SO another professional organisation, the time the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), has warned Nicola Sturgeon’s near-pathological obsession with a second referendum is causing damage to the Scottish economy. In fact, RICS states that is more damaging than any Brexit threat. This is not hearsay: these are hard facts by a renowned trade body at the coalface of the economy.

This is not news to those of us who manage or invest in Scotland. The evidence is there for all to see, the RICS facts being brutally clear. Business demand for premises rose across the UK while in Scotland, 24 per cent more surveyors reported a drop in demand than said there had been an increase. In London, the chatter is that Scotland is a no-go area for investment due to the continuing and self- inflicted uncertainty.

In short, the threat of yet another referendum, with no economic analysis to support it, is making Scotland an un-investable proposition. Nicola Sturgeon can ramble on about the consequences of “hard Brexit”, despite the UK GDP numbers confirming continued growth, but surely the adverse impact of even the threat of independence is far greater.

Andrew Lapping, Hamilton Capital Partners, 120 Bothwell Street, Glasgow.

IN relation to the letters postulating the undesirability of continuing UK membership of the EU in economic sovereignty terms and welcoming the Brexit decision, it seems strange that no-one considers the historical trend concerning the international value of the pound sterling.

At the end of the 19th century, vis-a-vis the US dollar, the pound sterling stood at around $4. The impact of the cost of two world wars and of the world economic slump in the late 1920s obviously affected the strength of sterling but it was still, during the post-Second World War period, quite strong at over two dollars to the pound.

Since then, it has continued to slide to its present-day value in dollar terms of around $1.22 in the wake of June’s referendum, from a slightly earlier valuation of around $1.32.

The euro, however, has also strengthened significantly, since its inception in the early 1990s, against pound sterling. At that time, it was estimated one euro was worth about 72 pence; now it is about 89 pence.

The currency markets clearly consider the euro represents a stronger functioning economy than that of a UK on the brink of leaving the EU. No wonder the UK inflation rate will rise in the coming months and years, as the costs of imports go up in sterling terms.

John F Petrie, 3 Fraser Avenue, Wolfhill, Perthshire.

THE First Minister’s “all Scotland coalition” call to challenge a hard Brexit is a laudable aspiration (“Sturgeon in call to resist hard Brexit”, The Herald, October 26). However, this initiative does appear somewhat naive since the UK has yet to invoke Article 50; and, unless the UK is prepared to negotiate on freedom of movement, a hard Brexit will be inevitable.

Ronald J Sandford, 1 Scott Garden, Kingsbarns, Fife.

ALONG with the recent Brexit vote there has been a constant stream of letters to The Herald that whitewash the recent history of Europe. People seem to be totally unaware of what groups of people the islands of Britain should be thankful to. Indeed, many of the letters smack of ignorance, at best, and well-written doublespeak at worst.

Anyone who bothers to think about it will realise we should be far more grateful to people from Africa, Australia, the USA and the Indian subcontinent for our present freedoms, than from anywhere else. Two years of standing alone against the Nazis, while the extreme left were, like the extreme right, carrying out mass murder in Europe, was only possible due to the peoples of those countries and continents mentioned above.

The other myth that keeps appearing is that the extreme right wing of politics is somehow more abhorrent than the extreme left wing. All the evidence is they are the two faces of the same corrupt coin. During the Second World War, both lots were to be found openly pamphleteering in the UK, and the vast majority of the citizenry treated them with the contempt they deserved. Bigotry and xenophobia are not new and they are not going to disappear anytime soon, but they thrive when there is no sensible developed political outlet.

Calling people “xenophobic”

when you are apparently incapable of understanding the situation that many communities have faced due to mass migration, is precisely the tactic of the extreme right and the extreme left of politics – “they are worse, we are better”, trumps everything. Unfortunately, Scotland is as rife with this form of politics as anything that is produced anywhere else. Which “xenophobes” do The Herald’s readers “hate” the most, I wonder?

Dr Ronnie Gallagher, 5 Wyndhead Steading, Lauder.

BREXIT, hard or soft ? Prior to June 23 I was not aware of such terms. The question posed was whether the voter wished Britain to remain in or exit from the EU. It is alarming the ordinary voter was not afforded the many issues that would follow an exit decision. Even more alarming is that the respective political camps allegedly controlling the country’s affairs also did not understand the consequences of leaving the EU. Four months on, we are still uninformed, whilst the political bickering within these shores continues. Perhaps it is time the remaining EU members took the initiative and informed our politicians as to the exit terms now that the UK has made a Brexit decision. It is really a pathetic international spectre where our politicians still cannot agree amongst themselves but vow to withdraw EU membership on their terms.

Allan C Steele, 22 Forres Avenue, Giffnock.