IT is not required - nor is it even desirable - for a Letters Editor to agree with everything that is published on the Letters Pages.

Yesterday, though, Mike Cantlay, chairman of VisitScotland struck a chord when he mentioned what a momentous year 2014 had been for his organisation, and for the nation.

Our readers have had their say on all of the key events over the past 12 months. This seems an appropriate time to look back at what we have all been arguing about.

The honour of providing the first lead letter of the year went to Robert Bennie of Glasgow, who discussed a survey that claimed 56 per cent of Scots thought the SNP was wasting public money, and calling on the Opposition parties to step up to the plate. Some would contend that that did not take place until the second week of September.

February kicked off with one of the more esoteric questions of the years: should Jack Vettriano's paintings be considered works of art? That one will probably run into the next century ...

By the middle of the month, the philosopher AC Grayling, writing in The Herald, had sparked a furious debate with a treatise on "squabbling separatism". Again, no consensus has as yet been reached.

In March, a frequent topic on the Letters Pages was the issue of assisted dying. This was rendered all the more poignant the following month with the sad loss of Margo MacDonald, who had introduced the Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill to the Scottish Parliament. Again, this is a debate that will continue to polarise opinion for some time to come.

April began with our readers debating the future of Trident - sparked by an interview with Alex Salmond - and ended with discussion on the qualities of Vladimir Putin - sparked by an interview with Alex Salmond. Plus ca change...

In early May, our sister paper the Sunday Herald came out in favour of independence, and we were at pains to point out our neutrality and repeated our pledge to scrutinise and hold both sides to account. Our readers were, of course, willing and able to help us in that aim.

In June correspondents were discussing John Swinney's proposals on post-independence borrowing, and a furious debate on an independent Scotland's share of the UK national debate ensued. In July, however, Scotland's share of gold in another form - namely, record successes in the Commonwealth Games held sway.

In August there was a heated debate sparked by a research paper which contended that women were less likely to support independence than men because they were more risk-averse; our female correspondents certainly made their voices heard.

September; ah, September. As I have written here before, the level of correspondence rose to the extent that we were receiving around 200 letters a day; we responded by publishing, in the week running up to the vote, 40,00 words written by our readers.

October and November saw much argument over the formation and delivery of the Smith Commission proposals, with the small matter of Mr Swinney's first tax-raising budget thrown in.

It remains to be see which topics will dominate the rest of this month and, indeed, the start of 2015. That, of course, is down to you.