THERE is a staggering level of confusion in the independence movement currently. Yet the movement has attracted some of the most talented people in Europe into its ranks, and is still registering around 50% of support among the Scottish electorate.

Jim Taylor’s long letter in the Sunday National is perhaps an example of the level of confusion. Jim objects to the main point in Alan Crocket’s letter of August 15, but he says Alan and he “agree on most things”.

I agree with Jim and Alan and some 50% of the Scottish population in terms of the objective of achieving Scottish independence. What seems to be difficult for people to determine, and agree on, is how do we get there from here? What is the road forward?

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We almost all now understand that our political “leaders” in the SNP and Alba have not presented a viable route to independence. We almost all now agree that the UK Government, whatever its political colour, will never help, or agree to Scottish independence. We almost all can now see that the entire UK state establishment, including the civil service, the media, the financial structure and powerful vested interests are determined to stop us getting our independence, so is there a way forward, and if so what is it?

Well yes, there is a straightforward route to Scottish independence, which is not led by our political leaders but in which they have a part to play, which does not require “negotiating with the UK” and which can be and is being started now, without further delay.

So what is this route? Well it is quite simple really, but it will only be possible if we can mobilise our extensive support and put pressure on our political party leaders in the SNP, Alba and the Greens to act decisively in the Scottish Parliament and Government to start acting like the elected representatives of the Scottish people and not colonial administrators as the Scotland Act would like them to be.

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Legislation can be put through the Scottish Parliament which can be dependent on the support of the people in a referendum. Such legislation, if properly designed, can legally provide the Scottish people with a confirmation of their sovereign power, to give them the right to have a referendum on independence and on many other issues when they require it. And which can provide for the Scottish Government considerable additional revenues in order to fight any austerity measures which the UK Government impose on Scotland.

The Respect Scottish Sovereignty (RSS) organisation will, this month, be launching a plan to show how this can be done if the Yes movement is up for it. I think the movement is, and I’m sure that Jim and Alan will join me and thousands of other independence supporters to back this plan.

Andy Anderson
Ardrossan

THE news that that India has recently moved ahead of Britain to become the fifth-largest world economy is attributable to the fact that in the 76 years after independence, when only one-sixth of the population was literate, education in the STEM subjects and a massive investment in infrastructure have transformed the country.

This must be painful for misty-eyed British nationalists, if they’ve even noticed! Along with the fact that both Romania and Poland will have higher living standards than we do by 2030, surely this is the time when Scots should throw off the shackles that bind us to a country which lives in the past, droning on about its former imperial grandeur, believing itself still to be internationally influential when the truth is that the only well-funded institution in the country is the monarchy and no-one takes much notice of what the UK government says or does.

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The latest example – the letter from Macron, Starmer and the German Chancellor telling Iran to exercise restraint – is utterly laughable, when they have completely failed to restrain their “ally” Israel, continuing to provide weapons, intelligence and forward bases for an unrelenting ten months of obscene carnage against a people who don’t even have an army! There is a reason that India, China, Ireland, Norway, South Korea and the Global South do not support this, and our leaders cannot see the writing on the wall. Scotland needs to choose a future that puts our people first, rather than the endless cycle of deranged military adventurism dictated by a clapped out 19th-century Kiplingesque delusion.

Marjorie Thompson
Edinburgh

IF, as you report (Aug 19), Labour may change the law to allocate funding for Secretary of State Ian Murray to spend directly and bypass the Scottish Parliament, doesn’t this create direct confrontation between the two parliaments?

Doesn’t this bring into question again the very validity of the position of Secretary of State for Scotland, which should have been abolished at the inception of devolution?

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If it is argued that Scotland is entitled to – and should have – a representative in the British government Cabinet, then shouldn’t that person be appointed by the Scottish Parliament, not the governing party in Westminster?

Appointing Ian Murray to continue and expand this outrageous Tory measure is merely another example of this young Labour government’s notion of change no-one asked for, nor was it detailed in their election manifesto.

Westminster government does no favours to Scotland, and pursuing this fiscal meddling which undermines the Scottish Parliament is the conduct of a control freak, not the so-called “partner” we are supposed to have.

Bring on the day when all discourse with Westminster is through our independent Scotland’s newly created Foreign Office.

Jim Taylor
Scotland