SIX long years have now elapsed since the 2014 independence referendum, which David Cameron thought would put an end to the Scottish question for good.
Yet the independence movement is stronger than ever, and the support for independence is higher than ever. Scotland cannot remain in this limbo of political and constitutional indecision for much longer without corrosive effects on the fabric of the country and her people. Doing nothing, with the U.K. Government just saying no is no longer an option.
There are only two viable solutions:
Firstly, independence, with the country hopefully pulling together to a hopeful and ambitious new future.
Secondly, a serious proposal from Unionists (not one brought out for a week or two when the Union is at risk) for a new U.K. constitution with a properly worked-out federal structure. The chances of this happening when Boris Johnson is busy eroding the powers of the Scottish Parliament and Keir Starmer is ruling out further self-determination for Scotland, are nil.
Option one, independence, is the only solution. Let’s get on with it.
Ian Grant, South Queensferry.
SIX years ago, on September 19, 2014, we had either been awake all the night or woke up to the news that Scotland had voted to stay in the United Kingdom.
We had been given the choice and we decided we did not want to separate from our nearest neighbour and our partner of 300 years.
Many voters woke up disappointed and those who had campaigned long and hard for the status quo would have been ecstatic.
Many, many more though like myself, who were not heavily involved in politics at that time, were filled with relief.
We did not gloat; we did not take pleasure from seeing Alex Salmond driven away defeated; we did not rub the Yes voters’ faces in the outcome; we went to work as we would any other day and hoped that it meant things could go back to normal.
No more talk of division, no more campaigning, no more distractions from running the country and making our education system and health services the best they could be.
How wrong we were.
Until Scotland rids itself of the SNP government, we will be kept in this Groundhog Day loop of every day being another day where independence is the answer, regardless of the question.
Non-separatist voters need to realise that to defeat this divisive, hate-filled party and have an administration that governs, we need to vote tactically.
Do we really want to be doing this six years, 16 years, 26 years from now?
The SNP will keep demanding a referendum time and time again until they get the answer they want. The only way to avoid that is to not vote for them in May 2021.
Jane Lax, Aberlour.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel