There's nothing left of the past Salmond/Sturgeon relationship to reconvene

Alex Salmond, since he resigned his position after losing the 2014 independence referendum, has played no part in the governance of this country. Okay, he has formed a new political party called Alba which again has no part in the Scottish Parliament. It might even be considered that the Liberal Democrats have a bigger input than Alba into how the country is governed.

All that Alex Salmond has managed to achieve is to annoy Nicola Sturgeon by stealing possibly several thousand impatient SNP supporters, because the Covid-19 pandemic has been deemed to be more important than a referendum. Important because so far nearly 10,000 Scots have died as a result of the Covid infectious disease.

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If any such mythical hatchet got buried, just what would that achieve? A friendly cup of coffee and a blether about old times? I don’t think so. There is nothing left of their distant past relationship to reconvene. Once divorced, always divorced is my experience.

For whatever Alba is worth, it is only its support for independence. It has no political clout within Holyrood. When the time comes for the independence referendum, no doubt the Alba supporters, along with Alex Salmond, will still vote Yes.

So any unification as suggested would not achieve anything more, let alone affect the strength of the Unionist parties within or outwith Holyrood.

Alan Magnus-Bennett
Fife

IT was very encouraging to hear that the SNP conference and the Alba National Council meeting have both endorsed a Scottish currency and a Scottish Central Bank. This is a great development and I hope it will be the beginning of other parallel policy developments and perhaps joint action.

Judging by some of the letters in Tuesday’s National I am not alone in having that wish.

I attended the Alba National Council event in Dunfermline and it was a modest and welcoming affair with no grandstanding and very good input from the floor.

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I am also very taken with the idea of Alba holding events in towns and cities around Scotland. The idea, of course, is to bring some money into local economies and perhaps some publicity. I saw this last Saturday when a few people got on the local bus and asked for the same destination and the bus driver wanted to know what was happening there on that day.

From what I have discussed with members from other parts of Scotland, it is clear to me that many longstanding SNP members have joined Alba because they are very anxious about the possibility that the corrupt and rule-breaking Westminster government will dismember and destroy devolution and its current gains.

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The Conservatives are working fast to develop laws to control Scotland. The Internal Market Act and the current NHS legislation will have an immediate impact on Scottish goods and services. They have made their intentions clear although Boris Johnson denies he will dismantle devolution. But who can trust that? Urgent action is required.

The second point is that experts (Professor Alf Baird/Scottish Sovereignty Research Group} have cast doubt on the value of the current franchise which uniquely offers newly arrived people the vote although there is no reciprocal agreement with their countries of origin. The evidence suggests that a further referendum using the same process is doomed to fail.

These issues urgently need discussion in the wider Yes movement and I hope that we can find ways to bring this about.

Maggie Chetty
Glasgow

I WAS interested in Stuart Cosgrove’s comments on civil disobedience (Civil disobedience can be a useful tool, but it is the right time for Scots?, Nov 28). History shows that the UK Government is unlikely to acknowledge our democratic constitutional rights without some kind of civil disobedience.

I remember the poll tax marches in Scottish cities weekend after weekend for about a year. I knew several people who refused to pay, being happy to remove themselves from the voters’ roll – surely a Pyrrhic victory! – to evade discovery. I remember activists being jailed for intervention during warrant sales.

I also remember that it was only after the poll tax was applied in England and the voters in England started to demonstrate against it that the government paid attention and abolished it.

The Tory government will ignore civil disobedience carried out in Scotland, where they have few votes to lose. Any disruption here will be laid at the door of the Scottish Government and blamed on its inefficiency in civic control.

The place in England where the UK Government will be most shaken up by civil disobedience is within the hallowed halls of Westminster itself. If our Scottish MPs were to start breaking the rules and protocols of the House of Commons (there are plenty of stupid archaic rules to choose from!) then we would see ructions. Rather than boycotting the place, they should attend, but interrupt Cabinet ministers (including Boris), filibuster, throw order papers and bread rolls, anything. If the Speaker suspends them or bans them, so much the better: last time he did that they got lots of publicity and membership of the SNP soared.

You would think for our Scottish politicians anything would be more dignified than being ignored and publicly mocked, as happens these days. However it seems too many are personally happy to “settle down” with the Westminster establishment rather than “settle up” with them.

Mary McCabe
Glasgow