On the whole, I agree with John Swinney's view that independence will be settled by the wider financial views of voters ("'We are on the verge of independence ...

this is the time of my political life'", Scotland Decides, The Herald, June 19). But so far the SNP has lost every economic argument.

The economy is growing at a rate in excess of three per cent; inflation is at 1.5 per cent and unemployment at 6.6 per cent; employment is at its highest ever; full-time jobs are increasing rapidly; and youth and long-term unemployment have plummeted. To meet growing demand for goods and services, capital investment is taking off, eventually raising real wages.

Perhaps the SNP would explain how they would do any better. Their currency policy (keeping sterling and the Bank of England) ties them into support for higher interest rates on the public debt that they intend to run up. Their socialistic pursuit of regulation and state planning will stifle enterprise and undermine the market economy. Their obsession with inequality and so-called 'fairness' in a rich country amounts to nothing more than spite and envy.

Losing the economic argument, the SNP have presented no historic case to tug at the heart-strings. Indeed, as David Torrance argues ("Bannockburn, the Crown and a sovereign decision", The Herald, June 23), the forthcoming commemoration of the Battle of Bannockburn is mere atavism, recalling a clash between two leaders of the Norman ruling class, who could not speak Scots nor English and who cared little for the serfs whom they ruled.

The SNP cannot define Scotland in terms of a culture based on difference from the UK in ethnicity, language, traditions and social relations, for there is none. The Nationalists are a political vacuum, a soufflé of anger and resentment. The sum-total of their case is "no more Tory government", and they wish to promulgate a written basic law for an independent Scotland that would make Conservatism and us Conservatives unconstitutional by embedding in the document the pursuit of income equality and opposition to nuclear defence and, thereby, Nato.

It is we Unionists who have the emotional case in this debate because we have everything to lose from independence. I, for one, would feel a deep bitterness at the ending of the United Kingdom. My world would have been shattered by people, some of them still friends, who would make me an alien in a place in which I have lived happily and harmoniously for 42 years.

Richard Mowbray,

14 Ancaster Drive,

Glasgow.

THE Cabinet Office refuses to publish an expensive poll on devolution and independence ("UK Government refuses to publish £47k indy survey", The Herald, June 21). They claim publishing would be against the public interest in allowing the private formulation and development of government policy.

However, this is a misdirection. The Freedom of Information Act says the public interest exemption cannot be invoked against releasing "statistical information" if a "decision as to government policy has been taken".

Indeed, the Information Commissioner's general position is the formulation and development of policy is not open ended, and that policy implementation is separate. The UK Government are currently leafleting all Scottish households ("UK Government spend £720,000 to provide every household with booklet on facts of indyref'', The Herald, June 12). This clearly demonstrates we are at the implementation stage, meaning a "decision" as to government policy must have been taken.

Iain Nicol,

32 Yeaman Place, Edinburgh.

YOU report the welcome news that there is to be a televised debate between the leaders of Better Together and the Yes campaign. I thought the leader of the Yes campaign was Dennis Canavan, whose profile so far has been extremely low. Is it just that he has been elbowed aside by the noisier Alex Salmond? Should we not be told who actually leads the Yes campaign?

Andrew A Reid,

75 Glencairn Drive, Glasgow.

THE SNP can say all it wants about written constitutions, EU membership, nuclear power and Nato. However, in the event of a Yes vote in the forthcoming referendum, the only organisation making decisions on these matters will be the first elected government of an independent Scotland. Whether Alex Salmond is the leader of such a government will similarly be a matter for the Scottish electorate.

D H Telford,

11 Highfield Terrace, Fairlie.