IT wasn’t meant to happen because, firstly, the Clegg/Cameron Fixed Parliament Act 2011 was enacted to ensure that it is well nigh-impossible for a PM on a whim to call an election. Secondly, the PM had said on seven occasions that she wouldn’t call one... then did. She has got entirely what she deserved as a result: a bloody nose.

However when we look at the constituent nation results, there was a decisive result in each with the clearest in Wales. There, the Labour Party achieved a ratio of precisely seven MPs to three others (28-12). The next most decisive result came in Scotland where the SNP won by a ratio a little above seven MPs to five (35-24). Third clearest victory, and the one causing the greatest stir currently, was Northern Ireland where the ratio was precisely 5:4, with the DUP taking 10 seats. England’s result was by far the closest: the Conservatives ratio of victory was almost exactly 6:5 over the rest (297-237).

What does Scotland take from all this? Well, the Tories are correct to be contrite. Indeed, only by employing that self-deprecating approach can they hope to cling to power. Their attitude to Scotland however is just same old, same old. Crowing and condescending on Monday, David Mundell tweeted, “Indyref2 is dead because that is the verdict of the Scottish people”. Not so. In Scotland you were well beaten, as you were in the recent the local government elections. Defeat for the Conservatives in Scotland is now habitually recurrent and long may it remain so. Tories, enjoy your little Scottish moment – it won’t last.

Mundell is acting more like the colonial governor than ever, stating also that he can’t see another referendum taking place at all until after the Parliament has run its five-year course. There should be an outcry over this and over the claim that indyref2 is divisive when the Conservative Party are taking the UK into election after election (thereby completely failing to govern in a time of national crisis), ruining the economy, increasing on a day-to-day basis the inequality gap and taking us out of the EU which, all taken together, is far more divisive than anything the SNP have ever proposed.

Call it the Claim of Right if you will; or call it the Sovereignty of the Scottish People. Alternatively, if the dry dust of constitutional terms is not your cuppa, call it precedent from 2014, (September 18, to be exact). All these arguments are valid. The Scottish people can vote unilaterally for independence. Who says so? Well, none other than politics and government Oxford University professors, Iain McLean, Jim Gallagher and Guy Lodge in a well received 2013 book, Scotland’s Choices – found on page 189.

This book was praised for its overall objectivity at the time but, goodness, it needs updated and so perhaps, when Nicola Sturgeon fires the starting gun on our next crack at independence, the three profs will get busy. I hope that happens soon, but the important point here is that the referendum timing will be of Scotland’s choosing. Even if the Tories persist to defy law and logic and try to delay the inevitable, the SNP, as the third-largest party by some distance, could well have sufficient clout to delay Brexit for the purpose of choosing our referendum date. We’ll, of course, need European friends in the negotiation team to be made aware of Scotland’s desire to remain in the European family of nations. This can only help too.

The future may well be bright, but it ain’t Orange. That particular mobile telephone brand ceased operating in 2015 and Scotland is now inexorably manoeuvring towards an independent future as a modern European nation, in which ancient tribal drumbeats (as well as defunct telecommunication businesses) have no place.

David Crines, Hamilton

TOMMY’S decision (Sheppard decides to pull out of contest to be SNP group leader at Westminster, The National, June 14) saddens me and does nothing for my confidence that the party has reflected on why we lost. We lost last week despite still having most seats, but with paper-thin majorities in all but two. It’s seems this was just political speak for carrying on as normal, big mistake.

Most of our voters are left wing, that’s doesn’t mean we turn into Rise, but it does mean being imaginative and radical with the powers we have and demand for more powers with an intention of using them. We already see Corbyn taking our ideas such as a national investment bank and no doubt more like the citizens income, as our leadership seem content to carry on with this out-of-date (previously successful) centrist approach.

The reason we lost in the seats in the rural areas was not because we are too left wing but because of our stance on indy and to a lesser but still important reason our unapologetic pro-EU stance.

Many people in Perthshire and the North East did vote for us in the past and have switched to the Tories, but that was because the Tories were previously toxic and we had a good record in government. Indyref has changed all of that (see John Swinney’s slashed 2016 majority). Most of these voters will never vote indy no matter what, therefore by default they will no longer vote for us.

The voters who do want indy and who we need to keep and build upon and involve more are the very ones who didn’t come out to vote or who went to labour due to the Corbyn surge due to our lacklustre campaigns. The technocratic lacklustre approach became noticeable in the 2016 Scottish election campaign and manifesto and has continued to this day. Therefore this outdated centrist approach is not only futile but damaging as the voters it is intended to attract, who have switched to Tories or LibDems, will never support us now and it is pushing our core vote away. Does the leadership not see that?

The EU stance needs revised perhaps to a Norway-style approach which would take into account some of our voters (myself included) who have voted Leave and it will mean we don’t have the excuse as many parties including the SNP have had of not be able to nationalise certain industries due to EU law.

The Norway-style deal would allow us to be in the EU single market, make it easier to trade with a UK inside and outside single market and do international deals, such as lowering tariffs with India who are one of our biggest exports of whisky, but due to the high tariffs this has them making their own cheaper version which will damage our brand and our exports.

I feel very frustrated. I want the party to do very well and want indy, but the party has clearly not understood the results and the reason for them, if Tommy’s announcement is anything to go by. New Labour won in 2001 and 2005 but with a reduced majority and a decline of their core vote each time.

I just hope the leadership begin to see that, but I have my doubts.

Steve Daley, via email

THROUGHOUT the day on Tuesday BBC Scotland ran a news item criticising NHS Scotland for failing to provide abortions for women needing a particular operation. Some 180 patients went to England in 2016 for their surgery. It’s no surprise that this news item ran on Tuesday, the very day the DUP was watched worldwide being embraced by the Westminster Tories – the DUP being the party in Northern Ireland which deems abortion illegal even in cases of rape.

How low can the media stoop with its perpetual maligning of the Scottish Government? This wonderful country of ours will be independent sooner rather than later. Believe.

Jane Bullock Inverness

IT’S time that parties and people for independence stopped putting forward their wishes for their polices for a Scottish parliament. That should be left for the Scottish people to decide after independence.

Keep pushing the facts that an independent Scottish government, of whatever party, would set all taxes, collect all taxes and spend all taxes for the benefit of the Scottish people.

Bill Purves, Galashiels