HOW dare the Prime Minister, on one of his very infrequent visits to Scotland, seek to threaten and intimidate Clyde shipyard workers and others in the Scottish defence industry, just to buy a few thousand No votes in the referendum ("Cameron: UK makes Scottish defence jobs safer", The Herald, April 4).

Frightening working men and their families with the claim that they will lose their jobs is a despicable tactic. If Scotland votes for independence we will not suddenly become an enemy country to be shunned by the rest of the UK. There is no rational reason why we should be banned from undertaking further defence contracts and continuing to have other normal trading relationships.

The company I formerly worked for, still known on Clydeside as Yarrows despite several changes of name in recent years, has been building frigates and other vessels for the Royal Navy for almost 150 years and has built up unparallelled experience in working to the high standards demanded. It would be folly for the UK Government to lose the benefit of such skills and craftsmanship, merely because of some convention about not giving defence contracts to "foreign" countries. Many other countries are more than happy to buy defence equipment abroad if it is the best available and cannot be produced at home. The UK itself has no qualms about buying aircraft and other military equipment from the United States, so why not naval ships from Scotland?

We have already seen to our cost how much Conservative governments actually care about Scotland and the havoc wreaked on Scottish industries. In the 1980s Mrs Thatcher virtually destroyed our steel, mining and heavy engineering industries, and Mr Cameron's own administration has closed two of Scotland's three air bases and several army barracks and severely cut Scottish regiments and army numbers based in Scotland. The only UK defence establishment in Scotland that seems immune from such cuts is the one most Scots want rid of, the nuclear weapons base at Faslane.

If the Prime Minister wants the Scottish people to reject independence, he should give a firm commitment now on what additional powers his Government would devolve to the Scottish Parliament if the referendum is lost. The present situation is no longer acceptable and at present we have no idea what the alternative might be.

All the No campaign has done to date is to demand detailed information about a whole range of economic, trading and legal issues which cannot be accurately forecast several years ahead, while offering no specific information on the alternative scenario which it is within Mr Cameron's power to offer. He should know that promises are more effective than threats.

Iain AD Mann,

7 Kelvin Court, Glasgow.

DAVID Cameron has some nerve coming to Scotland to scaremonger about 12,000 defence jobs. With about 9% of the UK population our appropriate share of Government defence expenditure would give us more than 25,000 defence jobs.

But perhaps he will take the opportunity while he is up here to reassure the folk in the communities around our nuclear arms collection at Faslane/Coulport that the UK Government will make sure they all get fitting funerals should any madman start a nuclear war. The people of Scotland are very noble indeed to accept becoming the world's number one target by selflessly providing a nuclear shield for more important people. It is unimaginable that Scotland would ever consider attacking anyone else. Our nuclear weapons on the Clyde probably provide the only reason why anybody would want to attack Scotland.

Perhaps as he crosses the Clyde somebody could point out to David Cameron that the Norwegian navy, for instance, has 70 ships, all built in Norway, and the surest guarantee for Scotland to have an appropriate defence industry is an independent Scotland.

David McEwan Hill,

1 Tom Nan Ragh, Dalinlongart, Sandbank, Argyll.