LABOUR lost out big time last week across the UK, losing 323 councillors and eight councils in England, and two constituencies and two list seats in Scotland. Only in Wales did they gain, and that was one seat.

Funny, then, that their branch leader Sarwar can ignore the abject failure of Starmer and Labour and its catastrophic implications for us if we continued to be tied to rUK. Sarwar’s mantra of “being on a journey” is so repetitive he’s possibly exhausted already, and worried it’s yet another leader’s one-way ticket.

The LibDems fared slightly better in England, gaining six councillors and one council, but staying static in Wales. Here they’re reduced to rump position as a group and not a party, losing a seat in each: constituencies and lists.

And let’s not forget the loss of deposits, another prestigious blow. Seriously, does Rennie plan to continue? Should we care? But with their rUK leader Davey speaking about LibDems “chipping away at the red wall” whilst ignoring Scotland, it’s obvious that LibDem HQ doesn’t consider Scotland even worth of comment. Maybe Rennie’s days are numbered.

Which leaves DRoss and the Tories. His assertion over the weekend that he believes they “need to challenge the SNP for the top job” is farcical when he and they are still minus policies but heavy on rhetoric and spin. His first attempt at leadership post-election, demanding the Lord Advocate allies himself and the Scottish legal system against the majority of Scottish voters by blocking any attempt to bring forward a referendum, provides clear evidence of what we’ll see and hear from him at FMQs in the coming months.

It’s not spin, but fact that the SNP received in excess of one million votes last week.

It’s not spin, but fact that the Greens have progressed their position and place across the political landscape.

It’s not spin, but fact that the Alba party will continue in some form or another for some time to come.

I do disagree with George Kerevan’s closing remark (“Critics of Nicola Sturgeon must now eat their words – she’s a political titan”, The National, May 10): “Unite the divided indy grassroots in active campaigning.”

Yes, face to face, stalls, marches, meetings may have ceased, but who’s not chomping at the bit to return? Is there evidence that the grassroots is “divided” in either its desire for indy or its willingness to get ootnaboot again? And when we do return to the fray, surely we’ll be campaigning for independence, not a party, not an individual.

I do recognise that the arguments “for” have changed in many respects since the White Paper prepared for indyref1. But putting the cohesive case of what we can achieve, what we need to have in place, how we plan to progress the route to an indy Scotland would appear to be a major tool, if not a major priority.

Selma Rahman

Edinburgh

AS a lifetime SNP voter, I would like to thank both AFI and Alba for bringing independence to the forefront of debate again in Scotland. For too long now, the only people talking about indy have been the Yes movement and not the political vehicle.

AFI and Alba had hard-working, committed and truly wonderful and inspiring activists. They re-lit the fire of independence for me with their passion.

Now we need the SNP to move forward and put independence back on the table and begin to work towards another referendum. It is wonderful to have another indy majority government. A supermajority would have been better, but we are ready to campaign for indyref2.

Thanks to all the people who worked so hard throughout the campaign, regardless of party.

Lynne Millar

via email

I WAS extremely shocked and angered by yesterday’s article by Stephen Paton (“Salmond’s return would have been gift for Unionists”, The National) which was nothing but just a blatant attack on the Alba Party and Alex Salmond in particular.

It couldn’t have been more obvious that Mr Paton has an extreme dislike of Mr Salmond and the Alba Party.

Not only did he abuse the thousands of Alba members intelligence by suggesting “Alba voters were played”, he left out the most obvious fact: that it was indeed the SNP voters that were played in regards to the one million wasted SNP list votes that returned a couple of seats.

If those list seats had went to Alba or even the Greens, then we would have more pro-indy MSPs in Holyrood. Thanks to the #bothvotessnp mantra, we now have more Tories. That, Mr Paton, was the gift given to the Unionists. Unfortunately, it is people like Stephen Paton that are doing more damage than good when it comes to trying to unite the country for independence. So best to leave the hate articles for the online trolls.

Vincent McGhee

via email