A centrist position can only be justified after equality is achieved

The National

a day ago

Inequality isn't neutral, it's a tilted seesaw. It pushes the poorest further down while boosting the wealth realisation and accumulation of the richest. To stand atop that imbalance and declare yourself 'perfectly balanced' is at best disingenuously counterproductive, and at worst outright delusional.
What's needed is not performative equilibrium, but structural redress. Redistribution of wealth, regulation of exploitative advantage, restoration of public infrastructure, and creation of genuine opportunity – these are the conditions that lift people out of inequality.
Only then, once the seesaw is levelled, can a centrist stance become viable. Balance must be built, not assumed. The centre can only hold if the extremes are held in fair tension.
Labour offer nothing to correct the imbalance. Kemi Badenoch blames those weighing the seesaw down, as though the gravity of individual circumstances were a moral failing. Reform UK want to demolish the entire playground because it's 'too expensive', with no coherent plan to rebuild – just the fantasy that further disruption equals progress.
The SNP, in government, have at least tried to steady the seesaw – tried to share the swings, repair the climbing frame, and offer fairer play. But they don't own the playground. They're fenced into Westminster's turf, and Keir Starmer seems determined to keep the gates locked.
Ron Lumiere
via email
THE lesson from the Hamilton by-election result for the SNP is to let Labour and the Tories fight it out with Reform UK to represent the dwindling number of myopically indoctrinated supporters of the Union and focus on the critical argument that only independence can bring about a radical 'change in direction' for the UK through the constitutional change necessary to seriously address the fundamental problems confronting 'broken Brexit Britain'.
The lesson for First Minister John Swinney is that it is now urgent that he arouse the passion and vigour for independence quietly dormant within him or step aside, at least from the leadership of the SNP, and support an individual who can inspiringly lead the country to independence before the end of this decade.
A majority of MSPs supporting independence in the next Scottish election must represent a mandate for the Scottish Parliament to hold a binding constitutional referendum which, if denied by the UK Government, must legitimately underpin making the next General Election a 'de facto referendum' on independence. A majority of votes at the Scottish election must represent a mandate to commence independence negotiations should the UK Government fail, over a maximum period of one year, to pass legislation enabling the Scottish Parliament to hold constitutional referenda. Manifestos of the SNP and the other independence parties should both state these commitments and state the necessary actions that will follow should a resultant mandate be met with continued undemocratic intransigence by the UK Government.
Further procrastination by the UK Government on implementing the democratically expressed wishes of the people of Scotland must not be accepted. To paraphrase the currently popular words of Roman General Vegetius, if you want true democracy, prepare to fight cynical totalitarianism.
Stan Grodynski
Longniddry, East Lothian
AS a 'grassroots' member of the Alba party, let me send a message of solidarity to the erstwhile estranged 'grassroots' SNP people of good will who, for completely understandable reasons, are having a crisis of faith in their leadership.
I speak for myself and for the majority of my co-activists in Alba when I say that a reunification process involving at the very least a common electoral strategy is an increasingly urgent necessity not only for an independence super-majority next year but equally in order to restore the 'brotherly love' that will silence the peals of laughter that have been echoing in the the corridors and bars of Westminster for too long.
The Alba 'schism', I think most of you recognise now, was based on fundamental concerns relating to the priorities of the SNP leadership at that time in civic, judicial and civic matters.
Many supporters no doubt shared some of those concerns but chose to bravely fight on within the ranks, hoping to maintain the post-2014 momentum generated by all of us.
Those days, and the resentments and misunderstandings that proceeded from them, are past now and in the 'past they must remain' if we are to deliver a nation fit for our children and grandchildren. This is no time for huffs and hubris. That will require explicit, authentic and visible acts of forgiveness and reconciliation personally and collectively across the entire movement. I have made a start. It is not easy, but it is great to feel renewed camaraderie.
We need SNP/Alba events formally and informally across this land, starting now. Alba speakers need to be invited to all SNP events and vice-versa to allow ice to melt sufficiently before next spring, and full participation and collaboration in all the Yes movement events ' under one banner' to reignite unity of purpose is essential.
Those of you who agree with these sentiments, please make that abundantly clear to your departing or aspiring leadership, and perhaps through the course of these next 12 months we will once again 'be brithers a' for a' that'
Dr Andrew Docherty
Selkirk