YES Scotland supporters are automatically backing Alex Salmond and his colleagues (Letters, July 29 & 30) because the Scotland's Future White Paper, which is the key guide for Yes campaigners is his baby, written as a manifesto for the 2016 election which (until recently) he expected to be won by the SNP with him still at the helm.
In the last few weeks, some of that certainty has ebbed away, with a Yes vote guaranteeing only a potentially prosperous future, with just a hope of getting greater fairness and less inequality.
Given that there has been no attempt to explain how the multi-billion-pound starting fiscal deficit will be reduced and additional money found on top of the redistribution of the revenues essential for these aims, it is not surprising that Mr Salmond has become more cautious - it is possible that he now wishes he had not been so definite in Scotland's Future about what he asserted "will" happen.
Joe Darby,
Glenburn,
St Martins Mill,
Cullicudden,
Dingwall.
RUTH Marr (Letters, April 29) and Alan Carroll (letters, April 30) are right to emphasise that supporting independence does not equate to supporting Alex Salmond. Vilification of Mr Salmond has been a standard tactic, taken to tasteless extremes by Better Together.
However, do those who would vote for independence but for a dislike of Mr Salmond realise that a No vote is a vote for the unlovable David Cameron/Ed Milliband who have both guaranteed us the misery of five more years of austerity, £55bn in cuts to public spending and the destruction of the National Health Service?
Ronnie Macindoe,
6 Wardlaw Grove,
Cleghorn,
Lanark.
IT was interesting to read BP's latest public pronouncement on its vision for the future ("BP investing billions into North Sea future, The Herald, July 30).
This comes only a few months after stating it was considering reducing investment in the North Sea.
This was its input to "Project Fear" after David Cameron's visit to one of its rigs.
As one who has been associated with the oil industry since its inception, BP's previous statement, that an oil company would walk away from massive reserves which are contained in the sector in general, seemed to me rather ludicrous.
This is continually played down by the No campaign in the hope that those of us who know that the oil will last for many decades are not believed and we should trust Westminster instead.
Tom Webb,
Lower Coilentowie,
Callander.
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