NANE sae blin … as them that winna see, they say; and I keep noticing an overlap of attitude between the Yes/Leave section of the body politic and the diehard Unionist element in Scotland, in that the one has an unbending hostility to the EU and all its works while the other has an equal hostility to the very notion of independence.

In the latest instance, Julia Pannell would apparently have us all respect the result of the 2016 referendum in case revisiting the question would jeopardise acceptance of a positive result in the next independence referendum. The analogy, however, is a false one, because neither the 2014 nor the 2016 results deserve to be respected or to stand, both having been gained by a concerted tissue of lies, on very similar twin tracks of false threats and false promises.

In 2014, hollow threats on currency and pensions were matched with equally hollow promises and blandishments – that Vow which was immediately and comprehensively snatched back. In 2016 lies on the costs of the EU (and no mention of the multiple benefits) and lying threats about all the suspicious characters who’d “flood” in if we didn’t close the borders, combined with pie-in-the-sky prospects of a golden future. I don’t want to find out how that Vow turns out.

Neither of these results deserves to be respected; and right now the anger of the anti-EU free market pirates heading the Brexit charge comes from fear that, now so many more of the population are beginning to see the damage Brexit (in any form) must do, in a second vote those with a more balanced and rational view would turn out to reverse it. The anger of the die-hard Unionists at the prospect of a second indyref comes from a similar fear that, now they’ve been rumbled, Scotland will take the brave pill and get away from the British shambles to make its own future.

I’ve noted before that Scottish membership of the EU, or any lesser form of trade alliance in Europe, would be a matter for Scots to decide once, and only once, we’re in a position to do so. Both sets of diehard oppositionists are, however, an object lesson for those of us who do want to make this country a better, kinder and more positive place to be, because these attitudes are a measure of the kind of reasoning we need to do and the case we need to make before the next vote – on either question. That anyone who supports independence could nevertheless lend even a moment’s support to a carnival of snake-oil salesmen with such a murky (and brief) history, and exactly one purely negative message, should alert us all to the real influence of the imagined bogeymen lurking in, alas, far too many minds in our country.

Colin Stuart
Saline, Fife

I READ Wednesday’s long letter with care and then précised the letter in my head and came up with: “ I threw my toys out the pram and voted for the Brexit Party”.

The rest of the content was simply justifying why the author was right to throw their toys out the pram.

The SNP membership has had many passionate discussions on Scotland’s place inside and outside the EU over the decades and despite the likes of Fisher and Ross giving passionate anti-EU speeches at SNP conference and on other stages, the current membership, by a majority, has agreed to the SNP position of an “Independent Scotland in Europe”.

Now if you believe in the power of a membership party, like the SNP, and the democratic votes within branches, constituencies and conference on key issues of party policy, if you then find yourself on the minority side, you just have to thole you lost the debate and back the party majority line. Many did this over the SNP’s change on its position over Nato. They did not like the change but swallowed their disappointment of losing a democratic vote of conference delegates, just, and got behind the party once more.

Most recently the leadership of the party have been told, by a vote of conference delegates, a currency for Scotland is a priority on independence rather than the wishy-washy position of Professor Andrew Wilson’s paper of if, maybe, never.

The position of where a future independent Scotland will lie within the different layers of EU membership can not be decided until we once again have a truly sovereign parliament, to represent the considered will of the sovereign Scottish people.

What is important is to achieve the dissolution of the failed, corrupt and inept UK Parliamentary Union and remove its leaden hand from Scotland. Now is not the time for any “throwing of toys out the pram” by the SNP membership.

The SNP are the only party who will achieve independence for Scotland and this must be the SNP memberships’ focus, not taking the huff over positions on EU membership already decided by the majority of the SNP membership and which have the support of the majority of Scottish voters.

Peter Thomson
Kirkcudbright