Nicola Sturgeon has lots of reasons to pull brakes on pursuit of independence

Nicola Sturgeon has many good reasons not to pursue independence at the moment (“Sturgeon: No wildcat Scottish independence referendum”, Scotsman, 11 October).

Firstly, if Boris Johnston manages to agree a Brexit deal, as is now looking possible and acknowledged by all sides, then her party’s narrative for the past few years is completely redundant, and she will be left looking stupid.

Secondly, the courts have recently shown how powerful the law can be. If the law can be used to frustrate Brexit, then it can be used to frustrate Scottish independence as well.

We know the constitution and the responsibility for holding referendums are reserved matters.

Beyond this, the UK and Scottish Governments signed an agreement in 2013 which said that both would respect the outcome of the vote the following year.

Thelegalnatureofthatagreement, signed by both parties, could be tested in court as well. Imagine what might happen if they were made to stick to their word on that!

Thirdly, the economic incoherence of the arguments put forward in 2014 are, if anything, much worse today, and the SNP have no answers to that. This will not change any time soon

Finally, Mr Salmond is likely to be dominating the news headlines in the early part of 2020, and whatever the result of that, it will provide a poor background for an important vote.

Add in the fact that there is no support in the country for another vote and the fact that Ms Sturgeon is overly cautious about everything she does, to the point of leaving her party members in near paralysis, then I don’t think we are going to see another vote any time soon.

That is not to say of course that she will not keep banging the drum anyway. Her party members let her get away with it at every SNP conference, and there is no reason why this one will be different. Like any politician, Ms Sturgeon’s real priority is to stay in power, and she has structured her party to make sure she stays there for as long as possible, no matter how much or how little she delivers.

VICTOR CLEMENTS Mamie’s Cottage, Aberfeldy

The ‘Plan B’ amendment on the route towards Scottish independence put forward by Angus Mcneill MP and Councillor Chris Mceleny stops well short of a political suicide note). But in terms of practical politics it is a recipe for chaos and serious damage to the party’s stance on an important constitutional issue.

The points made by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon – thatthemandateforindependencerequiresamajorityvotein a legally binding, and internationally respected, referendum – are valid. She simply needs to achieve the delicate balancing act of persuading her supportersthatthetimeforthisissome years away yet.

In the course of the last decade the voters in Scotland have twice given the SNP a majority ofwestminsterseatsingeneral elections. In the first of these – in 2015 – Ms Sturgeon was anxious to stress that her landslide victory–56outof59seats–was not a mandate for independence. It needed to be considered in the light of the No vote in the referendum the previous autumn and the somewhat prickly approach of then Prime Minister David Cameron towards people north of the Border in its aftermath.

In 2017 the unexpected election caught the SNP on the hop, unwisely upsetting marginal voters in the north east and south of the country with promises of another referendum so soon after the last one. It gained a majority of seats – 35 out of 59 – but there was a clear dent to its momentum.

Delegates to this weekend’s conference need be persuaded of two things. The first is that it will need more mandates than one. It will need a majority of Westminster seats, a majority in the forthcoming Holyrood election in 2021 and, of course a referendum victory sometime in the next decade. That needs to be underpinned not just by constitutional awareness but by an exciting and progressive economic programme that the SNP still needs to develop.

BOB TAYLOR Shiel Court, Glenrothes