SNP is the victim of a ruthless campaign by a UK terrified by 2014

In my opinion, Mr Gardner, like the rest of the movement for Scotland’s independence, including the SNP, is a victim of harassment. I hope he will continue to support one of the many other branches of the movement.

This harassment, I am certain history will eventually demonstrate, quickly evolved from general unionist antagonism to much more seriously-designed intervention immediately after the early days of September 2014 when referendum polls indicated that Scotland would indeed choose independence.

Those polls shocked Westminster to its core; it panicked. However, the British Empire has never surrendered colonies, particularly those ripe for asset-stripping, without a ruthless fight. The infamous “Vow” followed immediately; David Cameron unconstitutionally begged for help from the monarchy and subsequently told us that the Queen “purred” when his gambit apparently succeeded.

Nine months later, in the General Election, the Scottish electorate confirmed that independence is still our aim; we have sustained and built that democratic choice for the last nine years. Surely only the ridiculously naïve can believe that the desperate unionist panic of September 2014 was not the beginning of much more complex, much more cynical interventions against what is clearly an existential threat to the supremacy of London rule.

Unionists who wish to dismiss this letter with the currently popular catchphrase of “conspiracy theory” will be denying not just the history of independence campaigns and their leaders in other ex-colonies like Ireland and India, but the recent cold-blooded disposal of socialist policies in England and the relentless character assassination of Jeremy Corbyn by both main Westminster parties and their associated media.

History does, indeed, also document the clay feet of most political leaders who are, we are reminded, human beings. The present screeching onslaught against the SNP’s apparently chaotic accounting of fridge freezers and caravans wildly misjudges the intelligence, humanity and clear memories of the Scottish electorate still determined to remove our country from a rotten system of misrule.

Nothing has changed: despite nine years of ugly, expensive “interventions”, culminating in recent grotesque spectacles, Scottish independence is still the catalyst that will force vital constitutional change – a more honourable, internationally respectable beginning for all four nations of the British Isles.

Frances McKie, Evanton.

Read more: SNP donors urged to get Indyref2 refunds while they can

We all feel traumatised

NICOLA Sturgeon was clearly genuinely upset when speaking of the trauma of police investigations (“SNP finance crisis ‘the stuff of nightmares’, admits Sturgeon”, The Herald, April 26). She will doubtless therefore sympathise with all those across Scotland who have felt similarly traumatised by the way over many years her Government appeared to all but give up on them.

Whether they live in island communities isolated by failing ferry services, or are seeking mental health services, or have children destined to underachieve because of where they live, or are on a range of public service waiting lists that seem never-ending, there are many who are traumatised across Scotland and who hope this SNP Government will get over its own internal dramas to start properly helping those it is paid to serve.

Keith Howell, West Linton.

• AS a member of the SNP and great admirer of Nicola Sturgeon, particularly throughout the pandemic, I am astounded to hear her say that the party “is in good shape”. I’m not sure that many fellow members would agree.

Brian Watt, Edinburgh.

• AS each financial shambles unfolds we get confirmation that the SNP has been doing a sterling job living up to its acronym: the Scottish Never-never Party.

Stop Now Please.

Alison Ram, Helensburgh.

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Tell us the true Green cost

OUR new Finance Secretary has yet to inform voters that a ban on domestic gas will increase annual energy bills from the current £2,500 for those using average yearly units of energy to around £5,250 – a 100% increase. Why, then, does the SNP/Green alliance complain about the impact of present prices on the cost of living when its Just Transition will double the effect ?

In addition, if Humza Yousaf extends the ban on highly protected marine areas (HPMAs) as they are unacceptable to coastal communities ("Yousaf says he will not impose HPMAs. Are they dead in water?", The Herald, April 25), will this policy also apply to planning permission for 20,000MW of windmills in the Flow Country? Why the silence over such a project ?

It would also be useful if the Government could indicate whether Scots could afford the debt burden of a Green Revolution when independence results in a decade of austerity.

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas.

We must follow US on inflation

RECENT commentators have noted that given the UK’s appalling growth figures we are the economic "sick man" of Europe, hurtling back to the 1970s ("Inflation helps UK regain unwanted ‘sick man of Europe’ tag once again", The Herald, April 21).

While we can indeed appropriately boast this label, with the UK predicted to be one of the worst-performing economies this year, it is rather an insult to the 1970s for it to be described as heading back to those days.

The 1970s were an economic golden age when compared with the economic mire we are currently in, with economic growth eclipsing the situation currently. Our economic woes are set to worsen further as the EU and US pump trillions of pounds into green technologies.

The US is spending more than £310 billion on subsidies and tax incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act, and the EU is pledging to look at following suit. In contrast, the UK’s response to this has been derisory, and several British manufacturers are now considering investing in the US given the billions on offer to support electric vehicles and green energy companies.

The UK equivalent of an Inflation Reduction Act is desperately required, allowing the UK to compete with the US and the EU, failing which we will continue to fall even further behind as companies look to more appealing overseas investment opportunities.

Alex Orr, Edinburgh.

Read more: Closure of Glasgow homeless GP service ' very worrying'

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Who will serve homeless now?

I READ with concern today that the GP practice established in Glasgow in 2002 to work specifically to meet the needs of homeless people in the city has closed down as of March 31 ("Concern as GP service aimed at homeless is closed down", The Herald, April 26). Members of the Deep End GP group have raised their concerns and as one of the the original three GPs appointed to the homeless practice more than 20 years ago, I can very much identify with and share those concerns.

The complexities associated with being homeless require that GPs and fellow health professionals have sufficiency of time to spend with their patients. Recognising the challenges of such in mainstream General Practice was a significant driver when Homeless Health Services were founded in Glasgow. As a GP at Hunter Street, my GP colleagues and I could spend as much time as was required in working with our patients in the assessment and management of their problems – time far in excess of the standard 10-minute appointment mainstream practice often allows for.

At Hunter Street patients knew where to find us, while third sector voluntary organisations on whom so many homeless people rely could easily contact us and more often than not, we would see patients within a few hours of a request. I have looked at both the website of the Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership and the Twitter account of the Complex Needs Service and in neither could I find any information as to how to contact nor access the Complex Needs Service which now incorporates the provision of services for people experiencing homelessness in the city. The Twitter account advises: "For any urgent medical advice please contact your GP or NHS 24 on 111." That's a bit of an ask for a person in Glasgow who is experiencing homelessness and is not registered with a local GP.

Alan Mitchell, Motherwell.