Unlike Spain, London has never claimed any right to block independence

I do not doubt his bona fides as a campaigner, but he is wrong – so wrong that he simply doesn’t see it. He may be furious, but he does not grasp how venomous his statement is against the whole idea of Scottish independence as a practical proposition. If we need London’s approval, we really are sunk.

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There is no footing whatsoever on which to claim that Westminster’s permission has anything to do with independence for Scotland, unless you accept the equally inane notion that the only possible route to independence is through a referendum, which London can and does prevent.

UK law and constitution do not prohibit Scotland from leaving the Union. London has never claimed any right to block it. Indeed, by the Edinburgh Agreement of 2012 it demonstrated that Scotland could go if it wished, and that the decision was Scotland’s alone. The crazy idea that Scotland is a prisoner of the Union is of our own making. So widely accepted is it that it has debilitated the movement as a practical political force, winning only 30-odd percent of votes in spite of the continuing support for independence among half the people of Scotland (even in the absence of any real national campaigning).

Our country has in its own hands the means of going independent without deference to London. A fully proper, legal, democratic and peaceful vote on the issue can be got in any General Election, easily turned into an independence plebiscite by a simple manifesto. And a Yes vote can be implemented by those holding a majority of the Scottish seats at Westminster, without any requirement for legislation by that house, and such a vote would fill those seats with indy people. (Whether a Holyrood election can be used as the mechanism is a different question, and not so clear-cut. Perhaps we will see next year, if a suitable motion from the grass roots prevails over the looming self-defeating nonsense from Swinney and Brown.)

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Mr Unwin’s reference to Catalonia is another measure of the depth of his misunderstanding. The line that Catalonia couldn’t do it so neither can we is false. Catalonia has nothing to do with Scotland. The Spanish constitution, to which Catalonia signed up with the rest of Spain 46 years ago, does have words that, as far as I am aware, even Independista itself has never challenged as prohibitive of independence: “The Constitution is based on the indissoluble unity of the Spanish Nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards.” Good luck to Catalonia, but theirs is not our fight.

Until the Unwins of the movement, and the leadership to which they do homage, unblinker themselves to the simple fact of the matter, namely that the choice and the implementation of independence are in our own hands entirely, we will not get over the line.

Alan Crocket
Motherwell

WITH all due respect to Logan Unwin, we in the wider independence movement are united in our determination to secure independence for Scotland and we do engage with Unionists and the undecided in an attempt to win them over. That has never been a problem for us, and learning a few facts and figures is easy as there are a range of sources, not just SNP, that we can utilise to get the information we need.

The real problem lies elsewhere, and if the facts and figures are from the SNP/The National, then according to Unionists they are not real, they are a figment of our imagination, they’ve been plucked from thin air and so forth. I’m sure we’ve all heard them and others besides, and if the facts and figures are not from the BBC/Unionists, they can’t be accepted.

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The fact that the BBC and Unionist-biased media in general refuse to open up the debate on independence issues is a contentious issue for us. The fact that the BBC and Unionist media outlets evade the real facts and figures is a contentious issue for us. The fact that nobody on the Unionist side will tell us how to hold a legal referendum without a Section 30 is a contentious issue. The fact that political correspondents don’t put pressure on leading Unionist politicians is a contentious issue for us.

I – and I presume we in the wider independence movement – could give a long list of problems that prevent us from exiting this state of limbo, as Logan put it. If we are in a state of limbo, then we need to break it as it isn’t about maintaining the legal position, as that will always come down heavily on the status quo. What it is about is asserting our legal position, as that often means disregarding the legal norms. We have to create a situation whereby people question the legal position we are in at present.

Alexander Potts
Kilmarnock

I’VE never heard such tripe as Swinney’s plan. We must have an agreed indy or Westminster might beat the shit out of us like Spain did to Catalonia? Who is refusing this agreed position?

Sadly the First Minister is bringing down the party by refusing to cooperate with other parties.

He says it would be cheating the system, but Tories and Labour and LibDems all do it to beat SNP.

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Tactical voting isn’t cheating, but that the FM thinks it is tells me he is clutching at any straw to avoid having to act.

Westminster will only agree when they are forced to, and that will never happen by waiting.

Sadly the SNP have cheated the indy movement by trying to save the party while failing to save Scotland.

Salmond’s last tweet was “country not county” and I can see why he felt that now.

No wonder they don’t fear Swinney.

He’s a good man, but he is taking us nowhere slowly.

William Robertson
via email