I FIRMLY believe that Scotland could not only survive but prosper as an independent country, managing our own economy and affairs while remaining in a strong relationship with the rest of the UK, Europe and other nations, and although not a party member I have supported the SNP's driving ambition on this.
But I am now bemused by the stance the leadership is currently taking on certain issues, which I fear may risk losing much of the support for independence in the 2014 referendum.
First, why is a change now being proposed in the party's long-standing policy that a free Scotland will not join Nato ("SNP hit by new Nato rebel", The Herald, August 21)? Why risk an internal split within the party over this issue about which most members, and many others outside the SNP, feel so strongly? Nato is now a US-dominated aggressive alliance that, although the Cold War is long gone, continues to support nuclear weapons all around Europe, and to send the armed forces of its member countries to conflicts far beyond the boundaries of the North Atlantic area.
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