It doesn’t figure

Several correspondents recently have pointed out that only 41.64 per cent of the Scottish population voted to remain in the EU but Nicola Sturgeon has taken that as overwhelming democratic justification for her attempts to keep Scotland in the EU, even to the extent of possibly calling a second independence referendum.

It is therefore interesting to note that in the 2014 referendum the percentage of the population voting to remain in the UK was significantly higher at 46.8 per cent but that was not considered an overwhelming democratic justification to accept the result.

Ms Sturgeon’s definition of democracy means it must be accepted – but only if she is in agreement with the result.

RAYMOND PAUL Braid Farm Road, Edinburgh

Immigration law is reserved to Westminster and is not devolved to Holyrood. Nicola Sturgeon’s open letter offering reassurance to EU citizens from mainland Europe is therefore without substance and, crucially, misleading. She has no remit to imply that, post-brexit, EU citizens have or do not have longterm residency rights in Scotland. Legally, they are resident in the UK, the EU member state, not Scotland. This remit lies with Westminster where even Boris Johnson has once more spoken in favour of all three million EU citizens across the UK remaining. It is of course important that we are mindful of the future status of British citizens resident in other EU countries. For Ms Sturgeon, EU citizens from other countries resident in Scotland are a convenient pawn in her relentless game of them and us with Westminster. As the nationalist leader reaches out to EU immigrants in Scotland, there will be no doubt she is aware, with the possibility of another independence referendum, that opinion polls told us European immigrants voted heavily in favour of the UK in 2014. Rhetoric without responsibility?

MARTIN REDFERN Royal Circus , Edinburgh

Now business leaders (including those in the oil industry) have publicly rejected Ms Sturgeon’s apparent stance of clamouring for another referendum, it is crystal clear that she doesn’t have any intention to “call” one, lest she now visibly seeks the destruction of Scottish commerce. Of course, there is no mandate, or legal precedent whereby this could be effected anyway, but the SNP is firmly grounded in consistently dismissing the advice of others and indeed, inventing its own to suit their advocated nationalist purpose.

The recent EU referendum has whipped up more injury, objection and outrage among her number (likely because she suspected the outcome), to further the nationalist narrative. These are flames she and her party are only too happy to cynically fan, to the weariness of many.

MARK WARD Dalmellington Road Crookston, Glasgow