The SNP’S conversation over a second referendum may be a bit one-sided

I find it rather amusing and ridiculous that the spokespersons for the unionist parties are calling on the SNP to give up their campaign for another referendum to restore Scottish national sovereignty.

Without this aim there would be no need for the SNP to exist. This is just as daft as asking, for example, Rangers football club to give up playing football. I suspect that the motive behind the unionist parties making this daft suggestion is that they fear losing another referendum.

JIM CARSON Larchfield, Balerno The SNP’S national survey fails all the usual tests of impartial research. It is clearly nationalist in tone.

For example, asking respondents to score themselves on whether they feel more British or Scottish in relation to independence, not wanting to encourage the idea of being as much Scottish and British.

Other issues are phrased to favour the SNP view.

The surveys are to be delivered by SNP activists giving a self selected sample. The exercise intends a pre-ordained outcome.

As for being a “conversation”, it is a distinctive nationalist one, in that it asks the questions, trying to bias the answers in their favour, and avoids any thought of respondents asking their own awkward questions and raising any inconvenient truths.

KEITH HOWELL West Linton, Peeblesshire Listening exercises carried out by political parties tend to be based on a false optimism. It is that the views of ordinary members of the public can somehow be condensed into a set of coherent policies that can form the basis of an election or referendum platform. In reality those exercises are often dominated by vested interests and pressure groups with their own determined agenda.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon must already be aware of the issues that prompted the majority of voters to come down on the No side in 2014.

The three quarters of a million voters living in Scotland but born in other parts of the United Kingdom, inside the European Union and further afield, never really had their concerns about status addressed by the Yes side. Defence workers were left with vague commitments about future contracts and diversification. How Scotland would be represented abroad, in international councils and an embassy structure, was important to many but dismissed with generalities in the White Paper Scotland’s Future. Pensioners were left with a feeling of uncertainty that an independent state might not have the resources to continue with even the existing payments.

Commissions on all these matters would be welcome if the First Minister is to be taken seriously in a fresh campaign for autonomy. Simply sending hordes of committed volunteers on to the streets and into public halls and seminars can be no substitute for a real detailed analysis of the future.

BOB TAYLOR Shiel Court, Glenrothes I hoped that the Indyref2 consultation would give me opportunity to sit down with someone and explain that I am not against independence, the SNP wasted their opportunity in 2014 but if they did things differently I could be persuaded.

In fact, I met Tommy Sheppard MP a few weeks ago and had a very friendly, constructive discussion on this. I have serious concerns about the content, intent and compliance of the online survey. If I am right, this survey is just a cynical ploy to identify “soft No” voters. Its failure to explicitly say so, and the mandatory requirement to fill in most fields, including contact details, may be against data protection laws and the guidelines of the Market Research Society . ALLAN SUTHERLAND Willow Row, Stonehaven The government’s stated initiative of a “survey” to try to determine why the majority of the electorate did not agree with the SNP and vote for independence in 2014 smacks a little of desperation. Is this subliminal pressure to convert the unbelievers or a genuine “listening exercise” as has been stated?

If this is a true desire to sound out the electorate, this may be all very well, but just who is paying for this so-called survey? As it would seem to me to be very much a party political manoeuvre by the SNP rather than a genuine government initiative, I do hope that the SNP is paying for it and not passing on a party activity as a government project for which we, the electorate would have to pay. I must say it does seem to be somewhat underhand and redolent of the cold-calling “surveys” that are clogging our telephones.

Can we please have clarification of the true intent of the exercise and justification for using public funds, if this is indeed the case.

DAVID GERRARD Spylaw Park, Edinburgh Now, as we approach the second anniversary of the victory by the Scottish people over the Scottish Nationalists, Nicola Sturgeon urges another referendum upon us.

Of course, this will result in further development in the financial services sector ceasing in Edinburgh as jobs that would have been in Scotland are given to London and HQS quietly relocate south too.

This “kamikazi” campaign is destined to destroy Scotland’s financial services sector, just as the fall in oil prices has seen the North Sea’s input to the Exchequer become so much history.

The SNP’S lust for the destruction of the UK and rule from Berlin will have the opposite effect that they expect and will impoverish Scotland. How sad, yet how predictable!

ANDREW HN GRAY Craiglea Drive, Edinburgh As Nicola Sturgeon launches three months of Nationalist dogma upon us, wrapped up as a “conversation”, the timing and content of the latest Yougov poll is particularly unfortunate for her.

Perhaps most concerning for the SNP is the toxic combination of backing for independence being at almost exactly September 2014 levels plus crucially the clear emergence of a single party – the Tories – in opposition to the SNP.

Sturgeon bigs up Labour’s problems as a bonus for her party but Labour’s decline has been more than matched by Tory growth in Scotland. Plus, in this era of personality politics, that Ruth Davidson’s popularity has surpassed her own will be more than vexing for the Nationalist leader.

The next three months could conceivably be as rewarding as the SNP hopes but short and medium term indicators suggest the opposite.

MARTIN REDFERN Royal Circus, Edinburgh

of office too much. Mr Clegg banged on the Cabinet table when the NHS privatisation bill for England was passed, they introduced fees of £1,200 for employment tribunals and it was Lib Dem Vince Cable who sold off the Post Office for a fraction of its true value.

Mr Clegg’s pledge to be the “guarantor” of extra powers for Holyrood was most cynical of all.

ALAN HINNRICHS Gillespie Terrace, Dundee

Peace breaks out

Keith Howell (Letters, 3 September) in commenting on the Scottish referendum, describes it as a “deeply divisive and unsavoury affair” with “widespread abuse and intimidation”.

Well, that is certainly not how the majority remember it.

It was passionately argued certainly, but generally goodhumoured, and I would remind him that nobody suffered so much as a broken fingernail in a two-year campaign.

Hundreds of thousands of people attended meetings and rallies without any trouble

Jim Murphy had one egg thrown at him, and wore the eggy shirt as a badge of pride for the rest of that day, but that was about it. There has never been such a peaceful campaign, with so much at stake, and so many people engaged on both sides. It is a falsehood to claim otherwise.

The only real abuse and intimidation occurred on the day after the referendum when a mob of flag-waving unionists, in triumphalist mood, attacked a peaceful rally in George Square, Glasgow.

JAMES DUNCAN Rattray Grove, Edinburgh

Diverging

The devolved UK has two prominent female leaders.

Both experienced crushing referendum defeats for causes that were dear to them. There the comparison ends.

The Prime Minister, instead of brooding and plotting and scheming to overturn the expressed will of the people, accepted the result and rolled up her sleeves and is working very hard to make the best of things as they stand.

She put her country before herself and the wilder elements in her party. The other leader did exactly the opposite and caved in to the zealots of the SNP.

This is not about politics. This concerns character and integrity. And I am afraid the First Minister loses hands down.

ALEXANDER MCKAY New Cut Rigg, Edinburgh

Wasted energy

What energy your stakhanovite anti-snp correspondents expend every day on attacking with boring regularity every single act of Scotland’s governing party. Since the SNP won a third term in government in May’s Holyrood election, one wonders whether their efforts are worth it.

Could they not, more fruitfully, join in the general mayhem of the civil wars being waged within the UK Conservative and Labour parties?

ROBIN MACCORMICK Dalkeith Road, Edinburgh,

X Marx the spot

I have recently revisited the writings of a certain Mr Marx who once stated: “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it and then misapplying the wrong remedies.”

I can’t think of a more prescient summation of our world today. Perhaps I should mention that this insight came from Groucho not Karl. AUSTIN MCKENNA

Cornton, Stirling