Iain Macwhirter's fearless and concise perception of Scottish politics is second to none (Indy question is existential, not economic, Comment, February 12). "If Scotland stays in the UK it will be hitching itself to a post-imperial Brexitania run by bandit capitalists who still think they're living in the days of the Empire," he writes.
Britain and the British Empire will finally cease when Scotland once again takes its place in Europe and the world as an independent nation. While independence brings responsibility and commitment it also brings joy, freedom and the excitement of achieving our full potential in an explosion of creativity.
To those Scots who fear and lack the courage, confidence and vision of Scotland's future, the words of Hugh MacDiarmid come to mind: "We ha'e faith in Scotland's hidden poo'ers ... The present's theirs but a' the past and future's oors."
Grant Frazer
Newtonmore
As a veteran SNP member I have some sympathy with Iain Macwhirter's suggestion that the Scottish Government should base its case for independence on the simple claim that "it is self-evident that nations should run their own affairs". However I doubt this argument will win over No voters, even if it has considerable appeal for those of us who are already committed independence supporters.
Mr Macwhirter further suggests that the Yes2 campaign should avoid being dragged into debates about currency and economics, which the No campaign used so effectively last time as part of their
Project Fear strategy since the successful Brexit campaign in the European referendum simply ignored Project Fear. This fails to take account of the fact that in the Scottish referendum, unlike the European referendum, Project Fear was successful. They won, we lost.
The idea that the Unionist opposition and their tabloid cheerleaders will conveniently ignore these issues and allow the independence debate to be conducted at an intellectually more rewarding level is pie in the sky.
I believe the Scottish Government should postpone the next referendum until after the UK Government has completed its Brexit negotiations and the Scottish electorate has assessed the actual impact of Brexit on Scotland and the Scottish economy.
Ian O Bayne
I don’t agree that we should sink to the Brexit campaign tactics by going into Indyref2 without a prospectus: let us know the principles we are voting on and have proper, informed debate. I wonder whether a third option is available to the Scottish Government – one Iain Macwhirter described a while back as "independence by stealth". The recent White Paper signalled the need for Scotland to have vastly more powers should it be lumbered with hard Brexit. So why not a referendum on the second question we didn’t get to vote on last time – meaningful "devo max" with full fiscal autonomy that really does give us the levers to (re)build a prosperous and more equal Scotland?
Wendy Faulkner
Aberfoyle
I congratulate Iain Macwhirter on his inspiring and coolly analytical column. I joined the SNP in 1966 because I believed we could run Scotland better from up here than they could from down there, and my view has not changed. We will not get everything right but we can sort our own mistakes. Without independence we cannot do anything – it is existentially essential.
Jim Lynch
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