AS someone who doesn’t have a vote in the SNP leadership elections, I would like to respond to some of the comments from the contenders.

Humza Yousaf has proposed himself as the continuity candidate. I think he has not been listening to what many within the SNP and the Yes movement have been saying.The current Scottish Government have shown no sign of urgency at Holyrood while existing rights are being whittled away, such as by the internal market legislation. Our longstanding rights under the Treaty of Union have been flagrantly violated by Brexit without protest from the government run by First Minister Sturgeon. Urgency about action to take us to independence is an absolute priority.

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Ash Regan has been raising this and has shown, to me at any rate, that she has independence topmost in her mind. It seems amazing to me that in Scotland, the leaders of the most ancient small nation in Europe have not displayed the determination or self-belief to state that this is what we are going to do and no-one is going to tell us otherwise.

I like Kate Forbes’s persuasive manner in her discourse about removing poverty. But I am mystified by her lack of attention to the innovative suggestion of annual ground floor and roof rent (AGFRR) put to Kate and other ministers by the indefatigable Graeme McCormick, an SNP member. This proposal would bring financial benefit to the great majority of Scottish taxpayers, extra money to councils and realistic council tax charges to big landowners.

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Likewise, innovative experts like Prof Alf Baird have worked on maritime projects to link Scotland with Europe and the rest of the world that have never been progressed by the Scottish Government. Dr Stuart Ballantyne, a Scottish billionaire ship designer living in Australia, has made offers to sort out the problems at Ferguson’s shipyard and give them his own catamaran designs without charge in order to boost Scottish shipbuilding. These offers have not been taken up. Why are Scottish experts not being listened to and utilised? Are our leaders so bedazzled by Westminster civil servants that they cannot fight for what will ultimately benefit us?

I hope whoever becomes leader will be a good listener, a team player who is unafraid to be bold, innovative and strategic in forward planning.

Maggie Chetty
Glasgow

I HAVE purchased The National since its first issue – sometimes in early days up to four daily – but my enthusiasm has dipped considerably. Despite the fact that I can purchase eight other titles in my local newsagent which relentlessly pillory the SNP on front pages and huge other areas daily, we are still miles ahead, but I now can purchase my National and get lots of destructive divisionism in there.

Sunday’s was nearly the last National purchase, after I read Alan Hinnrichs’s utterly appalling contribution to the letters pages. “Appalling” is hardly an appropriate description. Objectionable, actionable, possibly abusive, slanderous, completely unacceptable in oor paper, my biggest surprise was to see it printed. And as big a surprise was to recognise the author whose contributions I have read comfortably for years.

Cher Bonfis’s letter saved the day.

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I’ve been in the SNP since I left school in 1959. so I’ve known all the ups and downs. And we have marched on through them. And the case for independence continues to grow despite all that.

We have just come through a pandemic which stopped all the meetings, social events and other activities which were the bread and butter of our huge community-based movement for two years. And we have dropped to only several times the combined membership of our Unionist opponents! Hoo ha.

I remember when the party went bust, massively in debt and having to sell our beautiful big HQ in North Charlotte Street, Edinburgh and ending up in a warehouse in Leith.

But we marched on. And the case got bigger and stronger in every era – as it will now. (More quickly when we recognise the dividers planted among us).

David McEwan Hill
Dalinlongart

AS ever, it was a pleasure to read Ian Stewart’s open letter to the SNP leadership candidates (Mar 20) on the steps needed for Scotland to have its own currency after independence.

On becoming independent, Scotland will need much greater institutional capacity than it has now. As well as issuing its own currency, its government will need to have fiscal capacity. That’s not just a question of putting up tax rates, but of designing a new tax system.

As with establishing a central bank, we do not need to wait until Scotland is independent to start that work. One route would be through increased tax-raising powers of local government. Apart from anything else, that would be a good way of demonstrating that Scotland will not be like the UK, as it would start to empower communities to make the decisions which seem best for them.

READ MORE: Scotland’s ability to adopt progressive policies is strictly limited

Another route would be to negotiate further increases in fiscal capacity with the UK Government through the fiscal framework. Just now, Scottish income tax rates are little more than political virtue-signalling – the system of block grant adjustments mean that they cannot do much in terms of raising revenue for the Scottish Government.

Planning for independence needs a change of purpose, and a shift away from being the spending authority which is all that Humza Yousaf can imagine. It will mean having uncomfortable conversations with the party, and taking it to new places, so that it finally enables Scotland to achieve independence, its core purpose. Both of the female candidates have plenty of good ideas, but Kate Forbes is much better at articulating them than Ash Regan.

She is the only candidate credibly offering the change which Scotland needs.

Robbie Mochrie
via email