SNP rivals must do much more

I’M not sure that Adam Tomkins is right about the SNP winning an Indyref2 by a 55% to 45% margin (“If 2nd independence vote was tomorrow, Yes would win it”, The Herald, May 18). One thing is true: of 3.6 million who voted in 2014, 800k of them have never voted since, but more – roughly 500k of two million No voters – have never voted since.

The biggest problem is his own former pro-uk colleagues in Holyrood, who might be a bit better at calling the Snp/greens to account these days but have totally failed to create compelling “and this is what we would do” policies that would remove the nationalists from power.

If they did they might even get BBC Scotland and STV to start reporting Snp/green fails and opposition solutions. They might even produce objective documentaries on the real issues – jobs, childcare, house prices, old age care and education – that are castrating this country.

If a Yes vote relies on the Boris Johnson bogey man and he goes and is replaced by a more acceptable Prime Minister, the focus might just fall on Nicola Sturgeon.

But judging by her torn-faced attempt at the Brookings Institute to present her party’s desire to eject Trident from Scotland as a great benefit to Nato and the UK, I can’t see the one thing that keeps the SNP afloat lasting much longer either. Or the ridiculous but otherwise valid prediction that the pro-separation camp would win a referendum.

Allan Sutherland,

Stonehaven.