Loaned votes

Andrew Kemp (Letters, 4 January) is right to point out that many Brexit remainers loaned their vote to the SNP in the General Election.

The SNP candidate for Gordon, now the MP Richard Thomson, made a five-minute Youtube presentation two weeks before the vote in which he finished by saying “a vote for me is not a vote for independence”.

He scraped home by a mere 800 votes, so it is fair to assume that his victory was achieved thanks to the votes of prounion remainers who took him at his word.

The pro-union parties in Gordon achieved a total of 58 per cent of the vote, meaning support for the Union is probably above 60 per cent given the likelihood of some Unionists having voted SNP.

We have to hope that Mr Thomson will be representing the views of the majority of his constituents, and not those of his party, when constitutional matters are debated at Westminster.

KEITH SHORTREED Cottown of Gight, Methlick,

Aberdeenshire

Douglas Cowe (Letters, 4 January) says there is no unstoppable tide towards independence and Andrew Kemp (Letters, same day) sticks with the sea metaphor and says that the high tide mark for independence

hasn’t budged an inch in five years.

From this we can surely infer that both these gentlemen would be prepared to put their confidence to the test in another referendum. Or would they?

GILL TURNER Derby Street, Edinburg

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