Letters: Voters want to know what independence would be like

With a mortgage, children and grandchildren they wanted some positive picture of what they were being asked to vote for. There was/is no clear picture of what an independent Scotland would be like. No positive proposals of what policies Scotland would legislate for.

The couple are proud of being Scots, have travelled extensively and worked for many years in Germany, and are scathing about the essentially “feudal” style of government in Scotland and the UK.

They asked if independence for Scotland would mean a move towards being a democracy as is understood outside the UK, and if so, why has that not been drafted out in a provisional constitution? The couple are moving to a village in Germany where there is a local community bank and a fully funded village council responsible for a range of local services.

They mentioned the unwieldy system of 32 local authorities as set up by the Scottish Office in Westminster to provide remote control from London, replacing the previous county and burgh councils that had more effective local say.

After ten years in power the current SNP government have made no attempt to use the powers they possess to redress this situation.

The SNP government have done a lot of good work but on the issue of independence they appear to shy away at every turn providing no positive leadership.

The SNP promised to replace the council tax with a fairer system, but apart from a minor tweak nothing has been done. Always the mantra “wait until after independence” – what happens then?

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During the last independence referendum campaign during the debacle about a currency union, the then First Minister was provided with a viable alternative Plan B following a CBI meeting in Aberdeen. He chose to ignore the proposed alternative Plan B that was based on our own Scots currency and we suffered the consequences.

Brexit. We speak about the arrogance and the lack of forward-planning by the Westminster government, but is the SNP government also sharing the same disease of arrogance and lack of engagement with their own members and other independence-minded groups? These groups have researched and generated viable proposals for such as a written constitution, a government-controlled Scottish currency, a national central bank, monetary and fiscal policies.

The SNP leadership appears to concentrate on short-term issues and ignore long-term planning. Long-term planning that will be required in an independent Scotland regardless of the Brexit outcome. You don’t build a house until the plans are in place, however tentative they might be.

Where are the draft outline policies for health, education, care and welfare, pensions, immigration, business investment, air, rail and road transport, housing, agriculture, fishing, trade, defence, workers’ rights, minimum wage, and so many others?

The SNP are reputed to have one of the largest memberships of any UK party, so why are their skills not being utilised to draft out outline policies? It will take years of planning to adequately prepare all the relevant policies.

Why don’t the SNP build a policy portfolio by assigning the drafting of specific policies to different grassroots groups/areas then affirm the outcome at conference?

So back to the original question: “What will independence actually give us?”

Robert Ingram
Administrator, Centre for Scottish Constitutional Studies