EVEN if Scotland’s First Minister has mis-stepped in the gender recognition “debate” (aka foam-flecked “stooshie”), there can be little doubt that recent events have dented the SNP’s popularity. If not that, something else would have come along – or been confected by her opponents – but compared with the succession of cack-handed failures trotting through Downing Street, the Brexit disaster etc etc, she remains an outstanding national leader and recognised as such worldwide.

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Support for independence has dipped, but will surely bounce back when voters reflect that no political party can be expected to please all, or even most, of the people all of the time. If you want Scotland to be an independent, European, resource-rich nation, liberated from the dodgy clownfest that is Westminster and with a seat in the UN, you have to vote SNP at every election.

Once independence is won you can reclaim the luxury of withholding your vote from the SNP, which then becomes “just” another political party, with no divine right to dominate Holyrood.

David Roche
Blairgowrie