Taking on the SNP

sir – The United Kingdom is precious, and Unionists must fight to protect it.

First, Ruth Davidson must be persuaded out of retirement to coordinate a serious opposition to the SNP. Secondly, it is time to start publishing figures on Government spending per head by region. I suspect Scotland receives rather more than Yorkshire, the North East and the North West under the Barnett formula. Mike Metcalfe

Glastonbury, Somerset

sir – In Parliament last week, the SNP’S Ian Blackford kept saying that Scotland voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum.

Someone needs to remind him that it was not a regional referendum. Scotland has had two referendums. In the first, it voted to remain part of the United Kingdom. In the second, the United Kingdom – to which Scotland belongs – voted to leave the EU. Richard Acland

Chepstow, Monmouthshire

sir – Douglas Chapman MP (Letters, December 19) says SNP voters “would have their numbers expanded in a future referendum by European citizens and 16- and 17-year-olds. The writing is on the wall for the Union.”

He appears to be acknowledging that the SNP would once again stack the cards in its favour. This comes as no surprise from a party which, at the last referendum, denied a vote to expatriate Scots. What a way to finagle independence: rob nearly a million Scottish-born people of their birthright, give the vote to nearly 240,000 non-scots, and then march the country away from a newly sovereign United Kingdom. Victor Launert

Matlock Bath, Derbyshire

sir – Chris Heard (Letters, December 21) is correct that, before any second referendum, the SNP should have to wait until the future of our long-term relationship with the EU is known.

It must also define its terms of entry into the EU as an independent nation. As the EU has indicated that Scotland would not be wanted, these would probably be quite onerous. Alan Belk

Leatherhead, Surrey