BOTH VOTES SNP is a vital message in Highlands and in South Scotland. Recent opinion polls show that in Highland Labour could win the last list seat with a “quotient” of 5.9 against 5.8 for SNP. In South Scotland, the Tories could take the last seat with 5.3 against 5.0 for SNP. It would not take much of an increase in the SNP vote to overturn both these predictions.

However, in the rest of the country there is little chance of electing an SNP list MSP. Nationalists could therefore put their list votes to better use by helping another party take seats from the anti-referendum parties. Based on the polling data, the last list seat in each of these other six regions would go to Labour or Liberal. The SNP vote share would need to increase by 13.5% to win any of these last list seats. However, the Greens only need an increase of 3% to win some, and at 3.5% they would win them in all six regions.

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It doesn’t matter that some Greens may not be in favour of independence. What matters is their manifesto commitment to a referendum and that they are better placed to work with the SNP than Alba, whose membership comprises people who for various reasons could not work with the SNP.

David G E Brown
Langbank, Renfrewshire

THE STV leaders’ debate was like a Unionist festival! Willie asking Douglas a nice wee question that lets him talk up his manifesto and Anas asking Willie another wee question. When it’s the FM’s turn, all hell breaks lose – no to independence; it’s not what folks want; it’s divisive; Douglas Ross interrupting all the time – my goodness, these men are scared!

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The biggest insult is that Scotland votes for the SNP because they make a difference to our lives – yes, for 14 years because we know they make a difference for folks in Scotland. We trust them. Listening to the Unionists, they don’t think Scottish voters are capable of making the right decision. The SNP do not answer to London parties! These Unionists want us to sit down and eat our cereal. Scotland, we deserve better – we are big enough, good enough and smart enough. Both Votes SNP – your country needs you!

Jan Ferrie
via email

DURING the STV leaders’ debate I was somewhat encouraged to hear the possible introduction of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) being aired. Welfare has been massive during the pandemic and we must learn lessons from the impact the pandemic has had on the welfare budget here in Scotland and in the UK, with thousands more claims for Universal Credit and other benefits.

Nicola Sturgeon rightly pointed out during the debate that Scotland currently does not have the powers to introduce even a pilot scheme for a UBI. But it was the LibDem leader Willie Rennie’s plan for a UBI that should have raised eyebrows, because it required persuading Boris Johnson to come on board with his party! They can’t be serious!

The pandemic has given Scotland much to think about regarding welfare provision in Scotland and we must give the vulnerable and needy a voice going forward, but in order to achieve this we need full welfare powers devolved urgently. Then and only then can we take forward the lessons of the pandemic. Then and only then can we introduce a UBI, giving households some form of income security, avoiding thousands of applications for Universal Credit. The vulnerable and needy don’t have the time to wait for the LibDems’ plan of getting Boris Johnson’s approval, they need action now. May 6 is looming ever closer, when Scotland will have the opportunity to elect a government that will empower the people, give Scotland’s vulnerable a voice and demand they be heard.

Catriona C Clark
Falkirk

I’M with Winifred McCartney (Letters, April 15) when she says: “Poor DRoss can’t do two things at once – he says you can’t do recovery and independence”. When Unionists accuse the SNP of putting independence before everything else and not concentrating on the coronavirus pandemic, I’m sure they are the kind of folk who never quite got the hang of patting their head while rubbing their belly! Then they set the bar of their achievements so low that they can’t believe anyone else can do it. Multitasking is something everybody does (except Unionists apparently) but women in particular are very good at it! Go Nicola!

Iain McClafferty
via email

I ENJOYED Michael Fry’s article on Tuesday (What if Scotland was holding a presidential election on May 6?, April 12). It was interesting to consider his definition of a 1000-year “successful monarchy”. I believe the last 500 years of monarchy should be described as colourful rather than successful.

READ MORE: Michael Fry: What if Scotland was holding a presidential election on May 6?

I was surprised to read Michael’s defence of inequality as inevitable and merely the consequence of real life’s “winners and losers”. I would enjoy a second article regarding how much inequality is acceptable in Scotland today; especially in the context of inherited land and wealth based on favours one’s ancestry had done in the past for the monarch. More fixation on equality of class, gender and other fashionable watchwords, please.

Paul Holborn
West Lothian

I’D just like to correct one sentence in yesterday’s Fact Check on Jackie Baillie’s health statement: “The Tory government imposed a decade of austerity.”

For a good few years the Liberals were in coalition with the Tories and Willie Rennie was Liberal leader in Scotland. I still remember George Osborne and Danny Alexander hand in glove. And does anyone remember Oor Willie complaining?

What they say now and what they did when in power don’t seem to stand up to scrutiny. Then there’s the Alistair Carmichael “lying” incident – what did Willie Rennie say then?

John Kinnaird
via email