IN reply to KS Macrae who highlighted their concern over the indy marches not having the same impact, due in part at least to infighting within the indy movement, there is some truth in this.

I was also concerned that the marches haven’t pulled the indy movement together in the same way they did prior to the Covid outbreak.

However, those fears were allayed to some degree by the indy march in Paisley at the start of the month. The numbers attending were better than expected and the general atmosphere was one of togetherness and enthusiasm for independence.

We have to be wary of those who will only campaign for independence if only their vision of independence is accepted – that is not a true reflection of most real independence campaigners.

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We know that there will be future elections in an independent Scotland that will then determine the political future of our country, and those who want to fight to exclude others visions of indy are merely timewasters who should be ignored.

Once we get independence, I’ll happily campaign for a more socialist, environmentally friendly Scotland – but it won’t happen until we achieve our initial goal of independence.

So just ignore the trolls who want to divide the indy movement – most of whom weren’t active in 2014. Let’s pull together to achieve independence and then we can vote for our own futures after that.

Cllr Kenny MacLaren

Paisley

I WAS very pleased to see the statement by Patrick Harvie, our Green Party coalition government partner, (Harvie says now is time to plan for indyref2 and ‘redouble commitment to democracy’, The National, March 12) continuing his active support for steady progress towards independence. Apart from Michael Russell, no one in the higher echelons of our Scottish Government or SNP seem to be emphasising any urgency in this direction.

It is vitally important that steady progress is maintained in this regard and that the various steps being taken are announced for all to see. It seems to me, and I say this as an SNP member, that the present Scottish Government is in the last chance saloon. We cannot continue to win elections and come first; life is not like that, people get scunnered and eventually long for a change.

We have done remarkably well to maintain power for this length of time: it will not go on forever.

Making excuses to delay things will not do either. The intention is to withdraw all Covid regulations in the near future, so that disposes of that as an excuse for delaying. The disastrous war in the Ukraine is also invalid: unless the UK is actively at war with someone at first hand, such things as elections will go on here uninterrupted.

There is no point whatsoever even referring to the possibility of a Section 30 order. All the Westminster parties have made abundantly clear that this is not going to happen. So urgency

must be applied to the arrangements for Holyrood to process the necessary legislation to activate our own referendum in 2023 as promised.

If this is carried through and it is then called in to the Supreme Court to try and cancel its validity, where do we go? Go on we must.

What are the thoughts of our Scottish Government in that scenario? Presumably, we do not just sit back and say “ah well, we tried our best” – that would mean that we would never be able to become independent of the despicable politics of England.

I would hope that Bute House has given this scenario some

serious thought. Please let us all know about your thoughts. There is no merit, as has previously been suggested, that any possibilities out there should be kept secret so as not to alert the Unionist alliance as to what may be a future course of action.

Believe me, the opposition will have had a considerable team working on all such possibilities for quite some time, and using Scottish taxpayer’s money to pay for it.

If we get to such a point, we will be in exactly the same situation as every former British “possession” once suffered from. They, apart from a number of tax havens, have all achieved independence and made a success of their situation.

We must therefore continue to keep Scotland’s case before our friends around the world for maximum support to be available for our cause should the necessity arise.

My thoughts go back to the case of Southern Rhodesia and Ian Smith and all the uproar which that caused. I would hope that we would not have to take such a course of action, but if all else fails?

Zimbabwe didn’t turn into a success story, but that was a result of the existing state of its internal native politics at the time

Just a thought – would “Caledonia” be a nice name for a newly liberated Scotland?

George M Mitchell

via email

I WAS glad to see that Mr Serafini of Lothian Buses is going to seriously consider reinstating the X5 express bus service to North Berwick following pressure from local commuters.

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North Berwick commuters at least have the alternative of a rail link.

I wish we could have our Lady Nairne/Meadowfield/Portobello bus service 69 restored. It was withdrawn two years ago because of the financial pressures on the bus company.

The financial pressures were a result of the additional costs incurred by the bus company

having to divert its Leith services whilst the tram extension works continue.

Our MP, MSP, councillors and Lothian Buses have failed us on this issue, but I suppose affluent commuters have a better chance of being listened to rather than the non-car owning elderly and infirm at Lady Nairne/Meadowfield.

I Archibald

Edinburgh