Power must be devolved, but to beyond Holyrood

The Scottish Parliament was, inter alia, an attempt to restore the democratic deficit caused by the abolition of regional authorities. But Holyrood's role is ambiguous, neither a sovereign body nor a local authority but attempting to be both while drawing functions away from local control into its own hands.

Most areas represented by SNP politicians voted No in the referendum. The core of industrial Strathclyde, with no strong nationalist tradition - Glasgow, North Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire - voted Yes, showing that they want something quite different from the rest of Scotland; perhaps a city region, not as extensive as the old Strathclyde, but comparable to English city regions and free from petty interference from Edinburgh.

By including Greater Glasgow in its City Deals, David Cameron's Government belatedly woke up to this but more must be done. Any government elected at Westminster, if it wants to keep the UK together, should not attempt to buy off the SNP with more devolution to Holyrood, but focus on devolution beyond Holyrood.

John McMaster,

2 Manse Road, Mount Vernon, Glasgow.

POOR Sir John Major, the former PM does seem to have stirred up a hornet's nest by delivering a robust warning on the ramifications of a strong independence seeking SNP presence on the Westminster benches.

Both the First Minister and her predecessor, Alex Salmond, have apparently called his words "undemocratic". I always have an uncomfortable feeling with the use of the concept of democracy as a supportive argument as it perhaps suggests that historically the people are always right whenever they have made a decision. It is sometimes worth remembering that in 1933 the Nazi party won the German election democratically.

I doubt if any observer is, on the lead-up to the UK General Elections, lacking in enough imagination to foresee what a desperately unfamiliar situation could develop if the SNP wipe the floor with Labour, the Liberals and indeed perhaps our Scottish Tory.

By way of a reverie, allow me to consider what our reaction would be if, after the next American elections it became known that the people elected by the Southern States to the House of Representatives had an agenda to actively seek to re-establish the Confederacy. The civilised world would shudder at what the consequences of the possible break up would be on the worlds most powerful federal nation, and on everyone else. I suspect that, in that fanciful event, Vladimir Putin would be tempted to declare a public holiday.

Our UK General Election on May 7th will be historic, simply because we are witnessing the Scottish Nationalists, having lost the referendum, seeking to employ a political device worthy of a Grandmaster of chess. However if the SNP do have a landslide, the First Minister may well be right if she claims that democracy has won. I feel however that landslides have a habit of blocking the way forward.

Bill Brown,

46 Breadie Drive, Milngavie.

WAS it really only a few months ago that we Scots were being assured that we were a much-valued member of the UK family of nations and played a valuable role in the affairs and economy of the nation? How things have change. Now it seems that we have become the enemy within the camp, our MPs not to be trusted and our sole ambition being to break up the United Kingdom, rather than simply regain independence for Scotland ("Love bombing replaced by a wave of visceral attacks" Herald editorial, April 22).

The latest comments by Boris Johnson and Sir John Major are frankly disgraceful, especially coming from two senior and experienced politicians who should know better. Sadly their unpleasant and almost racist comments reflect the widespread views of the so-called national press, all based in London, which seek each day to outdo each other in the level of vitriolic comment about Scotland and the Scots in general.

Scotland's population of 5.2 million is 8.4 per cent of the UK's 62 million. The 59 MPs we now send to the House of Commons make up nine per cent of the 650 total, so we are fairly represented there. Our MPs are there not just to represent the interests of Scotland, but to play a full part in the scrutiny of legislation affecting all of the United Kingdom, of which Scotland is still a significant member, not some evil alien intruder.

Legislation said to apply only to England or to England, Wales and Northern Ireland (EWNI), often has indirect implications for Scotland, particularly if it includes financial arrangements which might lead to Barnett Formula consequentials, so again Scottish MPs are quite entitled to vote on such law. And by the way, funding via this formula is not some gratuitous and grudging hand-out from English taxpayers, it is simply a means of returning to Scotland some proportion of the total annual taxation raised here but all sent to the LondonTreasury.

The suggestion that some loose voting arrangement agreed between the SNP group and one of the larger parties would mean Scotland effectively governing the UK by the back door is frankly ludicrous. Even the formal coalition between the Tories and Liberal Democrats in the past five years gave the much smaller party only limited influence, as can be seen from voting reform, student fees, and the bedroom tax, to name just a few.

