So much shadow boxing over independence

Whether or not he realises it, Mr Salmond has created a rather interesting conundrum with his most recent, ill-judged comment.

Never one to understate things, Mr Salmond commented that “Westminster’s Scottish affairs committee does not have a mandate to discuss an independence referendum,” (your report, 19 October). “The only ones with a mandate to say or do anything are the ones sitting in the Scottish Parliament,” he continued.

As the Scottish Parliament was created by the parliament whose democratically elected Scottish MPs Mr Salmond claims have no mandate, logic dictates thereby that neither the Scottish Parliament nor Mr Salmond’s own “government” has any legitimacy.

Equally, Mr Salmond has confirmed that democracy has no legitimacy in his eyes, since the very MPs that he claims have no mandate were elected by Scottish voters.

It is a very worrying sign for a Scottish First Minister to refuse to acknowledge democratically elected representatives of the Scottish, and British, people. Are we seeing him in his true colours at last?

Andrew HN Gray

Craiglea Drive

Edinburgh

May I respond to those Nationalists (Letters, 19 October) criticising those who once opposed a break-up-the-UK referendum now wanting it brought on quickly? I fear they miss the entire point I was making in my original letter.

I opposed and still oppose a referendum on the basis that, no matter the result, the Nationalists will not accept the verdict and inevitable defeat and a series of Quebec-like plebiscites would be demanded until the people wearied and eventually gave in.

I worried about the uncertainty and devastation this would cause to the Scottish economy and stated several times in the columns of this newspaper that I would be all for a referendum if there was a straight yes/no, fairly worded question and no further referendum could be held for 30 years after the first.

I am a democrat and accept that, within the limits of a turnout of around half the total electorate, the SNP won the last election and is entitled to hold the referendum it promised.

I merely pointed out the cowardice involved in, knowing a straight yes/no can never be won, procrastinating and proposing multi-question choices as a way of clinging to power in much the way the obscurantism of the “Alex Salmond for First Minister choice” confused many voters.

Alexander McKay

New Cut Rigg

Edinburgh

The Labour Party in Scotland has been banging the scaremongering drum for years with singular lack of impact, using the same tired arguments as those gleefully espoused by your correspondent (Letters, 18 October).

Is it any wonder, therefore, that Scotland is warming to the independence message?

To slightly misquote Scotland’s Bard: “The man o’ independent mind he reads and laughs at a’ that.”

Stuart Fergusson

Hillend Road

Arbroath

Your report on English attitudes to Scottish independence (17 October) is best summed up by John Curtice when he questions whether our southern cousins really care.

My late wife and her sisters – all well educated in north-east England – confessed to a complete lack of knowledge on the subject of how England and Scotland became the UK. It wasn’t taught at their respective schools, so they learned from me.

I suggest th main Scottish Unionist parties hire a few skirmish buses and go over the Border regularly to drum up support among the natives. Alex Salmond’s giving them plenty of time before the real independence battle begins – in 2014?

Douglas Bain

Oxgangs Drive

Edinburgh

Contrary to your report, “Row over Moore’s seven-month delay in giving an answer” (18 October), the English Act of Settlement is not an issue in Scotland because its writ did not extend beyond the Tweed and it specifically refers to a monarch ascending the throne of England. There has not been a throne of England since 1 May, 1707.

(REV) ARCHIE BLACK

Elm Park

Inverness

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) in London has announced its intention to abandon the existing army barracks in Edinburgh and build a giant new facility just outside the city, but if the SNP government at Holyrood succeeds in its referendum aim of making Scotland independent of the rest of the UK then all British Army forces will have to be withdrawn from Scotland and new barracks accommodation for them built somewhere in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

It would surely be prudent of the MoD to defer any decision until after the results of the promised referendum are known.

Alternatively, it could pre-empt the issue by building the new barracks south of the Border anyway, transferring all personnel accordingly and flogging off all its Edinburgh holdings at inflated prices before the SNP government can get its hands on them.

William Oxenham

Easter Currie Place

Edinburgh