Win-win situation

Colin Hamilton (Letters, 27 April) makes some good points about the e-mails just released by the SNP about their links to Cambridge Analytica. Contrary to what Nicola Sturgeon has said, Cambridge Analytica believed the talks were postponed, not stopped, pending the outcome of the EU referendum in June 2016.

By March 2016, the SNP had got what they wanted from contact with this firm, who were, of course, advising the Leave campaign. By including in their 2016 Holyrood election manifesto a provision saying if there was a significant and material change in circumstances, such as Scotland being taken out of the EU against its will, this would create the right to hold another referendum. The SNP created for themselves a win-win situation. Either Scotland stayed in the EU or there was another referendum. All that Nicola Sturgeon then had to do was give lukewarm support to the Remain campaign, she did complain about its conduct of course, and prepare a speech for the day after the referendum, when the SNP and the Leave campaign had both won, saying it’s now full steam ahead for independence.

PHIL TATE Craiglockhart Road, Edinburgh