CALL INDYREF BLUFF FOR 2024

UNTIL the question of a second independence referendum is settled once and for all I don’t think we are ever going to be able to focus on the real issues facing Scotland today.

The newly-appointed Cabinet members at Holyrood will be sitting at their desks full of good intentions with the stated objective of seeing us through the pandemic and theoretically focusing on an economic recovery and the other pressing issues such as child poverty, drug deaths, falling education standards and so forth. In reality however, due to one of the First Minister’s early utterances since being reappointed being a renewed pledge to hold indyref2 in the first half of this parliament, even appointing a Constitution Secretary, they will be constantly dragged off course by the ramifications of breaking up the Union. There will be endless and rather futile arguments with Westminster, which holds the key to allowing a referendum or not. The press and news media will also be saturated with coverage of the controversial subject.

So, I say to the Westminster Government; for the sake of sanity, call the SNP’s bluff and agree to sanction a Section 30 order scheduling a second independence referendum for mid-2024. This will obviate the need for constant carping by the SNP Government over the coming years about who has the right to sanction another referendum, also allowing time for the electorate to be furnished with the full implications of leaving the Union warts and all. If, heaven forfend, we then become independent after all the facts are fully explained, then that will have been down to the will of the people and I hesitate to predict the future for both Scotland and the rUK.

Christopher H Jones, Giffnock.