ADAM Tompkins lapses into lists of unionist rhetoric on the challenges of Scottish nationhood in support of his thesis that the current absence of active campaigning indicates the constitutional question is going into cold storage ("The signs of summer 2021 that it's all quiet on the second referendum front", The Herald, July 28).

As a constitutional lawyer he must be aware of the many new European nations that have been created in the last 30 years. Estonia, Bulgaria, Slovenia and the Czech Republic are examples of small countries which have emerged and flourished following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Miraculously, all of these nations gained statehood by executing the economic and administrative tasks Mr Tompkins opines would be impossible or ruinously expensive in a newly independent Scotland. Apparently, he believes that alone among the nations of Europe, Scotland, with its outstanding natural and human resources, could not provide services, pensions and security for its people.

Professor Tompkins is a unionist and will never support independence but asserting that nation building is too difficult for us Scots is truly cringeworthy. Instead of denigrating our country and its people perhaps he should tell us why he thinks we are fortunate to have politicians such as his erstwhile colleagues Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg contributing to Scotland's governance.

He is right about one thing, there is little current campaigning by the Scottish Government to promote independence. The First Minister committed to concentrate on the management of the pandemic before deploying the substantial Holyrood majority for independence to negotiate Indyref2. She has done this despite sustained pressure from within her own party and the wider independence movement because she correctly judges that ushering the pandemic to quiescence must take priority.

Mr Tompkins need not fret. The second referendum is coming and perhaps sooner than he thinks. The campaign will give him every opportunity to tell the people of Scotland they are incapable of facilitating nationhood. Perhaps his column was a pitch for the leadership of Better Together 2.0.

Iain Gunn, Elgin.

RESULTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES

LIBDEM leadership contender Alex Cole-Hamilton, claims Nicola Sturgeon does not have a mandate for Indyref2 ("LibDem leadership candidate opens door to Labour coalition", The Herald, July 28). This coming from the party which is the runt of the litter at both Holyrood and Westminster with only four MSPs at Holyrood and four MPs from Scotland in the House of Commons.

I think Mr Cole-Hamilton need to have a credibility check and reflect on the following figures: Holyrood election 2021, SNP 64 MSPs; Westminster General Election, SNP 45 MPs. Results speak for themselves and a mandate for Indyref2 is secure. The LibDems are yesterday’s news.

Catriona C Clark, Falkirk.

USING COVID TO SCORE POINTS

RICHARD Allison (Letters, July 29) should have checked his facts before taking Nicola Sturgeon to task for not holding her Covid briefing in Parliament as the fact is, Parliament isn't sitting; and as her remarks were directed at opposition parties and some journalists who had made their allegations via the press, it was right that Ms Sturgeon should have used that medium to reply.

It is no wonder that the First Minister should be exasperated with those who continually use the Covid crisis to score petty political points. Over many months, both last year and this, Ms Sturgeon has given her regular briefings on the pandemic situation and patiently answered questions from the press, even although on many occasions one journalist after the other would ask her the same question; it was obvious, even as she tried to give as much detail as possible, that no matter what she said, some of these journalists had already written their articles for their newspapers, which would appear the next day along with the inevitable lurid headlines.

Yes, it would have been correct for Ms Sturgeon to have used the word "offered" as opposed to "given" when referring to vaccine doses, but as nobody can be forced to get the vaccine, I think most reasonable people would have known what she meant; it speaks volumes that opposition politicians and some journalists are so desperate to bring down the First Minister, after they comprehensively failed at the recent election, that they would stoop so low as to seize on one word and with faux outrage, use it as a stick with which to beat her.

Ruth Marr, Stirling.

* RICHARD Allison's letter accusing Nicola Sturgeon of "mind-boggling arrogance" is rather puzzling. While I accept that the manipulation of words is standard practice in expressing indignation, I cannot understand how the statement "I assume a certain level of intelligence on the part of people listening to me because I think that is justified" can be described as arrogant. Isn't that what we all assume?

Peter Dryburgh, Edinburgh.

FM INSULTED US ALL

AS a number of your correspondents have rightly pointed out (Letters, July 29), Nicola Sturgeon has insulted us all for not having the intelligence to understand that “given” really meant “offered”. If her original comment was simply a misquote, surely one of her mammoth PR team would have pointed that out and she could have simply issued a short correction statement? Furthermore, I recall her crowing about the UK Government quoting “offered" figures and attempting to make political gain on that practice. However, as we know she and her Government are never wrong in their mutual admiration society eyes and sadly this will continue as long as she retains the support of a devoted following who care not a jot about her performance in government.

Duncan Sooman, Milngavie.

BENEFITS OF THE UNION DIVIDEND

EVEN the usually antagonistic SNP has reached stratospheric levels of grievance by asking that Rishi Sunak apologises for the removal of the furlough scheme in September.

The scheme has cost £66 billion and would have been impossible to fund in an independent Scotland, leading to countless job losses and thousands more deaths from Covid-19.

As always, the SNP, with its wide range of expertise, has said little on how the scheme could be continued or funded into the future, instead spewing out the usual combination of predictable, resentful, hollow platitudes.

No one is expecting a nationalistic administration to be grateful to the UK Government and its taxpayers, but perhaps a dignified silence would have been more fitting or desired.

Meanwhile, the majority of the population can see the benefits of the "Union dividend", through the world-leading vaccine research and subsequent rollout, armed forces support, UK tax base, and the soon-to-end furlough scheme.

David Bone, Girvan.

SUCH A PAUCITY OF TALENT

WE have had two examples this week which amply demonstrate the paucity of talent amongst the political classes in the UK.

First, we had our First Minister, whose hubris at least is world class, having a Trump-style rant at the press, all because they called her out on a target that she set and subsequently failed to meet.

Then, we had the sight of our Prime Minister apparently vying for the title of Upper Class Twit of the Year, as he lamentably failed to put up an umbrella to protect himself from a downpour.

Never before, I suspect, have we in the UK had to suffer such poor leaders. We truly do live in interesting times.

Stuart Brennan, Glasgow.

LET'S HAVE EQUALITY IN OUR SCHOOLING

I SHARE Kevin McKenna's satisfaction in the creation of An Gorta Mor in the city's Calton district on Sunday ("Glasgow’s memorial to the Great Famine is for all who are fleeing oppression", The Herald, July 26). Glasgow's history is intertwined with these dreadful famines in 19th century Ireland for good and ill and it is right that such a memorial should be set up.

Sadly, Mr McKenna makes the same mistake that he has made before in seeking to justify the existence of denominational schools in Scotland today, on the basis of historical events.

It's a red herring to suggest that the main reason for antipathy to Catholic schools is that they lead to "anti-Catholic attitudes". The evidence for this is indeed shaky.

Rather, the questions facing supporters of denominational schools include, is it right that taxpayers' money should be spent in promoting any faith? Is it right that members of any religious hierarchy should be allowed to veto the appointments of otherwise successful staff appointments at interview? Is it right in a public sector institution that specific posts should be ring-fenced for members of a particular faith?

It seems to me to be the ultimate irony that those victims of such tragic discrimination during and after the Great Famine, including probably members of my own family, now have some of their descendants perpetuating discrimination in the modern state education system. For goodness sake, let's have a universal system of equal opportunities and respect for all faiths in Scotland through RE lessons and organised religious events, which already take place in non-denominational schools.

Barry Stansfield, Glasgow.

Read more: Sturgeon's arrogance will bring about her downfall