STEFAN Slater (Letters, December 21) argues for a two-thirds majority for Indyref2 on the basis of, well, just because he doesn’t want Scotland to be an independence country and wishes to change the rules to suit his view.

Did he complain that the first-past-the-post system allowed the Tories to win last week’s election with a lower proportion of the UK votes than that won by the SNP in Scotland? Did he complain that Brexit went ahead with a two per cent margin even although it was supposed to be advisory?

Now is not the time to change the rules on voting just because it doesn’t suit the view of Mr Slater and his ilk. What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and a simple majority should be allowed to win the next independence referendum using the same rules as those employed by the UK Government to drag Scotland out of the EU against its collective will.

Dennis White, Lanark.

YOU publish a letter from Stefan Slater in which he puts forward a view that if there is ever to be another referendum on Scottish independence then the threshold for leaving the UK should be set at a two-thirds majority.

I take the view that referendums have no place in our democracy as they are a blunt instrument and a cop-out for those individuals we elect and remunerate handsomely to make decisions on a plethora of issues and if we disagree with their judgments we can show our displeasure at the ballot box.

However, being realistic it seems we are on a path whereby the referendum will come into play more and more, so the suggestion by Mr Slater seems reasonable with an important caveat.

Voting must be legislated to be compulsory and no longer should it be acceptable for circa 30 to 40 per cent of the electorate to abrogate their civic duty. As is the case for example in Australia, the electorate must either cast a postal ballot or attend a polling station or face a financial penalty ... spoiling your paper is quite acceptable but apathy is not.

If implemented them any result achieved could truly be claimed to be the democratic will of the people.

James Martin, Bearsden.

IAN W Thomson (Letters, December 23) flags up some negative headlines for the SNP in The Herald over recent weeks and suggests that come the next Holyrood elections the SNP won't be "so lucky" and will be hoping for "some kind of amnesia" to afflict the electorate. However, as the SNP won 80 per cent of the seats at this month's General Election, and as Nicola Sturgeon won 87 per cent of the vote in The Herald's own poll which which leader won the Scottish Leaders Debate, I think it highly unlikely that the Scottish voting public will be displaying any signs of amnesia next time they visit the polling stations; and I doubt if they will forget that among many other achievements it is the SNP government which has delivered baby boxes, extra free childcare, free university tuition, free prescriptions, free personal care for those in need, regardless of age.

The electorate know that the SNP is committed to putting Scotland's future in Scotland's hands, unlike the Tories who disdainfully ignore Scotland's clear vote to remain within the European Union, unlike Labour's muddled policy on the EU which saw its votes melt in the sun, and unlike the LibDems and their two-faced position of being in favour of a second referendum on Europe, but denying a second vote on Scottish Independence. The SNP's success in winning this General Election in Scotland, as well as the two previous General Elections, the European elections last May, and the last three Scottish Parliament elections is nothing to do with luck, and everything to do with delivering for Scotland and honouring the wishes of Scotland's voters.

Ruth Marr, Stirling.

NICOLA Sturgeon insists her call for the right to hold a second independence referendum is now “unarguable”. Yet when the 2014 Scottish independence referendum was agreed it had the benefit of cross-party support, wide backing amongst the public wherever they actually stood on the issue of independence, and of course UK Government approval through the Edinburgh Agreement. The current strident demand for a rerun of the referendum has none of those benefits, and no prospect of that changing anytime soon.

The calls for indyref2 come solely from the independence movement, and primarily from an SNP leadership desperate to maintain the momentum of its grievance driven agenda.

Keith Howell, West Linton.

NICOLA Sturgeon’s latest beef is that she has a mandate for a new referendum whereas Boris Johnson does not have a mandate for Brexit. She should consider the facts before whingeing about this: Mr Johnson is acting on the basis of a referendum result in which he was on the winning side; Ms Sturgeon’s party demanded a referendum and lost it. It is clear which of them has a mandate, and it is not Ms Sturgeon. I write as a Remainer (in both unions).

