READER David Crines (Letters, November 16) wrote: “At this most tumultuous moment in UK politics in many, many years, Nicola Sturgeon cannot just yet fire the starting gun on indyref2 as Lesley Riddoch wants.

“A UK election within months is not just a strong possibility – some would say it is likely. Further Brexit chaos will assuredly continue in parallel. An independence referendum called under that backdrop would simply be postponed anyway.

“Sturgeon’s fingers were already burned when she fired the gun in 2015 only to humiliatingly backtrack a year later when Scotland’s fickle electorate swung back towards the Union. She is wise to wait to see how the dice rolls over the next few months.

“Scotland could well be clamouring at some point soon for full control of our destiny, but we’re just not at that point yet.”

Lesley Riddoch responds: Right now, voters across Britain are thinking through some really big issues about sovereignty, borders, long-term economic security, governance and trust

Every other political party and political cause has its wares out for sale – Labour want a General Election, LibDems want a People’s Vote and the Scottish Greens are pushing the SNP to put independence into the ring soon.

Of course there are still a lot of uncertainties right now, and Nicola has been right to wait thus far. But Patrick Harvie’s question is a good one – when will there be clarity? If Scotland has to wait till all is settled at Westminster before the First Minister can even raise the idea of independence as a preferred constitutional destination or clothe that destination with some detail, narrative and unprompted enthusiasm, we may have waited too long.

I’m sure doubters have slowly switched off to Westminster over recent months but that doesn’t mean they will suddenly switch on to independence.

The idea of a different destination needs to be normalised as soon as possible. Lots of people in the wider movement are working almost full-time to do that – notably Common Weal. But the government and the SNP are the key players in Scottish society – and the movement’s efforts are currently offset by the relative silence from official sources.

I appreciate the SNP will be worried about making an announcement too soon for electoral reasons (which might be valid) but there needs to be a strategy in place now and talk by Nicola Sturgeon about independence while so many other propositions about the future are in the mix.

If that’s impossible for the SNP, then the Scottish Independence Convention needs to be doing that job as soon as possible. Fortune favours the bold.