ALREADY two distinct schools of thought are forming about how we should run things when and if we ever find our way out of the Covid-19 tunnel.

One can be summed up thus: Plans to overhaul the economic or political system or to reform the constitution amount to self-indulgent navel-gazing. All the countries of the world are in a state of financial crisis. We must get back to where we were before we consider further radical change. If we ever do, that is...

The other strand of thought goes: The place we were before, with the UK Government sacrificing health and social care (in England at least) on the altar of profit, prioritising jingoistic wars over the war on poverty and ignoring the suggestions of the Scottish Government to take a different route was how we got in this mess. We must take this chance to overhaul the system and find a new way.

As the UK Government keeps telling us, our last upheaval of such magnitude was the Second World War. People cheered Churchill for winning the war, but this did not blind them to the need for fundamental change. At the first opportunity they voted the Tories out and brought in a Labour Government. The remnants of the innovations brought in by Attlee's Government, though watered down by subsequent Tory and Labour Governments, are what we rely on to save us today.

At the end of this crisis we must take the chance for fundamental change, for the chance will not come again.

Mary McCabe, Glasgow G31.

TOM Gordon is right to consider how Covid-19 has damaged the cause of independence ("What is left of the prospectus for independence after Covid?", The Herald, April 18). But Covid is not the only problem for the true believers in the one true church of Scottish nationalism.

The first real crack in the campaign for independence was losing the 2014 referendum. The next, in the eyes of most Scots, was refusing to accept the democratic result of that referendum. The next wound, this time self-inflicted, was the report of the SNP's own Sustainable Growth Commission. The Commission was set up by the SNP to provide an economic case for the break-up of the UK but merely succeeded in revealing that the case was as weak as its opponents had said, and would it require at least a decade of deep austerity just to return to current level of prosperity, after which time we might, just maybe, meet the criteria for EU membership. Then came Brexit. The pain and distress caused by attempting to disentangle our 40-year partial union with Europe only served to highlight the futility of trying to break up our three hundred year-old all-encompassing union with England.

As for Covid: the First Minister is fond of claiming this or that event as a “material change”, justifying the need for a second independence referendum. The irony is that the Covid pandemic is a real material change, but not in favour of her campaign. Covid shows the value of the Union and the advantages of having a large and strong economy, a huge network of academic, industrial and medical expertise on hand to address the existential problems and strong enough to absorb economic and societal shocks far out of the ordinary. And please don't mention the oil price.

Mr Gordon is right: Covid-19 is a serious challenge to the true believers in independence. But in reality, the case for independence was always weak.

Alex Gallagher, Labour Councillor, Largs.

TOM Gordon's contention that the UK has been better together ignores the appalling lack of preparation shown by the Westminster Government in dealing with the virus together with a lack of transparency and ineffectual leadership. The First Minster has been resolute and empathetic consistently and inspires a confidence that Boris Johnson and his assorted chums can only dream of.

Mr Gordon's supine argument against independence appears to boil down to the attempted economic rescue plan from the Treasury that will, hopefully, mitigate against the worst excesses of the effects of the virus on our economic lives. An independent Scotland, hopefully as members of the EU, would not only be in a position to reinvigorate our economic life but would also benefit from support from other EU nations which, post Brexit, will undoubtedly hamper economic resurgence in the UK, regardless of Mr Gordon's threadbare hopes.

It is interesting to note that the Irish republic's reaction to the pandemic was not only quicker in cancelling sports events, closing businesses and in adopting a pragmatic, dogma-free style of leadership than the UK. It was also more effective in controlling the virus and initiating large-scale testing amongst the population and,when adjusted for population figures, Britain has suffered more than twice the amount of deaths than Ireland has at present. An independent Scotland, as Nicola Sturgeon continues to demonstrate, would be just as prepared and efficient as any other country in the world, the more so if we were unfettered from the clumsy and inept shackles of Westminster.

Owen Kelly, Stirling.

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