to redouble global efforts to eliminate greenhouse emissions, enhance resilience and save humanity.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob, London

Inescapable facts

Although I tend to disagree one hundred per cent with Joyce McMillan, I have to agree with her comment on Friday. She mentioned, vis-a-vis the SNP's conference, that Mr Swinney’s call for “the biggest independence push in over a decade” which will result in “absolute indifference (from) most voters”. That is quite so. When SNP rule is found wanting in every single department, why should anyone want more of the same and no one to pick up the pieces? The idea that Scotland would achieve independence through another referendum is laughable itself. Scotland would never manage to meet the exacting requirements for EU membership either.

No. The interesting thing being discussed in Sunday newspapers is the quiet little group among the usually obedient ranks of the leading separatist party who are scheming to dump John Swinney and (perhaps) install Stephen Flynn as the Tweedledee to John Swinney’s equally follically-challenged Tweededum. Will it make any difference? Well, unless Mr Flynn can discover a magic money tree, then no. The problem is that everyone knows that the personnel can change, even if they have the same (lack of) hairstyle. Facts, however, “are chiels that winna ding” and the SNP has fallen at every fence, so their proposed independence push will hit its own Becher's Brook.

Try doing your job for a change.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Apply learnings

John Swinney is correct when he says Scotland is not like Manchester. You can’t find a single city or corner of Scotland that has undergone anything like the growth and transformation that has occurred in Manchester over the past decade. Sadly our city centres are crumbling. Our old buildings are being burnt to the ground. The decline over the past two decades is obvious for all to see. The lack of investment is palpable.

I do however remain hopeful that with the right leadership we can turn things around.

To Scottish Government and Scottish National Party readers, please can we open our eyes to very positive examples of urban regeneration going on elsewhere in places such as Manchester and apply learnings in Scotland ?

Gavin Neilson

Edinburgh

Double fast speak

I’m beginning to wonder if Jenny Gilruth has a side-hustle as the supersonic deliverer of terms and conditions at the end of commercial radio adverts.

It certainly seemed like it on the BBC Sunday show as she projected a tornado of obfuscations about the SNP’s proposed local government changes.

Not an easy job when you consider Andy Burnham has set the scene for a constant drip of ideas and leapfrogging funding and “partnering” initiatives onto confused and scattered Scottish local authorities lying prostate on their deathbeds as politicians, unions, media, businesses, SNP faithful and private individuals gather round try to make sense of, influence or sabotage poor old Ivan Mckee’s half baked plans to create 160 eunuch “mini-me’s”.

Caveat emptor, as they say.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven

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