LETTERS SPECIAL

WE have received hundreds of letters and emails since First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced her intention to attempt to force a second independence referendum. Space constraints make it impossible to publish every one, but we again today publish a Letters Special

Airbrushed out

ALREADY we see the referendum propaganda on display – ‘We must break from Britain or face years of perpetual Tory rule.’

We can expect years of such demonising material.

It is amazing how devolution gets airbrushed out of the picture. Key matters for Scotland – health, education, law and order – are all run from Holyrood, with Westminster having little to do with it, no matter who is in government there.

If Holyrood complains it does not get enough money from Westminster, why does it not use the tax-raising powers it now has? WILLIAM Ballantine, Bo’ness, West Lothian.

Key details lacking

BEFORE the British Government gives Holyrood permission for a second independence referendum, the first Minister should be told to wait until details of Brexit are known.

Then, before permission is given, the Government should ask the Scottish administration to provide a detailed financial report on how it plans to run Scotland.

The report should include details on the financing of the following: health, education, transport, police and fire services, welfare, pensions and defence.

It must also include its plans for taxation and explain how it plans to clear the Scottish share of the UK national debt and the Scottish deficit. In addition, which currency would be used in an independent Scotland?

The report should also include a detailed timetable for transition to full independence and costings for this transition.

The pro-independence campaign must also demonstrate how it would apply for admission to the EU and Nato and overcome the objections from current members.

If this report can be ratified by an independent accountancy firm – then, and only then, should permission for an referendum be given.

Peter Grant, Dalgety Bay, Fife.

Betrayed by Sturgeon

MAY’S council elections just got exciting. Let’s see what the will of the Scottish people is and whether Nicola Sturgeon speaks for us all.

I for one won’t be voting for the SNP after this betrayal over the referendum.

Dan Wheeler, edinburgh.

History of failure

Before we have another unpleasant and divisive referendum, let us have a Scottish parliamentary election. If we do gain independence, do we want to be governed by the current incumbents with their lengthy list of failures – education, NHS, Police Scotland?

Nicola Forbes, Cuminestown, aberdeenshire.

Undermining democracy

According to MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, Brexit is all the fault of the Tories.

In fact, the sentiments that saw the UK vote to leave the EU have been there for decades and what precipitated the breakaway was the British people voting for it. I take a very dim view of politicians who rage against the decisions of the electorate. Miss Ahmed-Sheikh and her SNP colleagues don’t like Brexit. fine, they can make that clear. But when they try to undermine the decision of the UK by carving Scotland out as a separate entity they are out of order.

SUSAN DICKSON, Dumfries.

Time to stop pretence

How long can the SNP pretend that only Tories voted for Brexit?

Many in the SNP voted for it, too, and we have seen even some senior figures in the party warning that taking powers back from Westminster only to give them to Brussels is not independence. gillian douglas, Dunfermline, Fife.

Credibility in question

HERE we go again. Spain says Scotland will have to join the EU queue; Nicola Sturgeon says ‘the suggestion of a queue is an utter fallacy’.

This is only one of a long list of contradictions – how do we find out the truth? As part of the ‘silent majority’ I know who I believe and who I will have trouble ever believing again.

P. Gray, Cupar, Fife.

Mandate doesn’t add up

I’M sick of the SNP telling us they have a mandate to call another independence referendum because of Brexit and that the ‘vast majority of the Scottish people will not be ripped out of the EU against their wills’.

‘Remain in EU votes’ were about 41.6 per cent, as turnout was low. How is this the majority of Scottish people?

BOB Davidson, Stirling.

Doubts over EU

No way did 62 per cent of Scots vote Remain. A lot of people didn’t bother to vote at all last June and I bet a lot of them were SNP supporters who think EU control is every bit as bad as Westminster control.

LeS WHITE, Glasgow.

Another distraction

WHAT really annoys me about Nicola Sturgeon’s stance on another referendum is that the whole machinery of government is going to be focused on that.

We saw how distracted the SNP was in the years leading up to the 2014 vote. Miss Sturgeon herself was pulled off an economic development role to pitch in on independence.

And here we go again, just as the economy is in a graver condition and big issues such as the NHS and education need to be sorted out.

We voted for politicians to do a job, not waffle endlessly about what they think an independent Scotland would look like.

Iain Watson, Falkirk, Stirlingshire.

Separation blunder

WHATEVER name is eventually given to the Stay in the UK campaign, assuming we do have another Scottish referendum, those chosen to run it would be well advised to focus on one very important word.

Last time round, the Unionist side never once used the word ‘separate’. That was a mistake. Separate spells out very clearly what is intended by Sturgeon, Salmond & Co.

Alex Salmond was well aware the majority of Scots were opposed to separation from the rest of the UK so he dressed it up as independence