True democracy

Is not Allan Massie, in his criticism of Pat Kane (Perspective, 13 August), in danger of being triumphalist before the votes are even cast? Everybody makes mistakes: priests, teachers, doctors, politicians, even voters.

It is arguable that, every time a poor turn-out in a UK election leads to yet another period of largely undemocratic government, an honest mistake has been made; and that the “right” thing for the electorate to do would have been to abstain totally, thus unnerving the politicians and leaving the way open to demand real democracy in the form of improved electoral systems, a constitution, and so on.

These are the things we are offering the Scottish public; this is their chance to build a truly democratic state which the remaining UK population could observe in successful operation.

It is, however, quite a challenge persuading Scots: in common with all the peoples in Britain, they have never had the chance to discover what democracy actually consists of, and so do not recognise exactly why the UK fails to fulfil their needs, and why a brand-new, constitution-led, independent Scotland surely could.

We are doing our best to illustrate notions of democratic politics, precisely so that an informed electorate can indeed make the right decision for Scotland.

Michael F Troon

Crawford Avenue

Gauldry, Fife