ACCORDING to John Gilligan (Letters, July 15), "we are to all intents and purposes almost independent" and he contends that we don't need independence because "Scotland is already recognised across the world as a nation and almost all of us would describe ourselves as Scottish". However, regarding his point about our own sport teams performing under the Scottish flag, while the Tartan Army does us proud, it is certainly not the case that Scotland performs under the Saltire in all sporting occasions, as will soon be seen at the Paris Olympics, to name but one instance.

Mr Gilligan must surely be having a laugh when he writes that "we have tremendous representation in the UK Parliament"; we have 57 seats out of 650, two fewer than we had previously. Independence benefits would include Scotland having a seat at the United Nations (like Ireland, Malta, Liechtenstein and so on), and being in the EU after being dragged out against our will, which continues to inflict great damage on Scotland; it would mean not having one arm constantly tied behind our back, but instead having the full powers of an independent nation to grow our economy, and without the fear of governments we never voted for foisted upon us. Because when England gets fed up with Labour, and it will, England will vote Tory again. With independence Scotland is guaranteed to always get the governments it elects.

Mr Gilligan's letter leaves me with the impression that he believes it is enough for Scotland to be pretendy independent, to be a nation, almost but not quite. I have met many people from all over the world who are mystified as to why Scotland is not an independent country, normal like their countries, who thrive with self-respect, self-determination and self-government.

Ruth Marr, Stirling.

Be proud of our CfE

IT is interesting that with the General Election over, Jill Stephenson (Letters, July 13) raises the subject of education in Wales in order to launch another attack on the SNP Scottish Government. The fact that the Scottish Government appears not to have selected her preferred software provider seems a rather thin excuse for such a foray, even for Ms Stephenson.

Certainly, as in the rest of the UK, there are challenges in the classrooms of Scotland, especially post-pandemic, but most of the criticism of the Scottish Government in the mainstream media has been on the basis of PISA scores of 15-year-olds in three tested subjects, a very narrow perspective. Curriculum for Excellence, broadly supported across the political spectrum, was introduced by the SNP Scottish Government in 2010 “to fully prepare today's children for adult life in the 21st century”, in other words to progress a more holistic approach to education, including skills development, rather than simply focusing on academic test results. The success of this approach, praised by the OECD (and now adopted by the Labour Government in Wales), is evident in the record number of 95.9% of students now reaching successful destinations within three months of leaving school. Another measure of education success, also not covered in the PISA report, is the number of tertiary education graduates, by which measure Scotland apparently has “the best educated population in Europe”.

With Ms Stephenson’s further criticism of the SNP Scottish Government for supposedly forfeiting EU funds to which access has not yet expired one wonders why, if the Union is so great for Scotland, she has to persistently resort to writing such partial and misleading letters?

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry.

READ MORE: We are already a nation. We don't need independence

READ MORE: Scotland must drop its addiction to foreign investment

No reputation to rebuild

IN a recent comment, Joanna Cherry, remarked that another ousted nationalist MP, Stewart McDonald, shares her view that ''we must rebuild the SNP's reputation for competence and integrity". What reputation?

It would be interesting to know exactly what Ms Cherry defines as ''competence and integrity". In particular, and in light of the Michael Matheson affair, and as a keen observer of politics north of the Border I do not know of instances of these qualities being shown by the SNP administrations in the many years they have had in office.

They do not have a reputation to rebuild. Rather, the SNP would have to start from scratch and establish one.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh.

In support of public enterprise

IT’S good to see that Guy Stenhouse ("Get a move on Starmer. You have very little time to make a difference", The Herald, July 13) has a new topic now that he has exhausted his castigation of the Scottish Government.

It is less good to see that he continues to selectively choose facts that support his questionable theory that private enterprise is good and public enterprise bad.

BR and BT may have been the poorly performing businesses he suggests, but does anyone believe that publicly managed energy, water and sewage in the 1970s was worse than today’s privatised versions? He is equally happy to ignore private companies which provide poor, overpriced services such as the companies involved in HS2 infrastructure or private companies which fail to get off the mark such as British Volt.

His enthusiasm for Margaret Thatcher clearly knows no bounds. However, it was she and her Chancellor who set the UK on the course to be a service rather than a manufacturing economy, which has led to us importing almost all of our infrastructure and having the biggest trade deficit in our history.

I hope that Keir Starmer can make a difference and I’m sure that careful monitoring of major infrastructure projects could provide value for money whether they are publicly or privately funded.

Sam Craig, Glasgow.

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Politics should not be a career

IT is little wonder that the turnout at the General Election was so low. People have become more disillusioned with politics as the gulf between them and their elected representatives ever widens. The democratic process has evolved to accommodate self and party interest at the expense of the interests of the electorate. The pursuit of easy wealth has displaced public service as the main motivating factor by opportunistic prospective elected members. Not only that, once elected, a prime consideration is to retain the sinecure by deferring to the interests of the party and its leaders at the expense of the principles and promises they were elected on.

The idea that politics is a career must end. Political representatives should be selfless, principled individuals who represent the general population and are motivated by public spiritedness and a desire to change things for the better. The remuneration elected members receive should be a stipend equating to the median salary of the country and service limited to two terms. This in itself would deter the carpetbaggers and ensure an elected body that reflects contemporary values and aspirations.

A legislature filled with such committed and principled individuals would be under little or no pressure from party officials or leaders to toe any particular party line. They would be free to articulate and implement the policies they believed in without being compromised by party pressure. In short, they would not be highly-paid voting fodder as is the case now.

An independent Scottish parliament could lead the world in modernising representative democracy by adopting these changes; changes which I am sure would be welcomed by the long-ignored electorate.

Don Ferguson, Kirkintilloch.

John McDonnellJohn McDonnell (Image: PA)

Mind your language

THE attempted assassination of President Trump was an appalling act whatever views one holds of that individual (“Attempt on Trump’s life condemned by leaders across world”, The Herald, July 15). Once again it highlights the dreadful gun culture in the USA but it seems “hell will freeze over” before action is taken.

However much has been said of the use of language by politicians and this is reflected on all sides of the political spectrum and it should be noted that is not a new phenomenon. John McDonnell, Labour MP said in January 2018 that the Tory Minister Esther McVey was “a stain on humanity” and later repeated a comment that he had purportedly heard that she should be “lynched”. Nicola Sturgeon MSP and former First Minister of Scotland, said in October 2022 that “I detest the Tories and everything they stand for." The most recent comments come from Joe Biden, that “It’s time to put Trump in a bullseye”.

In a world where social media is wholly unregulated and allows anonymity to its contributors, politicians from all sides must concentrate hard on what they say and how they say it. Their language can be heard on a global basis and some consequential thinking should be adopted before they open their mouths to offer us mere mortals their opinions.

Richard Allison, Edinburgh.

• ON Sunday the BBC website led with the headline “US Secret Service facing questions after Donald Trump survives assassination attempt”. Presumably that is how rumours get started.

Brian Dempsey, Dundee.