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh EH14.

I WOULD respectfully remind Brian McMillan (Letters, December 21) that, while Brexiters of all shades are constantly ramming down our throats that the UK voted to leave the EU, almost every second voter entering the polling station in June 2016 voted to Remain. In the 2014 independence referendum, a sizeable minority (45 per cent) voted Yes but this doesn't stop No supporters from continually telling us the Scotland voted to remain in the UK. I'm afraid that Mr McMillan is going to have to accept that these divisions are real and here and unlikely to go away in the foreseeable future, despite Boris Johnson's view that we should all now move on and live in harmony.

Jim Leslie, East Kilbride.

IT'S only a matter of weeks ago that Prime Minister Johnson was suffering among the biggest Commons defeats ever recorded: now he has a substantial majority, a weak and ideological split official opposition party, and he is crowing loudly on his dung heap. This is all on the back of the small margin of an increase in the Tory vote of 1.2 per cent, hardly a huge public endorsement of his policies. While we must wait a while to see how Mr Johnson’s “promises” play out, I suspect another one per cent (the richest) will be cheering loudest, and the new Tory “Blue Wall” in the north of England may find they have bought the proverbial “pig in a poke”.

But he is pressuring Channel 4 and the BBC, threatening to interfere in the judicial system, making voting more difficult and misrepresenting England as the UK. That small margin of one per cent is allowing him to dig in for the long run, and as we see with Donald Trump, may be difficult to dislodge.

GR Weir, Ochiltree.

NICOLA Sturgeon is on record as saying the time for another referendum would be when the polls showed 60 per cent in favour over a sustained period. This is because she knows that if she loses again that it is game over for decades. The reality is she doesn’t want another referendum soon as the polls consistently hover around 45 per cent. All her strident demands are being made for two reasons. The first is to keep her supporters buoyed up and the second is that she will be able to use the inevitable refusal to hold a referendum from Boris Johnson as an excuse to scream and shout about the poor downtrodden Scots, hoping to stir up anti Westminster feelings in Scotland.

She constantly refers to the people of Scotland being dragged out of the EU against their will. Twenty-eight out of 32 Scottish council areas voted No to independence in 2014 with my own area, East Lothian, voting 62 per cent No. Are we all to be dragged out of the UK against our will?

Donald Lewis, Gifford.

AS a director of a not-for-profit community sports club I am required to be a part of an interview panel to select employees. If on doing due diligence on the applicants and verifying their CV we find a history of racist comments and lying causing the loss of virtually every previous job, we would not be acting with corporate responsibility if we included them on the short list. If we were foolish or incompetent enough to appoint such a person we would be hauled over the coals by stakeholders and rightly so.

However when we translate the scenario to a national level this is exactly what the voters of England have done. I have heard the excuse "But I like Boris" and that is fine. Most of us know a lovable rogue but we would never consider putting them in charge of our finances. To quote Malcolm X, who 50 years ago said: "If you aren't careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing". How prescient.

David Stubley, Prestwick.

SINCE the election, there have been lots of strong feelings and Scottish independence crops up a lot.

There was a wave of Scottish nationalism after the war. Huge meetings in Glasgow, and one heard about Naomi Mithison and Wendy Wood.

I was 15 and thought there was confusion in that ordinary people were reacting in a way that SNP leaders seemed to ignore. We all though “Oh good, an independent Scotland would be a socialist Scotland”.

But SNP leaders never said this and still don’t. For many of us, all we want to know about anybody’s politics is how right or left they are. SNP people never tell you, and so I have no interest in anything they say.

The first Scottish assembly in Edinburgh had a Labour majority and we thought it would stay like that. Then they changed to SNP majorities, no good to me.

None of them ever say whether they are left or right-wing. Do they think it would sound rude or something?

Mrs Moyna Gardner, Glasgow G2.