THANKS to Tommy Sheppard for “How both elections can be vote on indy and right to choose” (Dec 14). We are in an extended campaign, and there is no single magic bullet. Let’s fight 2024 on independence but also the right to get there by a legal vote. We can win the majority on that, and any further Westminster refusal takes us into different territory for the Scottish election: the case to withdraw from the Union without further votes.

For now we should broaden our base by advancing the core principles on which most Scots agree: the people of Scotland have the right to choose the best form of government for their country, and we also have the power to elect that government and to vote them out of office.

This right has been recognised since the earliest times, and is written into our historic documents, declarations and legal principles. No parliament or ruler can deprive Scotland’s people of their right to choose.

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Scotland’s democracy is the bedrock of our shared values. These include fairness, compassion, equality, respect, shared prosperity and living sustainably with nature. In this way we can shape the common weal of our citizens and contribute to the family of nations.

Scotland’s democratic right will prevail, and we should move forward with that confidence and calm resolve.

Donald Smith
Edinburgh

IN Blackadder Goes Forth, Captain Blackadder deduces that the “brilliant” plan for final victory is to send the soldiers out of the trenches to march very slowly towards the enemy. When challenged that it’s the same plan as they have used 18 times before, General Melchett replies: “Doing precisely what we’ve done 18 times before is exactly the last thing they’ll expect us to do this time!”

This basically is what Nicola Sturgeon proposed to the SNP NEC to achieve Scottish independence. She is going use the exact same failed tactics (used five times before) to pathetically beg like Oliver Twist for “permission” to hold another referendum.

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This “strategy” is a failure, a farce and a betrayal. However it was entirely predictable. Nicola Sturgeon is a coward who won’t instigate any conflict with Westminster. She is a liar as well. Promising endlessly for nine years to deliver independence. It is clear she never had the slightest intention of doing this.

The spin is that SNP members will have a “choice” of Sturgeon’s way or a plebiscite election. Anyone with an iota of sense knows that internal “democracy” in the SNP has a distinctly North Korean feel to it.

The Alba Party should now stand candidates in every constituency. All on the platform of a de facto independence referendum. This will not win any seats. It will, though, give the disaffected independence supporters who are alienated from the pseudo-independence-supporting collaborationist gradualist woke cult someone to vote for.

The careerists in the SNP have become arrogant and entitled. They believe that Westminster is there to provide them with employment opportunities. The SNP/Greens could instigate a Holyrood election by next month. They are proposing to wait for no good reason until 2026. This ensues yet more salaries for the putrid SNP payroll vote.

Alan Hinnrichs
Dundee

I WRITE to concur with Ruth Wishart in the Sunday National (Jan 15) in that “We must start to campaign now, with or without the SNP’s blessing”. For too long the SNP has played the nice guy in its dealings with Westminster in the hope of getting to run a referendum. The results have always been a condescending “no”. Why persist when the answer is so predictable?

There have been many suggestions of other routes to take both in The National's columns and elsewhere, only to be ignored out of hand. The attitude “it’s ma ba” seems to be the SNP’s towards independence questions raised by others.

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In discussions with acquaintances, the idea is beginning to form that the main barrier to independence is now the party formed for that objective. The acceptance of regular humiliation in Westminster and lack of any visible SERIOUS action in achieving that objective merely gives credence to such views.

The resolutions for March conference suggest that a further bout of kicking the ball further down the road is in the offing to keep supporters in tow a little longer.

How much longer before support dissipates and independence is put back another generation?

Drew Reid
Falkirk

I’M not a member of any political party, just a voter and a reader who wants Scotland to be independent. After reading Kevin McKenna’s latest bile-filled offering in his Wednesday column I found myself wondering rather dismally why I was reading The National.

Then I read Ruth Wishart’s regular Sunday piece and remembered why. Although by no means fawning in her assessment of the current government, she manages to make me feel buoyed up and encouraged as opposed to depressed and demoralised. She’s every bit as sharp and incisive as McKenna, twice as funny and much more thoughtful. Not only that, she comes across as a genuine enthusiast for Scottish independence, and a writer to be treasured.

Kevin McKenna would do well to take Ruth Wishart lessons. Or maybe he could go and write for the Express or some such outlet, where he would doubtless find an appreciative audience for his constant drip-feed of anti-Sturgeon, anti-SNP rhetoric.

Maggie Milne
Dundee

MY eight-year-old grandson arrived home from school last week and said to his mum: “Why do England want to keep Scotland, can’t they get their own money?” Fabulous!!

Eric Morris
Crail