IN your report on her conference closing speech ("Sturgeon: ‘We need to win the argument on economy in Indyref2'", The Herald, April 29), you say that Nicola Sturgeon said that “the next referendum would not be a re-run of 2014", that “the labels of those days should be dropped" and that “We should not enter the campaign thinking of people as No voters or Yes voters". Yet in contrast to these fine words, earlier reports confirm the SNP has reactivated the “Yes movement", Ms Sturgeon's husband Paul Murrell has launched a “Yes.scot" fund-raising website, and they continue to market “Yes" marked goods.

Actions do speak louder than words, so by these actions it is apparent that she intends to try to bounce the Electoral Commission (which is meant to settle the question to be asked in any referendum) into a re-run of 2014 by setting exactly the same question, and thereby gaining again for her side any perceived advantage inherent in the positivity of Yes against the negativity of No.

If there was a re-run of 2014 asking again if Scotland wished to be “independent" Yes or No, and that resulted in a Yes vote, the SNP intends to seek membership of the EU with the consequence that Scotland would swap its present dependence on Westminster, limited by devolution, for greater dependence on Brussels, gifting to Brussels ultimately control of Scotland’s laws, borders and money to satisfy the determination of the EU to achieve the ever-closer union of its member states. Where is the “independence" in that outcome ?

In the context of the repeated mantra of the SNP that it wishes to create a fairer society, the obviously fair question in any Indyref2 should be to ask the people whether they wished to remain part of the UK, Yes or No, because that is what is at stake. Of course, that would be resisted by the SNP as it would have to shift from Yes to No, but that is its own fault for trying to jump the gun.

Alan Fitzpatrick,

10 Solomon’s View, Dunlop, Ayrshire.

ROBERT Hoskins's letter today (April 29) suggesting that any future independence referendum should be a two-legged affair probably says more about the chicanery that the SNP can expect over the next couple of years than it does about getting to the truth of what the Scottish people actually want.

The wonderful thing about the 2014 referendum was how well it was conducted and how vibrant the arguments on both sides were. Also it produced a result which was (just) large enough to be indisputable.The same cannot be said of the 2016 referendum. We now know that the Leave campaign was based on a construction of lies, financial misconduct and funding from some very obscure sources.

My first thought on reading Mr Hoskins's letter was that any politician who, in the face of the evidence, thinks that referendums are a suitable way to decide anything probably needs their bumps read, but no. The trick is to make sure that they are properly conducted, that the playing field is level (including, for example provision that any newspaper making claims one way or the other is obliged to give a right to reply) and that funding and its sources are absolutely transparent.

There would of course still be opportunities to mislead, as for example Gordon Brown and his friends with their late and deceiving interventions, but voters will be prepared for that next time.

The answer is not two-legged referendums, but a single honestly-conducted one.

John Jamieson,

60 Craigie Road,

Ayr.

IT is clear from Westminster debates on Brexit that the SNP intends to apply to rejoin the EU should a second independence referendum be successful. If that happened, we would need to have our own currency, albeit on a temporary basis, so that it could float against other world currencies and find its own level before being replaced by the euro.

I wonder how much that will cost our finite public purse and hard-pressed businesses, not to mention the prospect of additional bureaucratic expenses when a border (hard or soft) is established between Scotland and the rest of the UK.

Iris Clyde,

Voresheed, Kirkwall, Orkney.

Read more: Sturgeon warns party must convince voters Scottish independence will not damage economy

RUTH Davidson says she has "plenty to aim at" in her conference speech this upcoming weekend ("‘Sleep deprived’ Davidson returns with emphasis on domestic issues", The Herald, September 29). No doubt about that, but does she have the ammo? After eight years as leader, observing the SNP's deluded trudge to Indyref2 and 12 years of sub-optimal governance it should be like shooting fish in a barrel, but after early successes the needle's stuck around 20 per cent behind the SNP in the Holyrood 2021 polls.

Voters like her style but where are the election-winning, Scotland-transforming policies on jobs, preventive medicine, education, innovative low cost housing, elderly and social care or, indeed coming up with local solutions to enable benefit claimants to work on fruit farms, a vote winner if ever I saw one?

Of course she will, and has to, engage in SNP-bashing, but people want something to vote for, not just against.

Allan Sutherland,

1 Willow Row, Stonehaven.

NICOLA Sturgeon is sending her faithful troops out to distribute to us all the SNP’s new economic plan for a separate Scotland. Let’s have a preview of it.

Leaving the UK will be portrayed by the SNP as a magic bullet: the mere act of leaving would liberate us and enable us to realise our full potential because Westminster "holds us back". Once the "levers" of economic development are all in our hands, we will reach unprecedented levels of economic achievement. Expect slogans of that sort and unrealistic predictions about high growth rates of the kind mature economies do not achieve.

There will be no mention of the following: rushing to establish a new currency would bring headaches. International currency speculators would swoop to shred it. Repaying mortgages and loans in sterling would be more expensive than now. Importing goods from our largest trading partner, the UK, would be expensive because of an unfavourable exchange rate. Losing the annual fiscal transfer from the Treasury would mean slashing our public spending. Growing our economy would be a stretch, given that Scotland’s growth rates lag behind the UK’s anaemic growth rates and show little sign of improving.

Dear Scots, a leaflet with more pie in the sky promises and projections from the SNP is coming soon to a letter box near you.

Jill Stephenson,

Glenlockhart Valley, Edinburgh.