THE SNP’s plan to avoid one of the major pitfalls of the 2014 independence campaign is doomed to simply destroy a second independence vote as well ("SNP to back new Scottish currency", The Herald, March 2).

The crux of the matter is the level of debt with which Scotland would start off its independent existence. Westminster will not be terribly kind to a breakaway Scotland after absorbing the barbs incessantly directed at it by the SNP. You do not make friends by insulting them at every turn and being deliberately unhelpful. Scotland would be on its own and friendless simply due to the enormous public debt level it will start with and which will be added to daily. Launching your own currency needs a back-up of massive reserves, not massive debts.

READ MORE: SNP currency plan based on economic boom after Yes vote branded 'fantasy'

Being part of the United Kingdom has protected Scotland from huge financial problems in the past such as the banking crisis of 2008. Fossil fuels are no longer an asset. The SNP needs to face up to the current real world, not its own sanitised version.

Dr Gerald Edwards,

Broom Road, Glasgow.

THOSE like Murdo Fraser who mock a Scottish currency ("Mackay mocked after admitting new currency needs Post-Yes boom", The Herald, March 4) should know that 10 European countries smaller than Scotland manage successful economies using their own currency.

Scotland's "notional deficit" as part of a failing UK could be slashed by almost half if we taxed oil companies at 2010 UK levels (£6 billion) and by another third (£3.6bn) through not being charged interest on the UK's massive national debt without a pro rata share of UK assets.

No new EU country is forced to join the euro and if an independent Scotland initially kept the pound it could only join Efta in the first instance.

I find it strange that the “controlling centralised" EU allowed the UK to hold a Brexit referendum while Theresa May, supported by Jeremy Corbyn, refuses to countenance a Scottish independence referendum due to our changed circumstances.

After self-government it will be up to voters in Scotland to decide whether we join the EU or Efta like Norway, or the euro. It's called democracy and taking back control.

Mary Thomas,

Watson Crescent, Edinburgh.

YOU won’t often catch me offering the SNP sincere advice but here goes: drop all this agonising about a second independence referendum. A referendum is a failure of our established representative democracy, as the Brexit imbroglio has taught us. A referendum is an ad hoc device of highly questionable status that kills rational, evidence-based debate and encourages fantasists, bullies and liars. You will rightly be cursed for ever more if you should win a referendum only to find that the divorce settlement and the status of Scotland within the British Isles, the EU and the world turns out to be something other than the promised land of milk and honey. Mature politicians can’t afford to win a referendum.

I appreciate that it serves you very well that the authority to hold a referendum is not in Holyrood’s hands. This is useful camouflage for the truth that you are deeply conflicted about referendums. Secessionist parties regard victory as irreversible and defeat as a temporary setback. For you a referendum is a no-lose throw of the dice. You are not mature politicians until you recognise that the rest of us see that.

To realise your dream, argue your case at an election on a manifesto that you will make a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from Holyrood. This would produce a straight clash between the electoral mandate and the law of the land – a fine old crisis which would be sorted out somehow and that’s OK because it’s democracy in action. It makes you responsible, the party and the elected parliamentarians, to take the credit or the condemnation. That’s maturity.

Tim Bell,

11 Madeira Place, Edinburgh.

Read more: SNP’s currency plan may please members, but not voters

SNP MP Joanna Cherry has called for Theresa May to sack Transport Secretary Chris Grayling after Eurotunnel was awarded £33 million of compensation as Mr Grayling had awarded a contract for £14 million to a ferry company, Seaborne Freight ("Calls to sack 'failing Grayling' over £33m ferry fiasco", The Herald, March 2). The contract was cancelled, as it became apparent that Seaborne Freight had no cargo ships and had intended to operate from Ramsgate, a port with no facilities for cargo. As far as I am aware, Seaborne Freight had no sailors either/

Where on earth does the Prime Minister get her Cabinet Ministers from? They would all appear to be bereft of common sense, a commodity lacking in the Tory Party in general.

And I heard of a snippet from the BBC just the other day that a former Chief of Staff said that Mrs May regarded Brexit as a damage limitation exercise; strange way to run a government, but it was not clear if it was for the Government, or for herself.

And we are expected to allow them to govern us?

Jim Lynch,

42 Corstorphine Hill Crescent, Edinburgh.

KEITH Howell (Letters, March 2) must be living in an alternative universe if he thinks that the SNP is motivated by collecting grievances. The SNP exists to prioritise the needs of people in Scotland, which cannot happen whilst Scotland is politically dominated by the larger electorate in the rest of the UK. There may not yet have been an overwhelming shift to a Yes independence vote, but Mr Howell must know, however much he deludes himself, that the Yes vote previously rose from 25 per cent in the polls to 45 per cent in 2014. As Scotland is in danger of being hauled out of Europe against its will and with the political chaos and utter ineptitude exhibited at Westminster, 45 per cent is a good starting point.

Colin Campbell,

Braeside, Shuttle Street, Kilbarchan.

KEITH Howell’s proposition that Nicola Sturgeon does not want to hold an independence referendum and get a resounding No does not really need to be “argued”: I would say it is self-evident. She wants to hold the referendum and get a decisive Yes. And as the reality of what Brexit will entail and the utter helplessness of both the main Westminster parties become more and more appallingly obvious, her chances of doing precisely that improve with every passing day.

Derrick McClure,

4 Rosehill Terrace, Aberdeen.