AFTER the fantastic result of last week’s election I would guess I am just one of thousands Independence supporters who are asking what happens now?

Here we are at the cusp of something that will change the fortunes of all of by gaining our goal of an independent Scotland. While I have no doubt about Scotland’s ability to thrive as an independent country there are many who are left unsure or sceptical about both the journey towards reaching our goal and what kind of country will it be.

I think it time to move forward and while we wait for the referendum to happen work should be done on keeping us informed about what the new Scotland would look like!

We need the meat on the bones of an independent Scotland would be in terms of a constitution, currency, banking, etc. I would urge the SNP and the Greens bring together all the expertise and vast knowledge available to them in the Yes movement and start setting out the proposals for a fairer and more inclusive country that can thrive in the modern world.

So come get moving and let people know exactly what they could expect from a new Constitution and country to enable us all to make an informed choice when the time comes. This I am sure would help make up the minds of a lot of people who are sitting on the fence at the moment so they to can see how much better life would be in an independent Scotland

Allan Sinclair

Penicuik, Midlothian

WE are all delighted that the party had a landslide victory on May 6.

The SNP government has the mandate to hold another independence referendum in the current parliament. Nicola has indicated that this will happen, possibly in the second half of the term. Great , so far.

However, I was alarmed in my euphoria, to hear Nicola Sturgeon’s answer, on Sunday’s Andrew Marr Show to a question put to her on the currency issue.

Indeed, I was more than alarmed when she referenced the Growth Commission document as the source strategy for going forward on the subject, a paper produced in very different circumstances some seven-plus years past and one that, even then, lacked any ambition as it suggested a prolonged period of what is called “sterlingisation” during which an “independent” Scotland retains the British pound and relies on the UK Treasury and Bank of England for its monetary policy.

We were told, in 2014, and it was a defining moment in the campaign, that “you cannot share the UK pound”. I contend that Alex Salmond lost the referendum on this point as he floundered on national TV over the issue.

I cannot believe we are still here. To go into another referendum quoting the same strategy would be like writing our own suicide note before we have even started.

I myself am a retired senior banker with some knowledge of the workings of an economy and can I just put on the record that there is no such thing as meaningful “independence” without having your own central bank , treasury and currency.

To argue otherwise is a nonsense. There are many challenges to put all three institutions and capabilities in place but typically, based on the experience of former Soviet states, like Estonia (10 months) , Slovakia (one month) all achieved this, not in years but in months of gaining independence.

We need to be bold. We need to give a straight answer on this critical issue.

I suggest that answer is an independent Scotland will issue its own currency, not in an undefined number of years, but in a few short months after independence.

It will be achieved during our transition period when many other aspects of the decoupling from the rest of the UK must be negotiated, agreed and implemented.

The leadership of the SNP need to revisit this critical issue and they need to do it now.

Ian Stewart

Uig, Isle of Skye