Matter of choice

Kenny mac as kill( perspective, 26 December) bangs on about Scotland’s right to choose, but has never truly accepted the choice we made five years ago. No doubt he would regard another rejection of his fervently desired option as the wrong choice, but not the end of the matter.

Is it not the case that the only choice he and his movement will ever accept is the one that will remove the sacred right to choose for ever?

ANDREW KEMP Mossbank Rosyth, Fife

C Hegarty has clearly been on the SNP training course on avoiding awkward facts which show up how slippery the SNP can be when it comes to giving a straight answer to a question (Letters, 24 December). He claims that because Scotland is not independent, the referendum result is being respected. In fact, the Edinburgh Agreement said, “the referendum question must be fair, easy to understand and capable of producing a result that is accepted and commands confidence”. The SNP decided on that question and the result was absolutely clear, with a majority of almost 24 per cent for remaining in the UK over independence.

It was Alex Salmond who said, “My view is that you ask the constitutional question once in a generation” and Nicola Sturgeon has repeated the mantra, “once in a generation” until she was blue in

the face but, because they lost, they don’t want to respect it. We should ask them to be honest, however. If they had won, would they agree to a second referendum?

Mr Hegarty also seems to have a problem with his arithmetic. He wishes to make out that the UK’S General Election results are decided by local outcomes. By that criterion, 48 SNP seats outweigh 365 Conservative ones? That would have been an O Grade fail in my day. Mind you, with the way the SNP conduct education in Scotland, I expect that that would be an A+ now.

PETER HOPKINS Morningside Road, Edinburgh