If senior politicians and the London media continue to vilify Scotland and question its place within the United Kingdom, this will lead to only one eventual outcome - a sweeping SNP success at next year's Holyrood election followed by a second referendum before 2020, this time with a very different result. The Unionist parties should be careful what they wish for.

Iain AD Mann,

7 Kelvin Court, Glasgow.

ALEX Gallagher gives a simplistic and garbled account of the founding principles of Scottish nationalism and the Labour Party (Letters, April 22).

That iconic figure in the history of the left, John Maclean said: "Scottish separation is part of the process of England's imperial disintegration, and is a help towards the ultimate triumph of the workers of the world". He clearly saw the continuation of the imperialistic British state as a bar to building socialism - a just and fair society. The much-discussed "British road to Socialism" is an impossibility, as the British state is historically and congenitally an imperialist construct.

Likewise Robert Cunningham Grahame, first president of the Scottish Labour Party was also a founder of the National Party of Scotland in 1928, and the first president of the Scottish National Party in 1934. His vision of socialism was intrinsically linked to the achievement of Scottish independence.

George Lansbury wrote of Maclean: "He saw evil, and his whole being was ablaze with wrath." Who can imagine what would be the depth of his wrath, if he could see what is happening today in Scotland, where the Labour Party supports the world's most powerful machine for the mass extermination of life, the great idol of the British imperial state, Trident?

Notwithstanding the desperate efforts of Alex Gallagher, the moral nihilism of the current Scottish Labour Party would horrify the Labour heroes of the past. The Scottish Radicals of 1820 Baird, Hardie and Wilson, Thomas Muir of Huntershill, Robert Burns, James Thomson Callender, John MacLean, R. Cunningham Grahame, Keir Hardie, Tom Johnston, James Maxton, Ramsey McDonald - to name but a few - must be birling in their graves.

Brian Quail,

2 Hyndland Avenue, Glasgow.

ALEX Gallagher fails to recognise that the purpose of the independence movement is to attain better life opportunities for the inhabitants of Scotland. In the 1960s and 1970s redundancies stalked the land and many were not well served by alternating Unionist governments , which is still the case: I joined the SNP in 1976 to remedy that, and found many there of a like mind.

The socialism to which Alex Gallagher refers suffers from the realities of New Labour: minimal control of bankers, PFI, Trident and Mr Blair's war in Iraq.

SNP policy emerges from branches, constituencies and conferences, and is social democratic. The SNP is clearly seen to stand up for Scotland more successfully than Labour's branch in Scotland.

Colin Campbell,

Braeside, Shuttle Street, Kilbarchan.

DEREK Miller (Letters, April 22) worries that SNP "interference" at Westminster on matters already devolved to Scotland will raise the hackles of voters in the rest of the UK. I fear he may be too late on that front, as Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs from Scottish constituencies have been doing that for years, already causing consternation in many quarters. At least any such "interference" from SNP MPs will be driven by actual cause and effect from nominally English legislation on Scotland's budget rather than to drive through unpopular policies because party whips at Westminster need the voting fodder.

Michael Rossi,

66 Canalside Gardens, Southall, Middlesex.

IN setting out the steps required for a further referendum, I am afraid your correspondent Alan Carroll (Letters, April 22) has missed out the most important part. I am happy to fill the gap.

Like the one that was held in September last year, any further referendum would again require the consent of Westminster, as the constitution is a matter reserved to Scotland's UK government. All of the parties of government have committed to implement the Smith Report, so none would have a mandate to sanction such a referendum.

Likewise, Nicola Sturgeon has told us that the General Election is not about independence, so not even her MPs would have any mandate to support a new referendum. In addition, it was specifically pledged by Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon that there would not be a further referendum for a generation or a lifetime.

So all in all, there is no chance of a new referendum at any time in the foreseeable future, which is as it should be, and anyone voting for the SNP in the hope that it would bring one (and independence) any closer is wasting their vote.

Peter A Russell,

87 Munro Road, Jordanhill, Glasgow.

WHY is Nicola Sturgeon now interested in the ordinary working people of England " (SNP 'not going to London to block budgets,", The Herald, April 21), when all she really wants to do is turn her back on them and walk away?

Moyna Gardner,

28 Hamilton Park Avenue, Glasgow.