Why wait for referendum before acting?

For instance, some claim that the only way to create “the kind of society most of us claim we want to live in”, “where what matters is how we treat the most vulnerable” is to vote Yes in September. However, what troubles me about that stance is that if we are not prepared to do so now by using the tools currently available to us, what makes us think anything will change in an independent Scotland? The fact that these tools are limited is no excuse for the practical indifference of the majority to the plight of the most vulnerable.

I also wonder if the implementation of the Calman proposals, instead of the uncertainties of independence, would allow us to move towards the creation of a more egalitarian society, if indeed that is what the majority wants; I remain to be convinced it is. Our history, our traditions and our politics are not, for instance, Scandinavian.

John Milne

Ardgowan Drive

Uddingston

Gerry Hassan continuously offers an educated but partial overview of Scottish life. In particular, he is very out of touch with working-class life and aspiration. He identifies the rich and successful as those to be blamed for  social inequalities. But  skilled workers and the self-employed qualified in essential crafts distinguish themselves from other workers and further from those who live on state benefits.

Conspicuous consumption is much localised in every community and in every street. Large 4x4 vehicles and premium cars line the car parks of shopping centres throughout Scotland’s former industrialised Central Belt; the largest televisions are found in their owners’ well-off households. But these people may be neither generous, charitable nor humanitarian with their comparative wealth and they can be unsympathetic to those who rely on state largesse. Gerry Hassan will remember the divisive issue of demarcation. He should study its contemporary form.

REV DR ROBERT  ANDERSON

Blackburn & Seafield Church