Letters / Misguided and disingenuous
Gordon Harmer needs to phone the election office and ask what they are planning for 18 September 18 if he genuinely believes it is anything other than a referendum on Scottish independence (It’s about the SNP; SN 31/8/14).
When we enter the ballot box on 18 September we will not have an option to vote for or against Alex Salmond, the SNP nor anyone else. We will simply have the choice to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to independence.
The SNP has not published an election manifesto as Gordon states (nor has any other party). What he is referring to is the Scottish government’s “Scotland’s Future” white paper.
As first minister, Salmond says in the introduction to that document: “At its heart independence is not about this government or any political party.
“The vote in September 2014 is about becoming independent from the parliamentary union of 1707 and passing to the Scottish Parliament the powers Westminster has over matters such as taxation, welfare and the economy, and securing for Scotland our own place in the world as an independent country.
“Other choices can be made, different from those we propose in this guide – but these will be the choices of the Scottish people. Independence will put the people of Scotland in charge of our own destiny.”
If we do vote for independence the current Scottish government, led by Salmond and the SNP, will enter settlement negotiations with their UK counterparts. These talks are projected to last 18 months.
Scotland would become independent on 24 March 2016 with Scottish Parliament elections taking place in the spring of that year. Only then would we vote for the SNP and other political parties.
Crucially, any party coming to power with a majority in those Parliamentary elections can run the country as they see fit.
So, for example, the present Scottish government has pledged to keep the Queen as our head of state, however if a party gains overall control of the Scottish Parliament on the back of a mandate to make Scotland a republic – that is what we will become.
To suggest Scotland will become a non-democratic one party state in the event of independence is at best misguided and at worst disingenuous.
Kennedy Stewart
Scalloway
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