ARE we ready for today? This has been a very strange election. The polls are looking good, but we must not make any assumptions. They looked good in 2016, so some folk didn’t bother going down to vote and we lost some ground.

This has been described as the most important election Scotland has ever faced. A significant majority for independence in our parliament provides us the mandate for an independence referendum. So make sure you use your vote. I note the avalanche of Unionist leaflets we have been receiving has conceded this point. They know Boris’s bluster is just that. Bluff and bluster.

The SNP message, of course, is SNP 1 and 2. I do fully understand the attraction of a list vote for the Greens (who have played a blinder) and even for Andy Wightman, but never forget that it was the SNP list seats from the Highland region that put us into government in 2011.

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And that victory gave us our referendum. Unless there is a catastrophe on Thursday we will enjoy a much stronger victory this time. So, I repeat, make sure you use your votes today!

My major concern is the amount of unbalanced appeals, advice and so on all across the internet. The continuous utterly vile attacks on Nicola Sturgeon are almost beyond adequate description, and lots of it appears to be coming from indy supporters.

We do understand, don’t we, that lots of these keyboard a warriors are fake indy supporters – but there are contributors among them who I thought better of.

Their theme is that Nicola doesn’t want independence, that she’s taking us for fools, that she is kicking independence into the long grass, that previous SNP leadership moved more quickly, that we should declare independence without an agreed process, that we should choose UDI and other such utter nonsense. So let me remind us all about our last battle.

We moved into government in May 2011. We had a referendum (by agreed process) in September 2014. Yes. Three-and-a-half years later.

I’ll repeat that. Three-and-a-half years from the date of agreement to the actual vote.

Some of those responsible at that point for that process are now taking us for fools by demanding an almost immediate referendum and blaming Nicola Sturgeon for not agreeing. And some of us sadly have swallowed the guff.

Sometime in the first half of our next parliamentary term is our present choice – and of course politics is a very unpredictable process. So you have to be ready to dart through the door if it opens before then. However, the virus has complicated things hugely. There is evidence that it has persuaded a significant number of voters that UK generosity is getting us through it. So that and other issues need to be dealt with.

We have the team and we have the information. After today our campaign to normalise independence will be relentless. We start to build from tomorrow.

So get out and vote today.

Dave McEwan Hill
Sandbank, Argyll

CAN Scotland afford not to give both votes to the SNP today?

A question we must all ask ourselves as we go to the polls. Scotland’s future depends on the turnout and the result of that turnout. Scotland can’t afford Westminster austerity any longer, so a clear message must be forthcoming, a united message for the party at the forefront of the independence struggle. No fragmentations, no coalitions, just a clear and precise message from Scotland to Westminster.

As we go forward from the pandemic into some kind of recovery, we must take the opportunity at the polling station to set out Scotland’s agenda for recovery and we must give the First Minister an endorsement of her handling of the pandemic. We simply can’t afford to have it any other way – all our futures depend on the result.

Catriona C Clark
Falkirk