HUGH Kerr, in his Tuesday letter, sums up the views of many independence supporters who are likely to stay at home and not vote at the next elections.

Attempts to play the UK political system have failed, and the sooner that’s realised by the SNP the better. Hopes of a better response from an incoming Labour administration are just pie in the sky.

The reason many voted for the SNP and support independence was that they expected attempts to change the political system rather than work the present one. Different hands on the tiller do not change political direction in the UK, they merely result in a slightly different emphasis and a lot of political window-dressing.

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The SNP will pay at the next election unless there is a visible change in attitudes soon, and not just more empty rhetoric of good intentions. Movement towards independence has to be seen happening in reality. Not just grandiose meaningless declarations to attract attention.

Offering more of the same while tinkering at the edges of problems no longer works, and more radical approaches are needed at both Edinburgh and Westminster. Continuing as has been done since 2014 won’t enthuse independence voters and supporters. A new approach is required.

Drew Reid
Falkirk

I COULDN’T agree more with Hugh Kerr in his critique of Tommy Sheppard’s article in Sunday’s National. I find it astonishing that one of our MPs (though I suspect that he is far from alone) is suggesting that the forthcoming election must be more than a de facto referendum on independence. This is surely at variance with what the First Minister is proposing when he proclaims that the people will be invited to “vote SNP to become an independent country” .

Or is it the case that our politicians are so befuddled about the routes to independence that they just throw in the word “independence” to every public utterance without having any clue about how we can actually arrive at a Scottish nation state?

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When these politicians won’t even discuss the alternative routes with party activists or worse still, refuse to research them, one wonders if they have visited never-never land in their dreams, because that is as near as the rest of us are likely to get to nation statehood.

If the First Minister genuinely believes that the next General Election is the independence General Election, then he must spell out how he will deliver independence if the UK Government will not cooperate. He should be mindful that “delivery” means that he can do so without the UK Government’s consent.

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There needs to be an immediate change of mindset in the SNP. For the next 15 months we must be a truly national party announcing polices which have the widest possible appeal to the electorate. Baby boxes and the Scottish Child Payment have been great, but they have become almost national institutions which will never be abandoned by other parties, so we must think of things which blow the other parties out of the water.

The First Minister would be be well advised to read the Scotland Act 1998 as amended. Far from being a massive dead hand on innovation and transformation, its drafting either by design or ignorance opens possibilities which will clear the route to independence very quickly. Sections 80I and 28 are particularly inviting. He needs to tell anyone who wishes to be a candidate at the next General Election to be an evangelist to deliver independence in 15 months. It is called dissolution of the Union.

Graeme McCormick
Arden

I HAVE just spotted an advert for AUOB marches in 2024. They will be in March, June, September and October in Glasgow, Stirling, Elgin and Edinburgh with “space left to respond to changing events”. I suspect the main “changing event” will be a UK General Election. There are plans to hold marches this year in Glasgow (September 16), Falkirk (September 23) and yet again here in Edinburgh in only a few weeks’ time on October 7. I wonder of the First Minister will be up for all those repeat performances so soon.

Since the 2014 referendum I have frankly lost count of the number of marches which have been held, mainly under the AUOB umbrella. They need to be seen for what they are – a chance for mainly like-minded folk to get together and reassure each other that they are not alone. It does no-one any good to inflate the number of those in attendance. Have we learnt nothing from the recent SNP membership numbers fiasco? Claims of more than 25,000 marchers simply reduce the credibility of those who make them.

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Marches are not convincing many of the 10% or so of the electorate that need to change sides before we could hope to win a referendum. They will not arrest the fall in SNP support – support which would be required to win the majority of votes at the UK General Election. At the current rate of decline it will be a major achievement if the SNP can retain the majority of Scottish seats.

While thousand of nationalists were marching in Edinburgh, the forces of Unionism, including a large number of Labour MPs from English constituencies, were given a free day to convince more of the electorate of Rutherglen and Hamilton West that they should vote for an apparently re-born Labour Party.

If Mr Yousaf really wants to be the First Minister that delivers independence then he, the SNP and their Green partners in government really need to address the very long list of issues which the general public see as barriers to supporting independence or as failed policy initiatives: GRA, DRS, HPMA, the A9, LEZs, juryless trials, the census, short-term lets, homelessness, island ferries, deaths from drugs and alcohol, land reform, GERS, pensions and currency to name but a few.

Dr Iain Evans
Edinburgh