AS someone who has lived in homeless units and hostels several times and having mental illness, I know how isolating and terrible it can be.

As an SNP member, I would be willing to pay £5 a year extra to tackle the crisis. If other members did it would be over £500,000 towards the problem.

OK, it’s not a huge amount but if the SNP government matched it, that would help towards food banks, clothes, blankets, sleeping bags etc. Instead of blaming the Scottish Government we should be blaming Tory austerity for rise in rough sleeping. If the Tories can’t help human beings in this age maybe the Scottish people can, and vote for independence to end poverty and homelessness.

Stephen Kelly, Motherwell

I KNOW I’m not the only person to have noticed a huge rise in the number of rough sleepers and people begging on the street in central Glasgow. When I was a youngster you never saw homeless folk. I remember the first time I saw a person begging on the street and how shocked I was. Don’t the council have a duty to house people? Why aren’t we outraged?

Marie Greene, Glasgow

HOW many tax offices in Scotland have been, or are being closed down? We have been offered a few tax-raising powers but not full tax-raising powers. Is this a trap? Debt is very much a department of the branch parties from London.

The private funding initiative springs to mind, which means massive debts and massive interest payments for unsafe schools and hospitals which were obviously not checked properly.

Next we have Scotland’s defence or lack of. No navy, no air force and an army reduced to a regiment. This might help the Ministry of Defence being able to pay for a vanity project, the TARGET better known as Trident, at £205 billion and rising.

Next we have the proposed closure of 10 barracks in Scotland. Surely the MoD should change its name to Ministry of Attack, with planes at £160 million each, aircraft carriers, bombs and arms sales.

Next we have the closure of Scotland’s job centres. Is this all in preparation for being removed from the EU or maybe independence? Do not forget this Tory government, and with support or abstention from the Labour Party, are going to plead and pay for special dispensation for London and the car plants in England. What of Scotland’s wishes? What Union? What equality?

Rob Galloway, Glasgow

SOME want out of the EU and would vote No to independence because just now we are attached to the EU and this is the get-out clause from the promises that were broken, the vote to Leave the EU being the big one. Now I’ve been thinking again, we have only ever experienced the EU as part of the UK/Westminster. Westminster interpreted the EU rules and half-heartedly put them into practice; they bent them when it suited and obstinately enforced them when it suited.

So I had to ask myself this question: "As a self-governing country will we have a better experience of the EU?" Speaking for ourselves it is very likely that our opinion could improve or the EU would seem to improve!

Westminster has shown contempt for the EU and us. They have used the EU as an excuse for their own failings and mistakes and have tried to cause disagreement when they could. This is because they suffer from that old disease of a superiority complex and as they never always got their own way and the EU would not be bullied, brainwashed or cowed by them. Westminster never liked being second, but why pull us down with them?

Charles P O’Brien, Clydebank

ON the one hand, the Tories see post-Brexit UK as a beacon of world free trade, but at the same time some of them seem to be suggesting pulling up the trade shutters if Scotland wishes to explore other options. This from the same set of politicians who wish to retain tariff-free trading with the EU single market while at the same time appearing ambivalent over respecting its rules of membership. Free trade sounds like the most advantageous option. Therefore, on the assumption that embargo would not form part of whatever border arrangements might be eventually negotiated within the British Isles, at the very least World Trade Organisation rules could be applied.

Peter Gorrie, Edinburgh

I HAVE just read in The National today that Spain’s secretary of state for the EU, Jorge Toledo, was the only European spokesman to rule out a separate deal for Scotland (Juncker ‘still open’ to Scottish deal despite Spanish opposition, The National, December 24).

Perhaps Scots in favour of independence should consider this stance by Spain when/if thinking of booking holidays to Spain! Of course this wouldn’t apply to Catalonia, whose deputy Prime Minister welcomed Nicola and the Scottish Government’s plan. Thanks for continuing to give us a newspaper that tells it as it is. All power to your elbows and hope 2017 brings better news for us all.

Elizabeth Cameron, Renfrew

HAVING just read the letter from Ms Meg Henderson regarding her abysmally poor service from BT (Letters, December 22), may I draw her attention to a possible solution?

A few weeks ago, in episode one of the BBC programme Big Life Fix with Simon Reeve, there was the case of a tiny village in Wales with similar problems – a very poor internet connection and an intermittent landline service. In it, the team used a device called a “mashed potato” to create a local network among the houses. After installation, everyone in the village had a most reliable and acceptable service without any involvement of BT.

Without going into details, the total cost of the initial installation of the equipment was about £100 with an annual running cost of £20. Perhaps Ms Henderson might be interested sufficiently to look into this and see what can be done to improve her communications.

Douglas Macdonald, Stranraer

HAVING come across the following billet doux on Christmas Eve, I concluded it perfectly and eloquently expressed my sentiments about The National: “Every day you bring me wit, intelligence and thoughtfulness, without which my life would be very much the poorer. I know I might seem uncaring, never having told you before, but I just want you to know that I do love you. Will you marry me?” Please say YES?

Archie McArthur, Edinburgh