Collective task

I must, however, gently take him to task on his apparent  assumption that it is up to the SNP – and only the SNP – to create “a credible and convincing vision of a socially just Scotland” in the aftermath of independence.

Surely this is the collective task of all of the constituent elements in the Yes Scotland campaign with their distinctive political  visions for a post-independence Scotland.

Clearly the Greens and the Scottish Socialist Party – of which the professor himself is a member – cannot be expected to agree with all of the SNP’s current policies, but that should not prevent them from enthusiastically endorsing a Yes vote in the autumn of 2014 since without such a vote all these  idealistic dreams are destined to remain pure fantasies.

I also think it is a serious error to assume, as Professor Gall seems to do, that an independent Scotland would for the foreseeable future be under the sole single-party control of Alex Salmond and the SNP.

Surely, the whole point of independence is to give the Scottish electorate the right to choose – at successive post-independence Holyrood elections – the kind of policies best suited to their needs and aspirations and the party (or parties) most likely to deliver these policies. In that respect it is not up to any of us to attempt to predict – or restrict? – the future of an independent Scotland.

IAN O BAYNE

Clarence Drive

Glasgow