Letters: Face facts over indy and start tackling real problems

There is effectively no plan for independence beyond “it'll be all right on the night”. So we move seamlessly from never-never land of promised referendums to cloud-cuckoo land of already-discredited claims and promises. Isn't it time for Ms Marr and other disciples of the nationalist religion to look at the evidence and accept the facts: their god is dead, their faith is without foundatim? Time to face reality and let politics return to solving our real problems in the here and now, to grow up and leave never-never land and cloud-cuckoo land to their natural realm of children's fairy tales.

Alex Gallagher, Labour councillor, Largs.

*WILLIE McLean (Letters, March 14) asks your readers “where was the SNP at the Battle of Bannockburn”? Like so many supporters of Scottish independence he seems to be walking backwards into the future with a nostalgic view of a long-vanished Scotland. In any case, it is obvious that the SNP was not fighting for Scotland in 1314 or we would have lost, such is the inability of the SNP to display convincing success in any venture other than giving away baby boxes to the well-off and feeling rueful about Scotland’s treatment of witches.

I would have thought that everyone is now aware that a feature of modern life is being bombarded with fake news. The suggestion that during a time of critical international destabilisation Scottish residents would magically be better off and safer betrays irrational thought among several contributors to your recent Letters Pages. Anyone who thought the days of a European war were over surely must now have woken up to reality and be thankful that we have the strength of the whole UK to protect us.

The history of centralist actions taken by the SNP, pulling power inwards, has illustrated that its vision of independence is no more than Edinburgh-based expansionism. We have a party in power in Holyrood which seems to consistently misread where the public want the priorities for investment lie. I find it ironic that a Government which is known for throwing money around like a drunken sailor has demonstrated that it is woefully incapable of reliably running a vital ferry service to our island communities.

Bill Brown, Milngavie.

UNIONISTS ARE FEARING DEFEAT

PETER Russell (Letters, March 14) writes that having sought the people’s opinion in a referendum “policy is made in the light of that verdict”. The exception to this is that “Scottish nationalists see a referendum as a device to achieve independence on the basis of the lowest possible popular support”.

In the UK democratic decision-making has required a majority of votes cast. Of 13 referenda in the UK the one and only time that 50%+1 of votes cast was not the sole margin of success was in 1979 when a requirement was added that 40% of the electorate also had to vote in favour of a Scottish Assembly. Prior to the Brexit vote was a requirement like this, or even its possibility, mooted, even vaguely? Why only in Scotland is the normal UK political process not valid?

He writes that “the SNP is not interested in a referendum as a means of measuring Scottish opinion. So it will only hold one when it is certain it can win”. What we are to take from this other than that while the SNP has no interest in public opinion it will wait till it’s on its side before seeking a referendum? I would suggest it cannot simultaneously be both these things.

Moreover, he claims that the SNP will wait for “political stability”, but it is precisely during periods of instability that political change is likely to happen. Over the last hundred years, the map of Europe has been significantly altered twice – immediately after the First World War, and again after the collapse of the USSR.

Mr Russell’s argument is not about democracy or the balance of public opinion, but only at putting every possible obstacle in the way of independence. Thus, a requirement of 60% of votes or of the electorate (to be raised as required), or “now is not the time” and its endless variations, for now will never ever be the time, are motivated by a growing concern of defeat.

Alasdair Galloway, Dumbarton.

LAMENT FOR OUR LOST SECURITY

I RAISED three sons in the 1990s. How glad I was that they were born into a united Europe where their opportunities had been immensely widened by our established membership of the European Union. Gorbachev had removed the threat of nuclear Armageddon, and Russia was looking for the economic prosperity of the West. The First World War had been reduced to a collection of poignant poems studied in schools to remind everyone of a distant tragedy of wrecked lives. The Second World War was commemorated by a dwindling band of brothers who assembled each year in Normandy.

Now the irony is that all three of my children are the right age to fight. We are no longer part of the EU, and their outward-looking, easy acceptance that the world is their oyster has been cut off by an insular, vindictive UK Government attitude to people who live outside Little Britain. After two years of Covid-19 restricting life as we knew it, war is on the horizon in Europe. Their contemporaries are fighting for their country on the borders of Poland, and the world’s politicians are toothless in their response.

When will we learn that war benefits politicians and weapon makers? In 1990 I gave birth in comparative comfort, I wasn’t in a basement waiting for the next shell to drop. Above all, I felt complacently entitled to peace: that is no longer true.

Frances Scott, Edinburgh.

THANK YOU FOR SUPERB RESPONSE

THE response to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal has been inspiring. In just 10 days, more than £16 million has been raised here in Scotland, with the UK total now past £170 million.

Given the horrendous eyewitness accounts we are seeing on our TV screens and hearing on our radios, perhaps we shouldn’t be that surprised: we all want to do whatever we can.

This uplifting demonstration of global citizenship is hugely appreciated, particularly amid rising living costs here. So, most of all, we’d simply like to take this opportunity to say "thank you" for your support.

We are also heartened that so many have heeded our messages, shared by the Ukrainian Associations here in Scotland and across the UK, that financial support for the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal is the most effective way of getting the right support to the right people at the right time.

As well as the thousands of cash donations, big and small from the readers of this newspaper and others, along with those from businesses and local government, we must also thank Scotland’s political leaders for standing together to back this vital appeal.

Thanks too to the Scottish Government for its £2 million donation and to the UK Government for doubling the first £25 million we received from the public.

Thirteen of the DEC’s 15 members, on or near the front lines in Ukraine or at its borders, are now delivering food, water, shelter, healthcare and counselling to people whose lives have been torn apart.

Those fleeing this conflict face a deeply uncertain future. We pledge to spend this money responsibly with a firm focus on the most urgent needs of all those affected in the months and years to come.

Thank you for placing your trust in us, and our work, just as you have for our ongoing efforts to support those so badly affected by the recent conflict in Afghanistan.

For nearly 60 years, in times of crisis, the DEC has brought the UK’s leading humanitarian charities together to help people in life-and-death situations. With your continued support, we have no intention of stopping now.

Marie Hayes, British Red Cross in Scotland; Claire Telfer, Save the Children Scotland; Jamie Livingstone, Oxfam Scotland; Sally Foster Fulton, Christian Aid Scotland; Graeme McMeekin, Tearfund Scotland; Nadeem Baqir, Islamic Relief Scotland.

* Across the UK, the DEC has 15 charity members; six of the its members work collaboratively here during appeals.