SNP spin will not fool voters

Sir, - Have you noticed Nicola Sturgeon now seems reluctant to mention the “i” word?

Last year the nationalist leader decreed the term Indyref2 must be banished from the SNP lexicon.

This was just in case any of us were foolish enough to believe a second independence referendum would be yet another vote about independence, alarmingly similar to the once -in-ageneration referendum three years ago.

Conscious her UK break-up obsession lost the SNP 21 Westminster seats in June, Ms Sturgeon is even more circumspect these days, talking about giving us the opportunity to choose “a different path” or select “our own destiny”.

Despite most realising it is a tortuous non-sequitur, she is also fond of implying it wouldn’t really be a vote about independence but instead a vote to remain in the EU.

By attempting to keep her dyed-in-the-wool supporters on board without further alienating the majority, the SNP leader insults the electorate’s intelligence.

Few fail to understand her sole raison d’etre. There’s no disguising the SNP is a single-issue party and that toxic issue is independence at any cost and on the SNP’s timetable. A spade is still a spade, even if Ms Sturgeon and her team rebrands it as an earth moving implement. Martin Redfern. Woodcroft Road, Edinburgh.