FEAR is contagious and it is running rife through the assembled host of trolls, fundamentalists and those that programme the bots.

We know it is part of the plan that the Westminster/Whitehall dirty tricks department will attempt to spread disharmony in a largely united movement.

They will attempt to turn a completely peaceful drive for independence into one of violence. This they will do through the use of misinformation, the use of agitators and by influencing those that are easily lead.

We are now entering into a critical period of political campaigning, one that will decide what kind of life we have and indeed what kind of life we leave for our children, grandchildren and the generations as yet unborn. Now the Westminster/Whitehall cabal most certainly know this and will throw everything at us up to and including the kitchen sink.

How do we as a movement counter the dirty tricks? Well by being better informed certainly helps, and identifying the agents provocateurs as and when they pop up is also an advantage. Also let us question the motivation and purpose of those that would have us believe that they support independence yet spend all day every day attacking the Scottish Government. Those I will freely and without hesitation call the fifth columnists.

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I will never promote anything coming from the pop-up party as run by, and on behalf of, the egotistical failed politician. They without a shadowy of doubt are the single most likely reason why the next referendum would fail to get Scottish independence, such is the divisive nature of their statements. Not once have I heard anyone in the upper echelons of that gang say anything positive about the majority now sitting in our parliament! Yet such is their ego both as individuals and combined as one that they expect to have the electorate hang on their every word even though they are not represented in our parliament.

More than 98% of voters were not wrong, and it is certainly not up to those voters to change, as they were convinced that the SNP and the Scottish Green Party have the ability to get the job done. No, the words of division are only coming from a tiny minority, less than 2% of voters, backed up of course by the money from RT, Putin’s money.

There will be no such thing as a stroll into independence and we will require every single vote that we can muster. Certain people need to realise what a turn-off Salmond and his gang are. He himself is widely held in contempt by all those that are guided by a functioning moral compass and his lieutenants are seen for the opportunistic charlatans that they are. The longer he rumbles on with his thoroughly rejected ideology, the more damage he inflicts, which comes back around to what I said about questioning those that would pull the wool over our eyes.

Our future is bright, independence is right.

Cliff Purvis via email I AGREE with Ruth Wishart when she talks about a “division at the heart of the Yes movement” in last weekend’s Sunday National. Alex Salmond did offer cooperation in last year’s Scottish parliamentary election with Vote SNP1 and Alba2, which was totally rejected by the SNP.

It was the SNP’s own position that let more Unionists gain seats on the list instead of other independence-supporting MSPs.

Yes, they still got a majority with the Greens, which is being used to push through the divisive GRA bill. How will this legislation encourage all the concerned women, who will lose their single-sex spaces, to vote for the SNP or even independence in the future? The SNP would do well to remember that women are 52% of the electorate.

Jo Bloomfield Edinburgh