Let’s hope Nicola Sturgeon's vow is not as empty as the Unionists’ 2014 one

I hope he is right but I have serious doubts about the team, and the information simply is not there because the team has not been preparing the case for independence, as the FM’s faltering responses to questions on currency and borders during this election campaign have shown.

As yet, I am not quite in the camp which says Nicola will never lead us to independence, but she is not nicknamed the Grand Duchess of York for nothing because she has been leading us to the top of the hill and down again since 2016.

Most people accept that during the Covid crisis she personally had to concentrate on dealing with it and for the most part did so with competence, but what about the rest of the team? Where is the evidence that any of them have been preparing the indy case? And why has there been almost no attempt to harness all the good ideas coming from the wider Yes movement? On Thursday, The National was trumpeting her vow to bring us independence. Let’s hope it does not prove to be as empty as Gordon Brown’s Vow of 2014.

READ MORE: Downing Street cannot defy the will of the people and refuse a Section 30

Take her stance on currency. She still clings to the outdated and frankly dangerous advice of Andrew Wilson to go down the sterlingisation road for perhaps a decade despite so much evidence that we will not be truly independent until we have our own currency. Dave McEwan Hill is on record as saying all that can wait till after indy. No, it can’t. The preparations have to be made now and be ready to be put into effect once a Yes vote is secured.

That vote will not be secured without the positive case for indy being made. Enthuse people by what we could do for our country with the full levers of government and the Yes polling figures will soon start rising again instead of slipping as at present. We must also vigorously rebut the lies and misrepresentations which the Unionists will bombard us with.

This is the first time for many elections that I have not donated to the SNP, and that will remain the case until we get a satisfactory explanation as to where the money which we donated and which was supposed to be ring-fenced for an indy campaign has gone. It is scandalous that even members of the audit committee of the National Executive Committee are being denied access to the books.

I have been campaigning for independence for nearly 50 years so I take exception to Dave McEwan Hill’s snide comment that I am a fake simply because I am prepared to make some criticism of the FM. But we must get on with it with much greater urgency. We face a hostile government in London with both the majority and the intent to end any Union by consent.

Andrew M Fraser

Inverness

DAVE McEwan Hill derides indy supporters for criticising Nicola Sturgeon about her apparent dilatory performance over an independence referendum, effectively kicking it into the long grass amid a popular clamour for it, as evidenced by the well-attended marches pre-pandemic and the current polls reflecting it.

Well, Mr McEwan Hill, here’s just one example. In December 2019, Sturgeon submitted a formal Section 30 order request to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which he contemptuously swatted aside with scant regard, no discussion and a puerile and ridiculous refutation which Sturgeon didn’t even respond to, far less refute.

Her response had the effect of leaving in the minds of the electorate that now was not the time and the false premise that the 2014 referendum was “once in a generation”, a throwaway comment designed to stimulate voter turnout and forming no part of the legal framework of the referendum.

Having to continually combat these spurious and fundamentally wrong premises simply gave more power to the Unionists’ elbows, damaging the campaign for independence.

Now, we all knew Johnson would refuse, so why did Sturgeon make the request without a planned follow up tactic to achieve the strategy?

That’s the reason for the criticism. Along with her parking independence during the pandemic, while Brexit wasn’t parked. Curiously, having already stated in the wider media that this election is not about independence, Thursday’s lead article in this journal had Sturgeon exhorting us to vote SNP if we wish independence.

And indy supporters are being derided for highlighting these inconsistencies of the First Minister? Dearie me.

Jim Taylor

Edinburgh

THE diehard supporter that loyally supports their local team come what may are sadly a dying breed. So it’s been a refreshing event for

St Johnstone supporters. They have won a cup and a real chance of a second and a return to Europe.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon vows to take Scotland to independence after pandemic

Isn’t it great that with regards to Scottish politics, Scotland is on the verge of something very similar? The SNP, a party that re-emerged in the 1960s, has grown into a major force. On the verge of winning this election. Then an indyref2, independence, and Europe.

It still won’t be easy but the Perth supporters have shown it can be done!

Robin Maclean

Fort Augustus

I THOUGHT hell had frozen over (well not quite) when I read The National last Saturday and particularly the piece headlined “Robertson’s warning over indyref2 refusal”. To my amazement, I (almost) agreed with him and his comments about the wider issues of democracy.

Surely it is time accordingly we look specifically at direct democracy as in Switzerland and California, neither system being perfect but we have an opportunity to start with a blank piece of paper.

Politicians from all parties and none only have themselves to blame for people power being de riguer.

It won’t be a giant leap from (powerless) citizens’ assemblies to greater participation by normal folks in decision-making and implementation.

Douglas McBean

Edinburgh