Take back powers

It might be prudent for the SNP to hand back some devolved powers to Westminster that they are struggling to manage, such as education and the NHS, leaving them with easier devolved matters to handle such as EU payments to Scottish farmers and land & property taxes.

This would give First Minister Nicola Sturgeon ample time to analyse why Scottish independence is now the elephant in the room and indyref2 a distant dream. DENNIS FORBES GRATTAN

Mugiemoss Road Bucksburn, Aberdeen With the third anniversary of theindependencereferendum upon us, I see the first signs of reconciliation emerging.

The SNP have been given a bloody nose in Scotland at the Scottish Parliamentary elections in 2016, the Local Council Elections and then the General Election in 2017, for their ceaseless independence rhetoric since 2014.

The cost of oil has plummeted and shown that an independent Scotland would not be feasible without massive tax increases and/or a hefty dose of austerity. We are better off as part of the UK, as statistics demonstrate.

I feel that Scotland is in a state of “well-tempered discontent” at the moment. No one seems to be getting what they want and this is about the nearest it has felt like to be living in a stable nation in four years.

The SNP are still the Scottish Government and are free to follow their policies as they have been democratically mandated to do, but they do not represent the entirety of Scotland, as I hope they now realise.

All ideological sides want the best for Scotland, so let us all move forward, while respecting the will of the Scottish people and creating a nation for those of us who are willing to give it a shot and make something of ourselves. Scotland is big enough for all of us to exist in.

DAVID BONE Ailsa Street West Girvan, South Ayrshire We learn that the Holyrood parliament building could reach end of its useful life by 2060. Really?

Many would argue that happened ten years ago when the SNP gained power.

The nationalists are terrified of devolution. One, because the more devolved power the parliament has, the more apparent is the Nationalists’ lacklustre management of Scotland’s public services.

And two, Nicola Sturgeon’s worst nightmare is that Scots become satisfied with Holyrood’s ever increasing raft of devolved authority and regard independence, with all its attendant risks, as an unnecessary step to take. For the SNP the devolved parliament isn’t something to make a success of – it’s a soapbox from which to generate anti-uk, antiwestminster rhetoric.

Nicola Sturgeon and the rest of the SNP establishment’s obsession with independence means that, while the Nationalists remain in power to seek division and enmity, Holyrood can only underperform.

MARTIN REDFERN Woodcroft Road, Edinburgh