I THINK Ronnie Cowan and indeed those who take the opposite view and accuse the SNP of needing to be pushed into campaigning for independence, are confusing two aspects of the work involved to bring over No voters (MP tells Yes campaigners to enjoy a break).

There is full campaign work – the bands, the flags, the razzamatazz – which is certainly not appropriate at this time. But for the steady work to persuade Scots of the viability of independence there can be no rest period.

To have taken a break last year and this would have prevented us from concentrating on coaxing No voters to talk about why they voted as they did and gathering crucial information on how to direct our work in future.

The role of the SNP Government and leadership, and elected representatives like Ronnie Cowan, is quite different. First, they have to continue to demonstrate the ability of Scots to govern not just as well but better than our masters at Westminster. Second it is to gauge when our steady work at ground level has reached the point when we can move into full campaign mode and achieve success.

So get pushing. After all, we have another 100,000 members now to share the graft.

Dot Jessiman, Turriff

I READ George Kerevan’s article this morning with mounting irritation (How Trump really could win despite insulting most of the US electorate, The National, July 25). He recognises that some people voted Leave “as a protest against economic and political marginalisation”. He repeats the mantra that it was the “working class and lower middle class in England” who voted Leave, which, it seems to me, is a politician’s way of ignoring a truth which is staring them in the face.

First, it is insulting to claim that Leave voters consisted of working-class and lower-middle-class voters. And anyway, even if it were, does that make their votes and their point of view inferior to those of the – what – middle and upper classes? Does this make them stupid, and therefore justly patronised and rejected?

Then there’s his dismissal of the sense of betrayal that huge numbers of people all over Europe, Britain and the US feel about the way that politicians, over many years, have been running their countries. Glibly sweeping this aside is exasperating many, many people. How often do the electorate have to shout their anger about the injustice they feel they have been and are being subjected to before their elected representatives actually stop mouthing platitudes and do something about it?

Truly, Westminster must be a cocoon. Politicians enter it with a sense of reality and full of promises about what they can do for the people who voted them into office. After a time during which they feed on hubris and absorb the idea that politically correct and sometimes party political values are the only valid ones, they emerge, unfortunately like George Kerevan and others, fully fledged moths ready, metaphorically, to fly mindlessly into the light of real-world opinions without ever recognising that is they who are the problem, not the electorate.

It is time politicians of all parties stopped blinding themselves to the fact that too many people reject their policies and it time for them to change them.

Lovina Roe, Perth

MARGARET Telford prefers remaining in the UK to being part of the “unelected experiment that is the European state” (Comments from www.thenational.scot, July 25). Other than in the warped minds of Farage and his ilk, where did this idea that the EU is unelected come from? I’m sure I recall having voted in regular European Parliamentary elections over the years, whereas I have no memories at all of ever having elected anyone to that undemocratic Westminster abomination, the House of Lords.

A newly independent Scotland will need the recognition and support that the EU can give us. We sure as hell won’t get anything but obstruction from the UK.

Pauline Taylor, Elgin

IN response to Margaret Telford today, I must refute her statement that the EU is an “unelected experiment”. For more than four decades, in order to promote co-operation between countries previously at war, there have been several variations of what is now the EU. It is the most successful “experiment” ever tried in Europe.

As for the “unelected” quote, I am fully aware of elections held to provide political representatives from every EU country, on a regular basis and if constituents are unaware of these elections I would suggest they are ignoring the literature sent to every household when it’s time to vote. My excellent MEP Alyn Smith SNP is well known to me via a monthly newsletter and information through the post.

The misinformation given out by Brexiteers has been unbelieveable over the past few months and I am truly amazed by the numbers of people taken in by the likes of Johnson, IDS et al. The EU is unwieldy and by no means perfect but we do have MEPs whom we can contact for information and assistance.

Although the Wee Ginger Dug explained recently in great detail, perhaps The National could repeat the facts that the EU is much more democratic than the Westminster government where 850+ unelected lords and ladies, each paid £300 tax-free every day, make important decisions about UK laws and their implementation: regardless of any or no qualifications in the subject. The UK will no doubt soon come to realise the dreadful mistake of voting to leave the EU. Already jobs are being lost and financial aid for our research institutions is jeopardised.

I look forward with huge, positive anticipation towards a second Scottish independence referendum and I will work my socks off in favour of leaving the UK. I can’t remember who said it’s like being “shackled to a rotting corpse” but I am in total agreement. The corruption and lies coming from this appalling UK Government is enough to make your hair curl!

Pat Farrington, Islay, Argyll

FOR all those able to attend there shall be a march in support of independence in Glasgow this coming Saturday (July 30) beginning at the Botanic Gardens in the west end at 10am and making its way to George Square.

Now you can guarantee the George Square webcam will be facing “unexpected difficulties” that day and clearly BBC Scotland will miss the whole event, so it is vital to get the word out to friends, family and colleagues to swell the numbers and begin to capture the spirit of the Yes Movement once again.

RJ Bulloch, Shawlands

Letters II: Setting aside party politics is the way to win over No voters