You're wasting your breath Mr Swinney: who needs another conversation?

The Herald Scotland

3 hours ago

Independence activists are right to be worried. There's no economic plan. The White Paper is long forgotten, the Growth Commission dumped, and nothing credible has taken their place. Meanwhile, they rage at Brexit for damaging 17% of Scottish trade, while pushing for separation from the UK, which accounts for over 60%. The hypocrisy would be comic if the consequences weren't so serious.
And then there was the toxic alliance with the Scottish Greens, a partnership that's alienated voters and dragged the Government into the mire of money-losing projects and culture wars. No wonder turnout among independence supporters is collapsing. People have switched off.
The truth is, the movement is exhausted. The SNP has run out of ideas, out of talent, and – soon – out of time. Even its most loyal backers are beginning to see it.
Scotland doesn't need another 'conversation'. It needs a government focused on real priorities, not constitutional daydreams. Voters are waking up to that and not bothering to vote and those who do are switching to Reform and Labour. It's time for Mr Swinney to find his slippers and put his feet up before he is unceremoniously shown the door.
Ian Lakin, Aberdeen.
Pretence from the First Minister
Presenting you and your party as an attractive proposition after 18 years of questionable performance in power is no easy feat. What you most need is some standout out successes that stick in the public consciousness ('Bid to oust Swinney just self-indulgent rubbish, says ex-MP', The Herald, June 18).
Yet for the SNP's own core supporters as well as undecided voters and those committed to countering nationalist rhetoric, what stands out most about the SNP's time in power are largely the negatives. Missing the targets they set for themselves in healthcare, education and the environment. Wasting huge amounts of public funds on mismanaged forays into running businesses. Failing to make meaningful progress in critical areas of concern from drug deaths to the attainment gap in education.
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As for independence, John Swinney chose to return to it at the Scotland 2050 conference as his preferred go-to solution for all that is wrong in Scotland. Otherwise, he would be left with having to try to defend the indefensible, namely the SNP's numerous mistakes and missteps in over 18 years of trying to run Scotland.
In his two keynote speeches over the last couple of days John Swinney has effectively asked the people of Scotland to join him in pretending that the SNP is not the main problem, but rather that he and his government are going to start doing things so much better in the future and that in any case most problems would be eased if only we would turn our backs on our fellow UK citizens.
The difficulties encountered in leaving the EU have provided an abject lesson of how problematic it can be to achieve the many claims of those promoting walking away from a union. Leaving the much deeper and longer-standing interdependence within the UK holds greater risks and challenges. John Swinney hopes we do not think too much about all of that and instead join him in his comforting pretence.
Keith Howell, West Linton.
• After the 2024 General Election, in which the SNP lost heavily, Stephen Flynn said: 'It's a time for reflection, it's a time to listen'. John Swinney said 'the party failed to convince people". But lo and behold, less than a year after this defeat they are now saying 'independence is within reach' and 'we want to be a nation state in our own right'.
They obviously haven't reflected very much or listened if they are now churning out the same old mantra on independence again.
Jim Robertson, Glasgow.
Decolonise Scotland
How is Scotland's return to being a sovereign nation to be achieved and its preferences tested? In April Kathleen Nutt stated that a border poll for Ireland would be triggered by opinion polling, quoting a Northern Ireland minister. We know that in Scotland no matter how many seats Scottish pro-independence parties win, that senior (English) politicians have repeatedly proclaimed a referendum would not be granted by them while in office. Why wouldn't polling in Scotland mandate an independence referendum just as it does in that other part of the UK, and would the judiciary agree that Scotland being prohibited amounted to discrimination?
Scotland is already at 54% in favour of independence and rising, just as the UK appears to be heading for a period of political chaos and instability. I personally now think a new referendum would not be helpful to anyone, given the constitutionally partisan nature of the vast majority of the media which operates in Scotland: it would engender long-lasting angst and outrage over perceptions about bias and fairness. Perhaps, like many other components of the Empire, Scotland could simply morph into independence if it wanted to, with a reasonable proportion of our citizens in favour.
We can also look at the recent argument from distinguished historians in England which claims no union ever took place; 'Scotland' was extinguished and a Greater England was formed (or Scotland was added to the English Empire). So we need to decolonise Scotland.
GR Weir, Ochiltree.
What planet is CalMac on?
Once again I do not know whether I should write to the Editor or the Diary, as you report today that an engineer is being flown in from Norway to fix the ailing MV Caledonian Isles' troublesome gearboxes ("Caledonian Isles return delayed as specialist flies in from Norway", heraldscotland, June 18). He will wonder what planet he has arrived on or perhaps think he has ventured into a working museum.
He will return to Norway with lots of stories about overcrowding on CalMac ferries, and that's just the crew. It will be something like the spacemen in Cadbury's Smash advert from the 1970s.
"And they take their ferries... and they run them until they rust away... hahahaha... and they fill them with more crew than passengers... hahahahaha... and they build them too big for their harbours... hahahahaha... and they paint windows on them... hahahahaha... and then launch them with wooden funnels... hahahahaha... and they take eight years to build... hahahaha... and they cost £250 million each... hahahahahaha... and they are building electric ferries that can't be charged... hahahaha..."
Peter Wright, West Kilbride.
The MV Caledonian Isles (Image: Newsquest)
How to stop the boats
You report that French Police Nationale, apparently tooled up in riot gear, fired tear gas at migrants waiting on sand dunes for small boats to appear ("Tear gas deployed against migrants", The Herald, June 18 ). This is both unpleasant and pointless as these police then simply stand around watching the migrants as they wade waist-deep into the shallows to wait there for a small boat to appear to take them across the Channel.
Keir Starmer has said it is the 'duty" of his government to stop the small boats, but these half-hearted procedures by the French will never achieve that. Nor will faffing about trying and failing to 'smash the gangs" through ineffective international cooperation. What the PM is faced with is essentially a matter of supply (the gangs) and demand (the migrants). The solution is to remove the demand and the supply will go also.
All Keir Starmer needs to do is to take resolute action here in the UK by legislating that anyone breaking our law by arriving here illegally would be disqualified automatically from staying here. They would be detained securely until deported, presumably back to France. That would send a clear message that attempting to cross the Channel in the small boats would be pointless, removing both demand and supply.
Alan Fitzpatrick, Dunlop.