Letters: SNP has launched its own Project Fear, replete with fake news

Regina Erich,

1 Willow Row, Stonehaven.

ANOTHER speech by Nicola Sturgeon and another claim of grievance against the UK Government. This time she says Brexit will be used to “rein in the Scottish parliament”, even though the UK’s Brexit White Paper made clear more powers would be devolved to Scotland when they are returned from Brussels. But the SNP never lets the facts get in the way of a good grievance, so makes something up to complain about anyway.

Keith Howell,

White Moss, West Linton, Peeblesshire.

REGARDING Nicola Sturgeon’s question "should we decide for ourselves which path to take, or are we willing to have that path decided for us", does she mean by Brussels?

Anne Kegg (Conservative councillor, South Lanarkshire Council),

12 Holmwood Avenue, Uddingston.

NICOLA Sturgeon has explained that she does not wish Westminster to have any say in Scotland's agriculture and fisheries polices. Instead, she wants these to be wholly controlled by Brussels.

We should thank her for making her position clear.

Peter A Russell,

87 Munro Road, Jordanhill, Glasgow.

WITH regard to Nicola Sturgeon's claim that the Tories are exploiting Brexit to wreck devolution, some might observe that in exploiting Brexit Nicola Sturgeon could end up wrecking Scotland: but I couldn't possibly.

R Russell Smith,

96 Milton Road, Killbirnie.

IF Scotland remains within the Union it will always be ruled from afar, and long-distance relationships seldom work out well for both parties.

A vote for independence is not a vote for the SNP, rather it is the desire of a country to have its own government within its own borders and therefore, in theory at least, within easy reach of the electorate to keep honest.

An independent Scotland would have nothing to fear from being an equal member of the European Union, whereas at the moment Westminster considers us a mere region and seems determined to reinforce that status. Witness the cutting back of promised investment on the Clyde, the closing of Longannet power station due to "connection" costs and so on - all signs of asset-stripping to weaken the standing of our country.

Only with autonomous Scottish Labour, Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Liberal parties et al, together with the SNP, vying to govern will the Scottish people finally get a government with our interests at heart.

John Elder,

Howden Hall Road, Edinburgh.

IN referring to Scots of diverse political views who are not Nationalists or pro-independence as "the Unionist side", David C Purdie (Letters, February 28) rather admits that nationalism and the independence referendum have divided Scotland into two factions. It's hard to see how a referendum, which offered only a binary choice between leaving the UK and staying, could have been anything other than "divisive", unless the electorate were automatons or clones who all made the same choice. It played to our tendency as a species to "groupishness", one of our worst faults and the cause of so much human misery.

The horrifying blood spillage by warring nations in the first part of the 20th century led to the Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. With all human beings being equally entitled to its rights and freedoms, without any distinction such as national origin, it was part of a shift in political focus to the importance of the individuals who make up a nation, rather than the nation itself.

The happenstance of being Scottish does not define who I am or how I think politically, and as an individual I refuse to have my identity subsumed under a "national" identity. I have the right and am free to think for myself, to assess evidence, to avoid falling prey to sophistry and illusion and to reason my way to decisions. Nationalists, including online lurkers, can girn and sneer and jeer as much as they like, but they will never take away my freedom as an individual to do so.

A McCulloch,

16 South Street, Mintlaw, Aberdeenshire.

SADIQ Khan’s comments about the proximity of racism and nationalism have been treated to much explanation by Scottish Labour and with derision by many Yes supporters. There needs to be a calmer look at the debate as it is likely to recur in various forms in the months ahead.

Much of the generality of what Sadiq Khan said is reasonable but needs to be contextualised. His ignorance of the Scottish historical cultural and political scene allowed him to be thrown into a debate that I am sure he did not anticipate. His Scottish advisers should have suggested caution but perhaps their instincts were disarmed by the prospect of a major London figure saying what some within the Labour Party may feel.

Serious debates about racism need to consider the impact of class. It is disconcerting to see people of Asian and other origins condemning migrants and refugees when they themselves came as such a generation or so ago.

Government leadership is also a factor in public debate. The Scottish Government has given an admirable lead in this respect in its promotion of civic nationalism and welcome of migrants, overseas students and refugees. Contrast this with the sudden rise in anti-semitic and racist incidents in Donald Trump’s United States.

Building a civilised society of diversity and tolerance is slow and difficult and Scotland still has much to do. Racism in all its forms is disabling and debilitating whatever the skin colour of those targeted. The anti- Irish racism and sectarianism that has been around for more than a century and the exclusions it has produced continue to afflict the most vulnerable people in Scottish-Irish communities. Hostility to Polish people and other Europeans increased in the lead up to the European referendum.

A future independence referendum looms – let’s try to conduct this in a more rational and respectful manner.

Maggie Chetty.

36 Woodend Drive, Glasgow.