I WAS pleased to see the demo at Holyrood on Thursday. Thinking back, a few days before we lost the referendum in 2014 we had actually shown a majority for Yes. Then up came David Cameron, Nick Clegg, George Osborne and Gordon Brown and put out a pack of lies, the main one about being booted out of Europe – what a disaster! The No vote was celebrated by David Cameron making all Scots MPs second-class; the first three are no longer in Westminster, and Gordon Brown is well – still looking for a role, any role will do!

In 2015 we had a General Election and the SNP won 56 out 59 of Scotland’s parliamentary seats, a feat that astounded me. In 2016 the SNP won the Scottish Parliament election; we lost our overall majority, but the other independence party, the Greens, helped to keep Holyrood in independent hands. There was a referendum that year, and Scotland voted 62% to 38% to Remain in Europe, but England voted to Leave and this wiped out our support. The English PM decided she needed another General Election to cement her majority, breaking the Westminster rule, just added, to only have one every five years.

This rebounded on her and she lost her majority, and was forced to seek support from the DUP. Mrs May had to fork out a billion pounds of our money to keep them on side. In that election the SNP lost 21 seats, mainly because the new MPs had not time to establish themselves, but still the SNP holds 35 of Scotland’s 59 seats. And this past year has seen massive rallies all around Scotland supporting Yes. The Tories are also using the Brexit fiasco to take away powers from the Scottish Parliament

Mrs May knows very few words, mainly “now is not the time”, but the above elections and the defeat of her proposals in the House of Commons – unheard over the last century and a half – has made her position insignificant. We know she will not grant us a referendum, so we must do it ourselves – advisory only, as are all referendums.

Westminster somehow manages to combine “no constitution” with a set of rules that they change willy-nilly as it suits them; it also has decisions made by the unelected House of Lords, which includes 26 Church of England bishops – nae Scots. The late Oliver Brown commented on their “constitution”, making the valid point that the Lord Privy Seal was neither a Lord, a privy, nor a seal – but the show goes on. Time we declared that we have the moral and legal legitimacy for independence.

Jim Lynch
Edinburgh

IN the year 1314 King Robert Bruce won the battle of Bannockburn, but it would take the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 followed by the recognition of Rome in 1324 by Pope John XXII for Robert to be officially recognised as king of an independent Scotland.

Then in 1328 King Edward III of England renounced all claims to sovereignty over Scotland, which gave way for the treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton to be signed. This ended the first war of Scottish independence; Scotland was now an independent nation. But in 1707 Scotland and England had ratified the Treaty of Union, which merged both parliaments and both crowns thus becoming Great Britain. Basically we were sold down the river; as another national hero with the initials RB put it, “we’re bought and sold for English gold”. If it happened before, It will more than likely happen again, as the need for English gold is and always will be very strong.

Richard Low
Twechar