WINTER weather will soon batter the country, but it will be as nothing to the propaganda that will rain down on Scotland and it will be Trump-like in content. The media will ensure that we are at a disadvantage of mammoth proportions.

There will be no Queensberry rules in this fight. That being the case, who in their right mind within the SNP thought it would be a vote winner and a good idea to go into an election campaign pushing issues like the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) and the Hate Crime Bill?

For good measure, if that wasn’t enough, a new last-minute ruling with the full knowledge of the SNP leadership was brought in by the National Executive Committee (NEC). The sole intention was to make it more difficult for Joanna Cherry MP to submit her name for consideration with a view to contest the Holyrood election.

Furthermore, the NEC has supported their own favourites to the detriment of those who do not hold their views on, for example, GRA/self-ID. If you want to win an election and achieve Scotland’s independence then that is what you concentrate on – independence.

This should have been the rallying call, not the aforementioned issues which are blatantly so divisive within the wider independence movement and this must have been obvious to those people who were pushing these issues.

Our leadership should concentrate on achieving our goal of independence rather than nipping away through their social media at those within the independence movement who have a different point of view on the GRA issue. Many of these members would also like to see a road map to independence produced in early course. It’s all very well pointing out that we are having great polling results from the public but that is no reason for members within the NEC and some MPs to vilify those they perceive to be less worthy of an opinion which happens to differ from theirs. There have to be changes in the NEC membership and there has to be more democracy and transparency within the hierarchy of the SNP. SNP MPs should also stop the cautious approach in their dealings with Westminster. If they don’t they will find themselves in Westminster for the full duration of their election term.

SNP MPs responding time and again with indignation after receiving verbal abuse from Unionist MPs is wearing thin. It is now looking more like self-flagellation. Unless we change our attitude from being perpetual Oliver Twists to a political battle-hardened opposition we will find that the road to independence is going to be longer than we anticipated.

Bill Clark

Fort William

I REFER to Kevin McKenna’s Wednesday column (What’s the point of independence if we stick with neo-liberal ideas?, October 21). I have to confess to not having read the Growth Commission Report; I obtained a copy from SNP HQ and got through about a third of it, before health problems kicked in – it is a weighty report physically and hard to handle.

I remember Andrew Wilson best when he and Jim Mather did an economics roadshow; I saw this at an SNP conference in Inverness and intended to follow up when they presented it in the central belt, but the road to hell is full of good intentions, and age and infirmity kicked in. My opinion of Andrew Wilson has not changed; I was a bit surprised when he left the political field, but reassured when he teamed up with Kevin Pringle.

Every demand now is for the SNP to produce a Plan B, and blitz this publicly – to permit it to be properly blitzed by the Unionists and also by nationalists with an axe to grind.

With regard to a separate Scottish currency, when Eire obtained partial independence from a bitter Westminster they did not immediately launch their own currency, but used the pound for about ten years,and shifted when it suited them. The UK attitude to Irish independence forced them to take up arms, and while this is anathema, Westminster created that scenario. This present Westminster government is intractable – they have learned nothing.

Looking back on my SNP membership (54 years and counting) I have been struck by an apparent wedge now being driven between the SNP and the Yes campaign. The SNP is the Yes campaign; it is riding high in the polls. Nicola Sturgeon is a superb leader; when Yes people criticise her for doing the day job, they should remember that dead people cannot vote (only time that happened was during the 1979 referendum – which the Yes campaign won, but the 40% rule was allowed by Jim Callaghan. That scenario ushered in Margaret Thatcher).

While independence is my dream, it is being blocked by an intransigent English Prime Minister. I am reconciled to it coming after my death, and not being lost by Johnny or Jenny Come Latelys – nor am I in a rush to go.

Jim Lynch

Edinburgh

I JALOUSE that Dave King (Letters, October 22) will not want any inclusion of gigot chops or the kirk, or indeed jalouse, in future Word Wheels.

Archie Drummond

Tillicoultry