MAY I please make a heartfelt plea to all those independence supporters who are frustrated, angry, or in despair over the Salmond/Sturgeon fiasco?

No matter what the outcome, please remember that the one thing that binds us all is our ambition to live in a Scotland that manages all its own affairs for the benefit of its sovereign people.

Leaders may come and go, parties will come up with policies we approve of or hate, but our cause is bigger and more important than any of that. Let us remember that we, the grassroots members, are our party’s troops and the reason for its existence. There will always be a turnover at the top and ample talent following on to work for us.

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I firmly believe that, once we reach our goal, the SNP as such will disappear, as its members become free to follow their core inclinations in choosing who to vote for, of whatever parties exist or form at that time.

Don’t throw away our current opportunity over a transient problem and a transient leadership. Without the SNP, my family will wait longer than I have left to live, under a Westminster government which is already dismantling devolution and cares not a whit for us, beyond our resources that they need and freely purloin.

So PLEASE, grit your teeth and give the SNP your vote until we win our independence.

P Davidson
Falkirk

TO those who are trying to follow the Salmond/Sturgeon inquiries, I would highly recommend Andrew Tickell’s excellent article (Understanding the legalities behind the Holyrood committee, February 28), which certainly clarified things for me! Tickell is a lawyer as well as a columnist and understands what he is talking about, unlike some. His article makes clear Alex Salmond’s position, and the legal position, which I respect because I respect the Scottish legal system.

READ MORE: Andrew Tickell: Understanding the legalities behind the Holyrood Committee

I think Nicola Sturgeon has acted admirably at every turn. She too is a lawyer and is concerned for the women who complained about Salmond’s behaviour, and rightly so. This whole “witch hunt” is a shabby affair, with evidence of misogyny in my view, I am sorry to say. Ms Sturgeon and her civil servants have done their best to act in the spirit of the Me Too movement, which is to be applauded, where women with no power complain against a very powerful man.I see Rape Crisis Scotland are appalled by the present stand-off and its effect on the complainants. So am I. I am also amazed at the reverence shown to Alex Salmond, who by his own admission behaved badly.

Salmond cannot portray himself as blameless, even though a jury did not find him guilty of criminal actions. From Tickell’s article it is obvious that his lawyers did not think there was evidence to prove a conspiracy by the complainants.

I am not an SNP member but have voted for them regularly when there is not a Scottish Green standing. I have a great respect for Nicola Sturgeon, who I think has great integrity and always tries to do the right thing. She has done very well throughout the Covid crisis.

Eileen Duke
Glasgow

THERE’S more than a hint of irony in the comments by Barry Hughes about MSPs trying to tarnish Alex Salmond’s reputation at the inquiry (Letters, March 1). I was pleased Mr Salmond was not found guilty of criminal offences, but his own evidence and that of his defence made it clear that his behaviour had tarnished his reputation significantly. The comments made about him by his own QC were damning.

Meanwhile, Dougie Raine (Letters, March 1) comments that we’ve now had 22 consecutive polls supporting independence, but says it’s nothing to do with the the performance of the SNP government. With that amount of serendipity, how can we possibly fail?

Douglas Turner
Edinburgh

I’M still in shock. I watched in stunned disbelief as Alex Salmond hurled huge forensically crafted spanners into the smoothly rolling progress towards independence.

If a shadowy cabal of extreme Unionist politicians, Gnomes of London and elements of British security had conspired to deliver a plot, they could not have done a better job. No matter how well Nicola responds to this, the damage is done. Unionist media are having a field day – and will cast this up for the foreseeable future.

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Although impartial observers accept that EVEN IF the Scottish Government has done some shady dealing, it pales into insignificance compared to what goes on at Westminster on an almost daily basis. But that escapes with a passing mention, and an assumption that it is basically acceptable.

To have any hope of swimming against this tide we have to be single-minded and united. So Alex Salmond uses a blunderbuss to blast the cause of independence in both feet.

Alex Salmond once had a dream to be the person who delivered Scottish independence. Had he deployed the same resourcefulness he showed on Friday against Alistair Darling on the currency issue we might already be independent. But he didn’t. So please, Alex, do nothing more to ruin our future!

Jim Hunter
via email

WE read that Westminster is determined to flaunt Union flags all over Scotland, its playparks, community places and public buildings. This is a ploy to convince us that the “red, white and blue” brings us all sorts of advantage.

They forget that without Scotland, when that fine day comes, they should no longer be entitled to fly that flag with three colours. That flag relies on Scotland’s Saltire for all its blue sections. Without Scotland there is no blue.

Nancy Nicolson
Caithness