The route to success at the next indyref which Dave McEwan Hill suggests is a dangerous one and one which backfired in 2014 (Unity is vital to Yes movement, Letters, January 31).
I was critical of the SNP-centric campaign for independence. I felt it was polarising and did not excite the public's imagination as to the range of alternatives that would be on offer in an independent Scotland.
Rather than a show of disunity, the other parties involved in the campaign such as the Greens and the SSP put up a remarkable show of solidarity with the SNP.
However, many in the No camp thus perceived the campaign to be an SNP campaign and, regardless of his consummate skills as a politician, the Salmond effect was at the same time exhilarating and alienating depending on your viewpoint. It did not help win over those in the Labour camp who in their hearts wanted independence but instead voted on tribal lines. Had just a small number of Labour supporters voted as they really felt, who knows what difference this would have made.
The way forward is not for everyone to join the SNP. This would reinforce the claims of Scotland as a one-party state (arrant nonsense such as it is). While it would be wise to support the SNP at the ballot box, the campaign itself needs to be much more multifaceted and the SNP should have the confidence to give centre-stage to the other parties who support independence. Such an inclusive approach could be just the way to gain the very small swing which is needed for success at indyref2.
William Thomson
Denny
David Henderson claims the UK is a safer bet than an independent Scotland (Faith was at heart of Yes campaign, Letters, January 31). A cold hard look at the UK shows that it has failed badly. Hence faith is needed by its supporters. Is his UK the same UK in which: Scotland’s largest city lost nearly half its population and most of its science-based industry in my lifetime.
Public and private debt has grown to levels which will become unsustainable when interest rates rise. The Government has become the servant of big finance. He should check. Every prime minister from Thatcher to Brown on leaving office has moved into a job in big finance.
Turmoil in NHS England has been created deliberately – as a first step towards privatisation. And big finance has been so favoured that diversity in the economy has been choked with the consequence that jobs with career development are rare for young people, leaving them scrambling for low-wage activity.
Extravagant, unjustified remarks by some Yes campaigners deserved to be condemned. Those who made them should feel ashamed of themselves. Some No campaigners made exactly the same kind of remarks but Mr Henderson is silent on this issue.
John Fleming
Bearsden
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