IT has taken me a few days to get to grips with the SNP’s recent campaign launch. I watched all of it on the internet in the forlorn hope that I could rekindle a modicum of enthusiasm for the coming UK General Election campaign. I was sadly disappointed.

Since the launch, social media has been inundated by a paid-for SNP graphic showing the door of 10 Downing Street with the zero as a padlock, a message in bold capitals “LOCK OUT THE TORIES” and a subheading of “Only the SNP can deliver a Tory-Free Scotland”.

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692,939 people in Scotland voted Tory in 2019. There will never be such a thing as a “Tory-free Scotland” and even if the Tories lose all their Westminster seats there will still be hundreds of thousands of Tory voters, a few of whom we might even eventually persuade that independence is the way forward for Scotland.

I have voted SNP for the past 40-odd years not to “lock out the Tories”, but to achieve independence for Scotland at earliest opportunity. I suspect I am not alone in that aim.

I completely fail to understand the SNP strategy of pretending that its main opponent in Scotland is the Tories. The main threat to the SNP in the vast majority of Scottish seats will come from Labour.

In the unlikely event the SNP win all or any of the Tory seats, that will be very little consolation if they lose 20-plus seats to Labour.

Given that, without a campaign, roughly half of Scotland’s voters still want independence you would think the SNP should perhaps pursue independence as a positive theme rather than focussing on the possible removal of the few remaining Scottish Tory MPs.

Brian Lawson
Paisley

IF you want to know what the Tories are thinking about our economy, just look at the USA today: a travesty of what they were in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Little of any middle class left.Poverty and sickness in abundance, Voter turnout less than 40%.

So why do you think the Tories voted in Voter ID? Because the lower the poll, the better chance the far right have. However according to the latest polls they appear to have miscalculated badly.

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I agree with Humza about getting rid of the Tories in Scotland. However, I asked him how the independence parties can manage to stop splitting their vote, which would allow the Tories or Labour in – no answer yet. The Sun’s report saying the SNP could lose 24 seats in a General Election should focus some minds.

In my opinion, what purport to be “Scottish newspapers” are nothing of the kind. As someone has said before – you only have a free press if you own it.

Gordon Robertson
Blairgowrie

WELL, I ploughed my way through Stewart McDonald’s essay in the Sunday National. It was a long read, but patience was rewarded with a section on independence squeezed in just before the conclusion. And what is Mr McDonald’s latest strategy? A “push for more powers for Holyrood” and a “bold and confident pitch … to hold a referendum”.

God give me strength! Is that it? Does he honestly believe that what has not been achieved in the past ten years will somehow be forthcoming if, as predicted, Scotland sends even fewer SNP members to Westminster this time?

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This paucity of effective and bold strategy is damaging to the independence movement. It suggests that after one more tired charge towards the assembled Unionist musketry, we will get the desired breakthrough. This approach did not work when we had 50-plus MPs and it will certainly not work when our benches are less populated.

The role of our elected members at Westminster is to be insurgent, disruptive and rebellious because that reflects the wishes of the Yes movement. Will our MPs be brave enough?

James McCole
Newton Stewart

THE Prime Minister needs to be made to explain that he has a proper understanding of what is meant by the term “self-defence”. The slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza perpetrated by Israel was never an act of self-defence. Neither is sending British ships into a foreign sea and bombing targets in a foreign country an action in “self defence” of his country.

It seems that Mr Sunak is eager to perform as a puppet dancing to the tune played by the USA in the same manner as too many of his predecessors in Downing Street. Our country would be better defended by not supporting Israeli crimes against international law and keeping civilian ships out of the way rather than making them a target.

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I am pleased to see that while the leader of the so-called “opposition” has supported British military involvement in the Middle East, the Scottish First Minister has continued his reasoned and dignified response to the situation. It is also good that similar positions have been expressed by both Alba and the Greens while the Unionist parties appear to have been conspicuously quiet.

The sooner Scotland is free from all ties to the toxic Union the sooner we can take our place on the world stage as in independent state, standing firmly on the side of international law and global justice for all nations, not just those who receive approval from the US capital.

Ni Holmes
St Andrews

YET again some of the most powerful countries in the world are bombing one of the poorest. Share prices in BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin have risen 2% since the initial attack on Yemen. According to Unicef, 11,100,000 children and 10,500,000 adults in Yemen are in need of humanitarian assistance, from a population of 34,500,000. The Unicef 2023 appeal is short by $351 million. Will those who have profited make a donation?

Geoff Moore
Alness, Highland