I’M prepared to accept the argument that we needed to wait until the Brexit dust had settled before having another independence referendum. It had to be crystal clear that the conditions attached to the indyref2 promise in the SNP’s manifesto had been met. We now have this clarity, so what are we waiting for? We should be taking urgent steps to escape from the sheer horror that’s being imposed upon us against our will.

As the SNP’s own website acknowledges:

“The SNP Scottish Government has a clear mandate to offer the people of Scotland a choice. The SNP has won four elections – the Scottish Parliament election in 2016, the General Election in 2017, the European Parliament election and the General Election in 2019 – with an explicit commitment in our manifesto on holding a referendum.”

READ MORE: The National teams up with Believe in Scotland for the Yes Challenge

Do we really need a fifth mandate?

The reason currently being touted for continued delay is that we need to focus on the pandemic response. I don’t buy that at all. If our government is truly incapable of doing more than one thing at a time, then it needs to hire more staff. There are plenty of people in need of employment right now, and I’m sure tens of thousands would even be delighted to volunteer their time if it would help get us out of this catastrophe.

Another argument might be that we couldn’t possibly hold a referendum before the elections in May. That’s probably true, but it’s also completely irrelevant. There’s no reason the government couldn’t enact a law scheduling a referendum for later this year, or any time it wants. If any subsequent government didn’t like the idea, it would be perfectly at liberty to repeal the law.

As an aside, my personal preference would be to hold indyref2 on July 4, since our American cousins in particular would find it very difficult to frown on the idea of a country seeking its independence on that historic date. And given how much Vice-President Harris is reported to loathe our current Prime Minister, it’s not impossible we might even receive some very vocal international support.

READ MORE: Douglas Ross proves Unionists don't respect democracy with latest remark

The reason it’s so critical to get started as soon as possible is to find out if Westminster can block the referendum or not. If they can, and we don’t find out until after the May elections, then we’ve painted ourselves into a plebiscite corner until at least 2026. Whereas if we find out beforehand, then we’d still have the option of Plan B. The SNP’s manifesto in May becomes the single statement “We will withdraw Scotland from the United Kingdom”. Boycott that, Mr Ross.

Also, it would be quite amusing if the indyref2 legislation was already locked in place before the May elections began, because then the Conservative minions in Scotland would have literally nothing to say in their election campaign. Their howling policy vacuum would be so glaringly obvious that they’d probably start avoiding the media, giving us all a welcome break.

Andrew Innes
Dundee

OK, who fired the gun? That starting gun. It wasn’t the SNP or any pro-indy party in Scotland, signalling the start of campaigning for May 2021. But this week saw the rUK government pull the gloves off in what’s going to be a no-holds-barred, dirty election campaign that’s not yet an election campaign.

It wasn’t just adding insult to injury that they commenced publicly on the day of Burns Night. Could it have been a riposte to the FM calling BoJo out as a wee tim’rous beastie’? On that day, Downing Street press secretary Allegra Stratton made specific reference to Scotland: “no referendum”, unity, united together, one nation and the like.

READ MORE: Answers to these questions could turn more voters to Yes

On the same evening Matt Hancock took the 5pm Covid briefing. He just managed to squeeze in a non-Covid question from a pro-Union journalist about Scottish independence. And lo, a full spewing forth of how good the UK was at rolling out the jabs (what’s that? It’s JAGs, you moron!). That was after his intro piece, highlighting the Scottish ambulance service needing support from England!

If there was any doubt left, the following morning BBC Radio Scotland dutifully followed suit with a phone-in asking how satisfied folks were about the vaccination programme.

OK, call me a conspiracy theorist, but the majority of callers and quotes appeared disgruntled and unhappy if not downright hostile and anti-SNP/Scottish Government.

If you agitate those aged 80 and over, those aged 70 and over, and their worried offspring aged 40 and over, as did that programme, then come official campaigning it’s not difficult to imagine the leaflets, the headlines, the scare tactics!

It’s OK saying we need to keep the heid, or “hold”, but how, where and when will we be taking our messages out, beyond our pro-indy bubbles, our like-minded cohorts? Not the politicians, but us, the grass roots?

Yes, brave souls will brave whatever the weather once it’s known which phone box Boris will use to hold his meeting when he visits us. No chance it’ll be Peterhead fish market, Ad hoc is great, always, but surely it’s time ... for a programme of action.

Selma Rahman
Edinburgh

WELL done to The National and champion campaigner Gordon Mackintyre-Kemp’s for starting the Yes Challenge campaign. The idea is a great way to carry on the words of Margo Macdonald when she spoke at the independence rally in Edinburgh in 2013. She said “If everybody here can persuade one other person we are home and dry.” I’ve chosen my undecided voter – have you?

Alasdair Smith
Eastwood

SO the Unionists are going to launch a campaign to persuade us of the benefits of the Union! They had better have a good look in that barrel to see if there are any fragments left worth scraping on the bottom. Or perhaps they could use a long spoon, such as we Scots use to sup wi’ the de’il!

P Davidson
Falkirk