I APPRECIATE all that is being said and written about gaining independence ASAP. I too want it now, but realistically I know I won’t get it. Personally I can’t see Scotland, meaning the people, backing UDI. So as per the arguments of Alan Crocket and JF Davidson (Letters, October 12), should we use the terms of the Scotland Act and forget about the need for a Section 30 order? Let’s face it, May won’t budge and even if she is toppled, it is doubtful that the next rUK PM would grant the request for such an order.

Perhaps that would see us resort to invoking Scotland’s Claim of Right, all the way back to 1320, or Joanna Cherry’s suggestion that the next elections held here have a clear and unambiguous manifesto commitment from pro indy-parties that a vote for them is a vote for independence. Winning the votes, winning the argument without recourse to Section 30, Claim of Right, Declaration of Arbroath is so appealing.

But in such circumstances, would pro-Union voters here boycott such an election, enabling them to claim the result unrepresentative of Scotland? And in the likely event of an indy victory, wouldn’t the rUK government then proceed with legal objections, miring us in years of court actions? Would we be independent or would we end up having to declare UDI? Do we really want to restart our indy nation fighting the battle of proving we’re legally independent?

Again, and it’s personal, I’m prepared to a wait for politicians to make their moves, simply because I belong to the grassroots movement and it’s up to us to keep doing our day job. The focus for campaigning shouldn’t be a date. It has to be the main message: we will not stay within this unequal Union, we will regain our independence.

We cannot afford to waste time. After all, the rUK government is a government paralysed by its very inaction and dithering as it focuses on Brexit, twisting and turning with no vision of government and actions post-Brexit. There is all that uncertainty of the transition period, the back stop. There are diversions, with wrangling and threats over budgets, pseudo policies, but no demonstrations of ability to govern post-Brexit. And this is what could be governing us into the 2020s?

This is the very time our constructive alternatives should be pushed, should be out there, reminding the population that austerity imposed by firstly that whimpering coalition of Tory/LibDems, followed by the authoritarian, class-conscious actions of of the ideologues in the Tory party isn’t over: it’s continuing with the Universal Credit scandal.

Just one reason among many that shows we need to focus on leaving. Yes the sooner the better, but better prepared and informed to win this time.

Selma Rahman
Edinburgh

READ MORE: Letters: SNP have adopted May's mantra regarding indyref2​

REGARDING the correspondence of Messrs Crocket, Morton, Powell etc (Letters, October 12) wanting to hold a referendum in the very near future. They didn’t mention the opinion polls. I know they only gave a very rough guide, but the only one I’ve seen gave 48%, an advance of 3% on the result of 2014. We would need at least 55%. Even pushing Theresa May, as they suggest, would probably require a very long legal process and have to go to the Supreme Court. Be patient, wait until March 29!

On a different subject, I noticed in your photographs of the recent AUOB Rally that there were a few dark navy blue Saltires, which is the colour used in the Union Flag. It should, of course, be sky blue, which the king saw in the sky before the battle. I think Holyrood passed the colour as Pantone 300 a few years ago.

Hamish MacQueen
Glasgow

I AGREE with the First Minister’s decision on the delay of independence 100%. We have to wait until Brexit kicks in before people will realise just how bad it will be for us people in Scotland; then hopefully those who think Brexit is a good deal will wake up and realise that they are wrong. If the followers of the Labour-Tory group who are joined at the hip think that they can stop the road to independence, they are very much mistaken, and if the Labour party think that they can run Scotland, that is not going to happen. The Labour party are finished in Scotland; they have no chance of winning an election while they’re tied to the Tories. Thank god.

AMH
Address supplied

LORD Kerr of Kinlochard – former Secretary General of the European Convention, and author of Article 50 – has said how Brexit will be a historic mistake, and considers that a second referendum would now yield a different UK result, with an even larger Remain vote in Scotland.

However a referendum is not needed, as it is within the power of Westminster to withdraw from the implementation of Article 50, having now seen the downsides of leaving. A commonsense decision for our own good.

So that decision is what those MPs who represent Scotland should be working on. So could Scotland’s First Minister please abandon her programme of domestic social engineering, and rally Scottish MPs to a national task that really matters?

Malcolm Parkin
Kinross

IT is no secret that Scotland’s population growth has for years lagged behind that of the rest of the UK. What is not well known is that immigration, which has accounted for a substantial increase in the latter’s numbers, is tightly Westminster controlled, and the latest government pronouncements indicate that situation will not change. Indeed, one minister is on record stating that Scotland’s population merits no special concern and another that no consideration of devolving the responsibility for immigration to Scotland is foreseen. Either decision is by any standard flawed, and the only conclusion reasonable is that it is the wish and intention of Westminster to maintain its stranglehold and to deliberately have Scottish population growth limited.

A panacea for this ailment will be available only after Scotland regains its independence, and Westminster knows it.

J Hamilton
Bearsden