IT should come as no surprise that blinkered and staunch Unionists like Arlene Foster regard the SNP with disdain and a great deal of antipathy. However, it is still aggravating to read that her intolerant views are so ill-informed, lacking in veracity and transparently ignorant (Foster says SNP are anti-English and antisemitic, Nov 26). To label the SNP (I’m not a member of the party) as antisemitic or anti-English is deliberately inflammatory and malevolent and displays the hard-line Ulster Unionist rhetoric that is ingrained in Foster and the DUP.

READ MORE: Arlene Foster's daft claims show the No campaign has already begun

For a woman whose primal social and political views and unrepentant bigotry are well known, Baroness Foster demonstrates an alarming lack of introspection and self-awareness in her latest utterances. With her continuing support for demonstrations against the Northern Ireland protocol, she very publicly nails her tribal colours to the mast irrespective of the consequences of her actions for others in her community. The lady who prides herself as being a committed and high-profile member of the Orange Order describes the SNP as being “anti-everything". You really can’t make this stuff up.

Prominent political failures like Foster are flag bearers and shameless apologists for the United Kingdom of the 21st century, a Union that heralds bigotry and extremism as tradition and that elevates chauvinistic bigots to popular figures. Its dying embers are almost out and an independent Scotland will not have to suffer these fools for much longer.

Owen Kelly
Stirling

AS the speaker said just after the Union: “We have catch’d Scotland and will bind her fast.”

We can but hope that England, in its arrogance and greed, has overreached itself. England has form on this, as we see in her former colony of America. As Thomas Jefferson noted regarding the Boston Tea Party which lead to the American Revolution: “So inscrutable is the arrangement of causes and consequences in this world that a two-penny duty on tea, unjustly imposed in a sequestered part of it, changes the condition of all its inhabitants.”

READ MORE: Indyref2 ruling ‘very problematic’, constitution expert says

America rebelled over a two-penny duty. Scotland seems, for the moment, discombobulated, a strong word I know, but unsurprising when it was made “illegal” by an English court for Scotland to seek a referendum on independence unless has the permission of an English-dominated parliament.

England really has bound Scotland fast for the last 314 years. Perhaps salvo (salve jure cujuslibet) is our only salvation, as it certainly won’t be our politicians. Scotland’s sovereignty precedes and carries on from the “voluntary” 1707 Treaty of Union. Ergo, no court, especially one set up by an English-dominated Westminster parliament, can pass such a constitutional law and expect Scotland to obey.

Robert Booth
Auchterarder

IN the piece by Abbi Garton-Crosbie in Saturday’s National, Professor Brian Bell was commenting on how well (or badly) certain universities would do if international students were banned (Banning foreign students would be ‘absolutely stupid’, Nov 26). He’s quoted as saying: “What about Newcastle, what about the north east, the north west, Scotland?” Is this not a telling display of the attitudes of a large part of the so-called UK? Our country is regarded as being on a par with an ENGLISH REGION!!

The oft repeated “partnership of equals” and “family of nations” is just so much bullshit, designed to con the gullible in Scotland, Wales and N Ireland into believing that their opinions (and votes?) actually count for ANYTHING in an overwhelmingly ENGLISH parliament. If, as some Tories insist, the so-called UK is ONE nation, then they should have the honesty to name it Greater England, and dispense with the lies.

Barry Stewart
Blantyre

THE recent setbacks hindering the independence movement’s progress ought to make those in important positions embrace a more effective strategy of “working smarter, not harder”. Before support for Scottish independence grows into the critical mass needed to win a de facto independence referendum, critical issues must be addressed. This can be done by tactically promoting the benevolent possibilities of an independent Scotland.

The SNP in particular should have the courage to beautifully illustrate the compassion and wisdom an independent Scotland would demonstrate by creating a Scottish national energy provider or universal basic income as a central platform to increase support for Scottish independence from those whom pollsters, professors and experts assert as “more focused on the cost of living crisis than constitutional questions”.

Miguel Giovanni Canella Viegas
via email

SURELY someone should be the position to ask the Supreme Court the burning question, What is England's method of withdrawal from the UK?

Chic O’Connor
via email

READ MORE: Andrew Tickell: Supreme Court's indyref2 judgment won't stop independence

I’VE seen a lot of comments regarding Westminster being gracious enough to amend the Scotland Act to give the Scottish Parliament the power to hold a referendum. At first I thought, “this is a bit fanciful!”, then I thought – “wait a minute! They managed to bring in English Votes for English Laws?” So maybe aye maybe naw!

George Dickie
via email

STEWART McDonald is starting to sound and behave like Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey prior to their defections to the Alba party! It’s time for him to nail his colours to the mast, shape up or ship out.

Steve Cunningham
Aberdeen