Letters: What Sturgeon has got wrong

Sturgeon’s single issue

Sir: Nicola Sturgeon needs to be careful what she wishes for. Declaring that the next general election will be concerned solely with the issue of Scottish independence is, as you say, ‘a constitutional absurdity’ (‘Sturgeon’s bluff’, 2 July). Heads of government who stipulate single-issue elections are on a hiding to nothing, and rightly so. Theresa May’s ‘Brexit’ election in 2017 turned out badly for her, although at least she kept her job (just). Ted Heath wasn’t so lucky in 1974 (‘Who rules Britain?’), ditto Churchill in 1945 (‘Who won the war?’) or Stanley Baldwin in 1923 (‘Free trade or protection?’). Even the 2019 election was about more than Brexit; subjects such as economic competence and a fear of Corbyn certainly played their part. The SNP government is accountable for all of its actions, however loudly it bangs the drum for independence. The clue is in the title, Nicola: a general election.

Tim Holman

St Albans

Money pit

Sir: Lionel Shriver’s conclusion that our inflation crisis is self-inflicted is spot on (‘Central bank rate hikes are pathetic’, 25 June). Decadence in the developed world, facilitated by mass money-printing to finance state largesse and boost asset prices, has been indulged for years without stoking inflation thanks to the offsetting deflationary effects of globalisation. Now, with currents shifting to deglobalisation and decarbonisation, the tide has turned dramatically. The developed world is stuck between the rock of a rates-induced recession/depression, and the hard place of chronic inflation. Putin’s war provides a convenient scapegoat, but is only a small part of the equation. Our politicians know it. It was timorous populations the world over, whipped up by social media, that willed their states to lock down excessively and set the printing presses whirring, at a financial and societal cost that vastly outweighed the benefits. The result is a tragedy.