I THINK Richard Murphy is correct in challenging the idea of using sterling after independence (Sterlingisation would be bad for Scotland, June 30).

As many Yes supporters have recognised, the debate about currency and sterling in the 2014 independence debate was a contributory factor to the loss of the referendum. It was used by George Osborne and Alistair Darling to lie, bully and confuse the debate about Scotland’s future financial prospects.

We must not allow this to happen again.

It is crucial for us to debate the nature of the currency in an independent Scotland and it is very necessary for this debate to be as widely accessible as possible.

It is a cop-out for people to say “I leave that to the experts because I am not an economist”.

We need to get our heads round the way in which a Scottish currency can be used to help to develop a prosperous Scotland.

We should not be considering options that tie us to the Bank of England, which would not hesitate to interfere in the economy of a newly independent Scotland.

If we want to protect ourselves politically in the coming independence debates, we need to consider control of our own currency and have Scottish Government control of a Central Scottish Bank. We have already seen the chaos brought about by the banking systems developed by neo-liberal economists. We are continuing to hear about the bankruptcies among small and medium-sized enterprises because of the greed and cruelty of the major banks.

We need a banking system that operates in the manner of the mutual societies that served people very well in the past – a system that can provide people and public services with honest, transparent and fair means of loans and financial transactions.

Maggie Chetty
Glasgow

IT is widely accepted that the vote for Scottish independence in 2014 was lost primarily because the majority of voters in Scotland remained unconvinced by the economic case put forward by the Yes campaign.

That is why in 2016, in anticipation of indyref2, the SNP set up a commission to produce a new economic blueprint for an independent Scotland to replace the one set out in Scotland’s Future that failed to hit the mark.

The aim of the Growth Commission has been to create an economic case for Scottish independence capable of both changing the minds of “soft” No voters and appeasing the business community and their mouthpieces in the mainstream media and influential right-wing think tanks. To this end numerous business groups were consulted during the process of compiling the Growth Commission report but, significantly, no attempt was made to seek the views of the Scottish TUC, the representative body for 600,000 workers and their families.

The Growth Commission’s strategy of pandering to business leaders in order to create a favourable climate of opinion for No voters to change their minds may be well intentioned but is, nevertheless, fatally flawed.

By disregarding the key immediate interests of working people in order to placate the business community wedded to a neoliberal ideology that has led to insecure work, poverty wages, chronic indebtedness, welfare cuts, privatisation of publicly owned assets and widening inequality, the Growth Commission risks undermining its own base by demoralising those enthused to vote Yes in 2014 in the hope of securing a better future for themselves and their families, or worse still, by driving Yes voters into the arms of an apparently radical but resolutely Unionist Labour Party, whose Scottish leader is talking about the need to stop dividing people on the basis of nationality and start uniting people on the basis of class to bring about real change.

The Growth Commission report is more of an obstacle to Scottish independence than a road map to it. The sooner it is binned the better.

In its place, the Yes movement needs urgently to fashion a vision of independence which works for Scotland’s working-class majority who are vital for victory in the event of a future Scottish referendum.

Eddy Cornock
Linlithgow Bridge

MAY I congratulate Ian Blackford and the Westminster group of SNP MPs for giving notice that it will no longer be “business as usual” at Westminster as far as the SNP is concerned!

It is good to see that the gloves are coming off, as the SNP has been far too accommodating of this bunch of crooks for far too long! And as for the English Tory MPs moaning they were missing the England match, don’t even go there!

They are paid handsomely (more than a huge proportion of the working population can ever dream of) to be at work and take part in parliamentary debates. It is called “doing the day job.” They thought nothing about fillibustering out the last Brexit debate, so that only 15 minutes was left for discussing the entire Scottish dimension to Brexit, and even then not one single Scottish MP was given time to speak!

Ian and his colleagues are to be congratulated for giving them a taste of their own medicine! I hope we will see much more of these tactics in the months to come.

Alastair Naughton
Peterculter, Aberdeen

SOME people grow up, apologise for past mistakes and move on – as Carolyn Leckie eloquently said (Our attacks on Gillian Martin will only hinder change, July 2). The Tory party seems incapable of finding such mature characters to fill their ranks. I’m recalling Alister Marjury, James Heappey, Todd Ferguson, Scott Gallacher ... to name but a few.

Catriona Whitton
Dunblane

IT has been said that the xenophobia, misogyny and abuse ascribed to Councillor Scott Gallacher have no place in politics. Let me assure you that they have no place in Freemasonry either!

Les Hunter
Lanark