NICOLA Sturgeon's decision to focus on good governance rather than independence should be welcomed by all sensible people living in Scotland (“Sturgeon: It is time to return to everyday concerns”, The Herald, October 15. Recent SNP failings are well documented and it is right that the First Minister gets her party's priorities right.

Unlike her predecessor, Mr Salmond, Ms.Sturgeon is a realist and pragmatist rather than a fantasist and egotist. She also recognises the huge schisms that were created in Scottish society by the referendum, and that reconciliation towards “The 55” is essential if Scotland is to truly move forward.

At the heart of the First Minister's change of heart, however, must surely be the realisation that, as things stand, the economy of a newly independent Scotland would be in serious difficulty. Collapsing oil revenues increasingly look to be a long-term fact of life and, as part of a strong Union, our country is performing well. If her camp had won in September 2014, we would now be a mere six months away from breaking the Union and be facing the mother of all economic debacles.

Although she would never admit it, she knows that the Scottish people made the correct decision last year. As it is, the SNP now controls Holyrood; have the third largest representation at Westminster; and have the devolved powers necessary to shape Scottish society in the way they see fit; all of this without the risk and costs of setting up a fully independent state with a new currency, defence capability, and self-supporting welfare state, not to mention the capital flight that would surely have followed a separatist victory.

I am increasingly hopeful that political common sense is returning to the fold in Scotland. If that is the case, it will be Nicola Sturgeon's biggest achievement to date.

Derek Miller,

Westbank,

West Balgrochan Road, Torrance.

AT the SNP conference the First Minister delivers comforting words of how she and the SNP will be guided by the twin principles of respect and democracy in their approach to a referendum re-run. This is intended to reassure and encourage all potential voters, including those who voted No last year, that they can support the SNP without necessarily triggering another referendum. How wonderful it must be to hold so many of the country in your thrall and to get away with such a play on words.

The reality is clear for all to see. The SNP Government intends to “respect” the democratic result of the September 2014 referendum only until the point it decides the circumstances favour them, when it will put us all through the whole process again. Many in the SNP speculate the conditions will be right within four to five years, perhaps earlier depending on the outcome of the EU vote.

For Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP, democracy is about getting the right result for them, the cost to the rest of us meanwhile is uncertainty and continued mismanagement from a government continually distracted by trying to find ways to prise our country apart.

Keith Howell,

White Moss, West Linton, Peeblesshire.

I WAS reminded of Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, posing the query “What’s in a name?” by Iain Macwhirter (“In its imperial phase the SNP surely needs critical friends”, The Herald, October 15). He referred to the First Minister as being a “genuine social democrat”. What, indeed, is that attribution supposed to mean?

The attachment of that description to a political party in the UK in the 1980s lit up the political landscape for a comparatively short time. The SDP was established in March 1981, with the main proponents being Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen, and Bill Rodgers. Who can forget the heady days when Roy Jenkins won Hillhead for the SDP from the Conservatives? A brave new world beckoned.

However, after linking with the Liberals and performing poorly in the 1987 General Election, a few of the SDP soldiered on briefly under David Owen after the merger with the Liberals. Early promise of a new “progressive” force in British politics was to be unfulfilled. I am now tempted to wonder whether or not the new enthusiasm, attached to certain strands of the Labour Party in efforts to erase the legacy of New Labour and to pursue an anti-austerity line, could prove to be a similar temporary phenomenon.

It is clear that nothing is forever in British politics. Perhaps, when the real political drivers of the SNP, apart from pushing for independence, become clear and the currently suppressed policy divisions begin to become evident, as no doubt they will, that part, with the passage of time, will also become a footnote in history like the erstwhile SDP.

Ian W Thomson,

38 Kirkintilloch Road, Lenzie.