BY all accounts Saturday’s Day of Action, organised mainly by Believe in Scotland, was a success. Newspapers and leaflets delivered and street stalls in many cities and towns. It was a fitting reminder of the first referendum seven years ago to the day.

Looking at Sunday’s news coverage and social media feeds there seems to be a distinct lack of well-kent faces, with the exception of Stewart Hosie MP, Joanna Cherry MP and Tommy Sheppard MP.

I could not see the First Minister, the Deputy First Minister, or any other SNP or Green ministers for that matter.

READ MORE: Yes groups ‘fired up’ after successful first day of Autumn Of Indy Action event

Maybe lots of SNP MSPs were out and about on Saturday but forgot to post in their social media feeds. I only spotted the newly elected Natalie Don MSP. Maybe lots of SNP MPs were there as well. I don’t know a lot of SNP councillors by sight, so they could well be lurking in the dozens of photos now online.

Surely by the click of a mouse, one of the SNP’s 20 or so headquarters staff could have e-mailed their 100,000-plus members and asked, even encouraged, them to take part in the Day of Action.

Believe in Scotland and The National put together a very impressive newspaper for the event. Where is the SNP’s newspaper or equivalent? The SNP has the finance (allegedly), the staff and the mass membership to make a real difference to the campaign. The obvious question is – what are they waiting for?

John Baird
Largs

I HAD a great day in the sunshine on Saturday. Met loads of old friends not seen in years. Enjoyed meeting many people on all sides of the argument, discussing rationally their fears or their enthusiasm.

Not once did I meet an elected councillor, MSP or MP of any party. Funny that.

Name and address supplied

THE “Open Minds on Independence” supplement in Saturday’s National was exactly the sort of thing that the independence campaign needs, and exactly what the SNP should be producing and publicising on billboards and TV across Scotland.

Unfortunately, at the moment, within the SNP there seems to be a total lack of drive and energy on anything to do with independence, and the pandemic is being used as an excuse for inaction.

READ MORE: National independence day of action marks start of new grassroots campaign

A letter in the same edition of The National states that “convincing the majority is the only way to win”. That is absolutely correct but the majority needs to be convinced well before the actual referendum date and I see no sign of any such preparation.

There is no reason why an extensive advertising campaign cannot be carried out while the pandemic is being tackled. The National’s “Open Minds” would be a great template for billboards across Scotland.

James Duncan
Edinburgh

I READ Saturday’s 23-page pull-out section entitled “Open Minds on Independence” with great interest but, being in upstream oil and gas, I focused on Part 14 titled “The key to powering our future”.

Wind power, according to authors Walker and Macintyre- Kemp, may be “the country’s second North Sea oil.” However, only a few paragraphs later the authors let the proverbial cat out of the bag by noting that in 2016 “Westminster voted to end grants [read: ruinous subsidies] for new onshore wind turbines, a move which resulted in a 57% fall in investment in 2017”. How can wind power be the new “North Sea oil” when it needs massive subsidies to exist?

The real North Sea oil has no subsidy support and never has, even though United Kingdom Continental Shelf licensees now pay more than twice the regular corporate tax rate applicable to other businesses.

The authors unfairly try to portray Westminster as being lukewarm on the green economy. You can call Boris Johnson many things, but it is very difficult to doubt his commitment to climate alarmism.

The authors brazenly assert that “renewables would get far more funding in an independent Scotland.” Why would such a successful and vital industry need government funding? And why would an independent Scotland provide such funding, as no electric grid in history has ever been sustained by intermittent and unreliable sources such as wind and solar?

Walker and Macintyre-Kemp deserve a “fail” on Part 14 of their ambitious paper.

William Ross
via email

I HAVE come to the conclusion that the Tory MSPs in Scotland have one job and one job only, and that is to find fault with anything constructive the Scottish Government is trying to do.

When D Ross tries (and fails) to get the FM to say the ambulance service is in crisis, perhaps he should have to admit that it must already be in crisis in England since they have already called in the Army.

They are only capable of only seeing other people’s faults:

Scottish Tory Jeremy Balfour demands child payments from Scottish Government but is happy for Universal Credit to be cut by Westminster. HYPOCRITE. All six Scottish Tory MPs failed to vote against the cut to Universal Credit in Westminster while complaining in Scotland about child poverty. HYPOCRITES.

Douglas Lumsden complains about Janey Godley’s ancient tweets but goes silent when Gove’s come to light. And don’t forget some of Boris’ own spectacularly awful descriptions of other cultures and ethnicities. HYPOCRITE.

Winifred McCartney
Paisley

I’M sure I’m not the first to point out that the picture accompanying Hamish MacPherson’s article in yesterday’s Seven Days is not of the QE2, but the original Queen Elizabeth, launched at John Brown’s in 1938.

David Ferrier
via email