STEVE Arnott’s long letter in Saturday’s National was like a breath of fresh air in the somewhat stale atmosphere of the debate on the Scottish election next year.

As Steve says, the logic of maximising the Yes vote in the list section of the ballot is well understood, at least by people in the Yes movement. We who support independence, as our primary objective, should vote SNP on the constituency section of the ballot, but we need to select another independence-supporting party for our list vote, or that vote could be discounted much to the advantage of the Unionist parties.

READ MORE: Keep an open mind about the idea of a Yes alliance for 2021

Steve is right that we must approach this in an open, fraternal and rational way and try to ensure that the huge number of Scots who support independence is reflected in the list MSPs elected as well as in the constituency section. This will then reflect a significant majority for Yes in the new Scottish Parliament.

Of course British Unionist policy will be to “divide and rule” – nothing new or surprising about that, it has been employed by the Westminster establishment in the British empire for 300 years, and people have fallen for it again and again with devastating consequences for the people who fell into that trap.

Anyone with an ounce of political acumen can predict that the SNP will win almost all the constituency seats, particularly if all Yes supporters vote SNP and no other parties try to split the Yes vote by standing in these seats with no hope of winning, as some might be tempted to do. If this does happen, then voting SNP again in the list section is virtually to throw your vote away, which would be very helpful to the Unionist parties. We must not fall into that trap again.

We must have the debate Steve is calling for. The Yes movement is, and indeed needs to be, a broad church with room for a wide range of opinions, and indeed parties such as the Greens and the SSP.

What is essential to the independence movement is that we make full use of the energy and talent in an organised way to invite all Yes supporters, including SNP supporters, to vote to ensure that the alliance takes most of the list seats.

In this coming election the Unionists will have considerable financial support, plus the support of most of the media and the UK establishment, but if we adapt an intelligent approach to organise ourselves in a sensible way we can soundly defeat them in the election, and this we must do if we are serious about independence.

Andy Anderson
Saltcoats

OH dear, it’s so sad that all these folks with ideas of how to do it better are aiding and abetting the contingencies that would see Scotland remain shackled to the out-of-date notion of a United Kingdom. Has-beens who feel that their opinions are gold dust, rivals who feel they have the best way of doing it, moaners who just love to moan – please, folks, INDEPENDENCE is our goal.

You are feeding the press with soundbites and making the notion of a split in the SNP seem a reality! Stop the playground stuff of “I can do it better...” Our FM is doing a great job, and needs all our support in these difficult days.

Get your heads down, button your lips and join the grassroots push for independence.

E Ahern
East Kilbride

RUTH Wishart describes brilliantly the opportunities and dangers that lie ahead of the independence movement at this very delicate moment in its history, just as a majority of the people of Scotland seem to be turning in our direction (SNP MPs now need to spend more time on the home front, February 25). I would beg all of us to think, speak and act very carefully, and most of all to remain together in our common aim. So many will rejoice if we don’t.

Jean Anderson Hall
Edinburgh

READ MORE: Ruth Wishart: Ignored and impotent SNP MPs should spend more time in Scotland​

ROSEMARY Smith (Letters, February 25) says “I haven’t heard of a crusade of secularists yet; in fact I don’t even think they have formed a group”. She might be interested to know that the National (sic – it’s UK-wide) Secular Society (www.secularism.org.uk) has been in existence since 1866, and its Scottish counterpart (www.secularsociety.scot) since 2013. I joined the SSS in 2014 when they came out in support of independence.

Secularism, of course, does NOT equal atheism; there are plenty of people of faith who concur that the separation of religion and state, so that no-one is either advantaged or disadvantaged because of their beliefs, is desirable – and that is what secularists campaign for.

S Fisk
East Ayrshire

SARAH Glynn’s (Why the Kurds were branded ‘terrorists’, February 22) attitude towards terrorism and PKK does nothing but undermine international fight against terrorism.

Likening terrorist leader Ocalan, who has in his hands the bloods of tens of thousands, including civilians with children among them, to Nelson Mandela is just absurd. Let me remind you that the European Court of Human Rights overturned Ocalan’s applications as well.

READ MORE: Sarah Glynn: Why the Kurds were branded 'terrorists'

One armed group can’t be a terrorist organisation attacking civilians one day and not be terrorists anymore when they attack security forces only the next day. PKK, not the Kurds, is an armed terrorist organisation and re-imagining it as a thorny rose or any other twisted analogy that might be drawn will not change that fact.

There is no good terrorist vs bad terrorist; “someone else’s terrorist is free to do whatever they like as long as they don’t operate against me” is an attitude which will hurt everyone. As the international community, what we need is a common stance in the face of terrorism which is “zero tolerance” against it.

Nafi Cemal Tosyalı
Turkish Consul General in Edinburgh