Letters / A government no longer trustworthy
When big, vested interests in Westminster took control and gerrymandered Brexit, two things revealed themselves. One potentially very good for Scotland (despite it being completely ignored by the SNP) and one very bad for both England and Scotland.
The good bit was it showed us in Scotland that we do not have to be forced into a union that the majority (in Scotland) no longer wish to be part of and the bad bit was of course the lies told to achieve what has turned out to be an economic disaster for the whole UK and, as yet, with not one single benefit. But the sensible amongst us knew that anyway.
So we cannot do anything about Brexit for the immediate future but we could take a page out its book and point to various statements by key Tory figures in the cabinet and elsewhere, freely broadcasted on many occasions all over TV, radio and in the press, that the UK did not have to remain in the European Union if it voted to leave – the rest is history but here is the precedent.
As the UK. Government clearly stated the right to leave a union and held a vote to leave the EU and were successful, it should have set a precedent that Scotland could do the same for all the same reasons.
So Scotland does not need another referendum, it merely needs to try to achieve a sufficient majority to warrant a vote and get on with it. Some learned folk out there feel it would be difficult for the UK Parliament to fight it in the courts due to the precedent that the then UK Government set.
Another of the issues not being spoken about outside of some specific anti-wind farm groups (but now rapidly gaining traction in the highlands & islands), is the issue of the SNP Government’s governance, now more under scrutiny than ever because of its unsustainable community inequality double standards, failure to see the benefit of the UK Government’s Brexit precedent and therefore accusations of abandonment of its flagship Independence campaign.
Because of the present situation of blanket bullying rollout of renewable energy industrialisation of our beautiful country and the many adverse effects on people and place, many of us are turning hostile towards the SNP for their total lack of focus on the independence issue, now exacerbated by growing concerns and anger at the party’s dictatorial attitude towards the ordinary people of Scotland, through its developer rigged Scottish planning system.
A system designed to favour the developer by completely barring the very people who are or will be most affected by major changes to their local environments and their lives.
All without any participation or involvement in the decision-making process, utterly discriminating communities from any part of the process, financially impacted and socially excluded resulting in the worse example of community human rights abuse since the Highland clearances.
The English and Scottish planning systems mirror each other in sticking two fingers up to even the very basic notion of decent democratic principles, so here is a real dilemma for Scotland.
Do we get behind a lacklustre and tired SNP that is showing blatant hostility to its people, abandoning their much-heralded community participation ethics in all other areas of their governance mantra.
No, I think not and particularly in the Highlands & Islands as we watch our natural environment bulldozed for energy mafia profits and ever more fuel poverty, all done completely without any local community input.
It’s a real shame as over the years the SNP has managed Scotland (where it has the levers) a bit better than the dysfunctional self-serving alternatives in England and their Scottish branch offices.
But when you get such monumental changes to Scotland’s world renowned prime assets and the people that live there, without any local community involvement in how or what is being forced on them, you end up with a government that has failed in the most important and basic aspect of inclusive democratic governance and therefore is no longer trustworthy.
Vic Thomas
South Nesting
