IT is surely very premature for any firm conclusions to be drawn from a single month’s change in the Purchasing Managers’ Index published only a month after the EU referendum. You state that economists “attribute the PMI’s dramatic deterioration directly to the Brexit vote” (“Brexit muddle needs to be tackled and tackled soon”, Herald editorial, July 23).

Economists argued in the 1920s that we must adopt the gold standard (wrong); they did not foresee that 1929 crash; they predicted disaster when we abandoned gold in the 1930s (wrong – it helped us get out of the great depression); they promoted an excessive “neo-Keynesianism” leading to our stagflation in the 1960s/1970s; 364 economists predicted disaster from the Thatcher/Howe reforms in the 1980s (wrong); they predicted the same when we left the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992 (wrong, it led to a 15-year boom); they said the UK must join the euro in 2000 (wrong); they did not foresee the 2008 crash; and in 2014 the IMF was forced to admit it was wrong only a year after its criticism of our current policies (and previously admitted it exacerbated Argentina’s currency crisis in 2000/2001, and underestimated the recent effects of austerity in Greece). Hardly the greatest track-record.

You talk of Brexiters “whistling insouciantly” and not dealing with the “growing gap between economic reality and patriotic pipe-dream”, while the “economy goes up in smoke”. Such words may or may not prove to be validated over time. But there is no doubt whatever that, rather than to Brexiters, they already do apply unequivocally, and have done for several years, to the Eurozone leaders and its apologists, inflicting mass unemployment on a generation of young people, economic stagnation and appalling social problems throughout continental Europe – with inevitable knock-on effects on the UK.

John Birkett,

12 Horseleys Park,

St Andrews.

IT would appear that the First Minister has joined forces with Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage to complete a mendacious gang of four (“SNP unveils Brexit tests to decide nation’s future, The Herald, July 23) when it comes to Brexit. On June 23, I voted Remain. The question that I was asked in the ballot was whether I, as a citizen of the United Kingdom, wished the United Kingdom to either Leave or Remain within the EU. My vote to Remain (or others to Leave) was immaterial of geographical location within the UK. That the UK Government and the Electoral Commission sleep-walked into the referendum has led to the current Brexit farce with regard to Scotland (the count should have been at least randomised and at best anonymised). Thus Scotland is not being dragged out of the EU against its democratic will, as that was never the question. Hence, the First Minister has no right to make such claims.

Nowhere, as far as I can see, within the SNP manifesto, on which it was democratically elected to government, is there mention of remaining within the EU as a policy. Thus, the First Minister and the Scottish Government has no mandate to pursue the current courses of action (at taxpayers’ expense).

In these extraordinary times the Government is in need of at least an advisory referendum to gauge the Scottish people’s opinion if it wishes to pursue policies different from rUK. However, the question to be asked should be threefold, possibly in the following form – Should Scotland: a) leave the UK and aspire to be part of the EU; b) leave the UK and be a sovereign independent nation; or c) remain within the UK. I would suggest that once the result is achieved then an election should be called to legitimise any mandate.

As a Remain voter I would have a conundrum. This, however, is none less than that facing the SNP, which I suspect is being opportunistically dragged in a direction not of the party’s choosing. Although I may not agree with his politics, I admire Jim Sillars for being one of the few within the Nationalists who has been honest and true to the cause throughout this whole sorry debacle.

Dr Andrew Highton,

2 Oxengate Cottages, Elsrickle, Lanarkshire.

ON reading your front-page report I wondered if there is any truth in the rumour that Nicola Sturgeon has quietly resigned and has been replaced by a recorded message repeating the words “trigger” and “indyref two” on an endless loop.

Alex Gallagher

Labour Councillor, Ward 8, North Ayrshire Council,

12 Phillios Avenue, Largs.

FOR the SNP, the answer is always independence, no matter what the question is, so the idea of Nicola Sturgeon setting out her Brexit conditions is laughable. Above all, in 2014 her option was to leave the UK even though that would have meant exactly the opposite, in that Scotland would have also left the EU.

Surely no-one can seriously believe there can be any circumstance when she will not now recommend independence, whatever the conditions of Brexit might be, can they?

Peter A Russell,

87 Munro Road, Jordanhill, Glasgow.