Westminster holds the cards

Sir, - Nicola Sturgeon claimed at her manifesto launch that she believes if the SNP wins a majority of Scottish seats next week, then her second independence referendum demands are “reinforced”.

Does Ms Sturgeon genuinely believe this? I don’t think so.

Even those polls most pessimistic for the SNP predict they will secure 34 out of 59 seats; most assume they will take 40-something constituencies.

Ms Sturgeon is confident she’ll win a majority of Scottish seats. But she also knows full well that, if the Tories win across the UK on June 8, there will be no separation referendum before 2020 and probably no prospect of a further independence vote until after the next Holyrood election.

Ms Sturgeon is political game playing, though with negligible chance of winning.

The nationalist leader tells us if the Tories refuse a referendum it is an onslaught on democracy.

But polls suggest the SNP share of vote will most likely drop from nearly 50% in the 2015 election to closer to 40%.

There will be an easy argument to make that holding a referendum is anti-democratic: Scots will be deemed to have voted against a referendum.

Mrs May - or perhaps Jeremy Corbyn - holds all the cards. We can expect turbo-charged grievomax politics from Ms Sturgeon and her remaining MPs. Martin Redfern. Merchiston Gardens, Edinburgh.