Politics / Candidates spell out different views on Scottish independence
SCOTTISH independence should be “our decision to make”, SNP election candidate Hannah Mary Goodlad believes.
There has been anger among the party’s ranks this week after UK Government chancellor Rachel Reeves ruled out the prospect of a second independence referendum.
First minister John Swinney has claimed the SNP will have a clear mandate for another referendum – with the first held in 2014 – if it wins a majority of seats at the 2026 Scottish parliamentary elections.
However Reeves this week poured cold water on the idea, saying there “won’t be another referendum” even if the SNP win the Scottish elections next May.
She said that vote was described as being “once-in-a-generation”, and that 12 years “certainly” did not constitute a generation.
Goodlad – who hopes to represent Shetland at Holyrood after the May elections – said that whatever people thought about the future of Scotland “it should be our decision to make”.
“It’s never good when a country is being told by another country what they can and can’t do regards their future,” Goodlad said.
“Democracy should not be a gift for others to take away – it is a right.”
However fellow election candidate Emma Macdonald, who is standing for the Liberal Democrats, said the independence debate was not what people were focused on locally.
“In my view returning to this question isn’t what Shetland or indeed Scotland needs at the moment,” she said.
“This will just distract attention and resources away from the issues that are affecting people’s lives now.”
Macdonald added that the cost of living, healthcare, transport and the local economy were “the issues keeping people up at night and these are the issues we should be focusing on politically.”
Scottish Labour’s John Erskine, the only other candidate publicly declared to be standing for the Shetland seat, did not respond to a request for comment.
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