AS a long-time proponent of an independent Scotland, and also being of an age where I am becoming slightly uneasy about seeing it happen in my lifetime, I wonder if this small suggestion could be of some help.

In conversations with those we are perhaps trying to convert, maybe we should rephrase some of our appeals. We should maybe use phrases like “return to being independent” instead of “when we become independent”. Would this small change help our argument?

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In the course of many action days I have always been amazed at the number of people I spoke to who were ignorant on the reasons for and the terms of the Treaty. Not their fault, of course – it was never at the top of the list in school history lessons.

It could be that the knowledge we were once an independent state with successful links to Europe and the world would be a small lever, at least.

Jim Gibson
Selkirk