I WOULD not be surprised if Tory MP and former Scottish Secretary David Mundell was having a wee celebration and raising a glass to the Scottish Green Party, who have announced they will be standing a candidate in his Dumfriesshire seat.
At the last UK General Election Mundell won with 22,611 votes (46%), while the SNP’s Amanda Burgauer returned 18,830 votes (38%). There was no Green candidate.
The Green candidate was announced at a South Scotland campaign launch attended by Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie – a minister in our Green/SNP government. According to their candidate, “many voters have lost faith in the traditional parties”. By this I assume he includes the SNP, his party’s so-called partners in government.
READ MORE: Scottish Greens announce candidate to challenge David Mundell
I have no idea if the Alba Party intends to stand in this seat, but in any case the independence-supporting vote will probably be split and Mr Mundell now has a better chance of re-election. How this will assist the independence campaign and the promotion of a green agenda in general is well beyond my comprehension.
A friend of mine recently suggested there would be a united Ireland well before an independent Scotland. Given the very recent developments in Northern Ireland politics and the lack of any real developments here in Scotland for the past 10 years, I agree with him.
Brian Lawson
Paisley
SO the DUP finally decide to go back to Stormont after two years of no sitting government in Northern Ireland supposedly because of the sea border after Brexit. Aye right. Anybody with half a brain knows why they would not go back and sit in parliament. It was because they lost the last election to Sinn Fein and they were not happy chappies that the first minister would not be a unionist.
READ MORE: What has Northern Ireland’s first republican leader said about Scottish independence?
If it was because of Brexit, why did they not shut the parliament down when they were in power? I firmly believe Scotland’s independence will come as a result of Ireland uniting again, which will happen soon. The UK government in Westminster will not be able to stop it like they have stopped Scotland having a vote, and I think they have had enough of Northern Ireland.
After all, what do they have that is of value to Westminster – oil, gas, whisky, renewables? No, the only thing the DUP brought to the table was bigotry, and you can’t spend that.
Robert Cummins
via email
SNP leader Flynn says the Northern Ireland deal raises big questions, so why, since the Northern Ireland assembly has reconvened, don’t the devolved assemblies and Scottish Parliament call a summit to air their views and approach to the UK Government?
Richard Easson
Dornoch
A COUPLE of weeks ago the Alba Party Perth branch advertised they were holding a Burns Supper in Perth with guest speakers from a broad spectrum of independence supporters including Alex Neil. Och well, if he is speaking, as still an SNP member myself, surely I’d be welcome to intend. Indeed I was!
It has been of concern for some time that lack of cooperation between independence parties is a distinct drawback in our mutual quest for independence, and I thought that given half a chance I’d make this point if no speaker did.
READ MORE: Call for Starmer to back Alba bill for vote on Holyrood referendum powers
The nicht drave on wi sangs and clatter til all at once, last to speak was Alex Neil to propose a toast to Scotland. By jings, he got it richt!
He nailed it exactly as I had hoped, and to rousing response from the floor, by insisting that if independence is to be achieved all party differences must be set aside and common goal alone must be the focus on all voting opportunities.
At the 2021 Holyrood election we watched as SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon rejected Alex Salmond’s proposal along those lines while London-based parties clearly supported one another to the depletion of SNP success.
A Scottish Independence Movement pulling all groups/parties currently seeking independence under one umbrella is surely the way forward, and the sooner we knock heads together on this, the sooner we gain our much-needed independence.
Tom Gray
Braco
I COMPLETELY agree with James Duncan (Long Letter, Feb 4) and make a strong plea to republish Tony Perridge’s letter of January 21 as an excellent starting point for such a public information campaign.
The details as listed should be thoroughly checked out, and then we should go for it big time – may I even suggest as far as England, as we ALL need to be educated to understand Westminster intransigence!
The English population need to understand why Westminster is so keen to hold onto “poor, stupid and subsidised beggar Scots” as they are repeatedly informed.
We cannot even get “permission” for a referendum.
John Weir
East Kilbride
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