THERE was never any doubt that the new SNP ideas on currency would run into trouble ("SNP risks rebellion in ranks over new currency", The Herald, April 10). The prerequisites for launching a new currency can never be met by a Government whose main policy is to target those who can contribute most to boosting the economy with the "reward" of significantly higher taxation.

Short-sighted economic policy is simply another in the list of SNP failures, chief of which are education and health. For Scotland to thrive, it needs a positive spin to its economics with a lower taxation policy to encourage growth and spending. This does not go hand in glove with the economic nightmare of having to adopt the hard-left policies of the Greens, independence and an untested Scottish currency.

This stopped the independence train last time and it will do so again. It really is the pound in your pocket that matters to everyone. The SNP's search for a genuine solution to the currency issue will never be resolved simply because there isn't one.

Dr Gerald Edwards,

Broom Road, Glasgow.

SNP MP Ronnie Cowan is quoted as saying: "A Scottish currency is the correct outcome, but timing, just like in comedy, is everything."

Comedy? More like tragedy.

David Miller,

80 Prestonfield, Milngavie.

THE Unionists may jeer at the apparent lack of unity within the SNP over a post-independence currency. The truth is they are frustrated at being denied an easy double whammy.

Now they’ll have to work an awful lot harder to undermine the logic and huge advantages of an independent currency, and a monetary policy free of national debt.

RF Morrison,

29 Colquhoun Street,

Helensburgh.

Read more: Independence would allow Scotland 'to sit at EU top table' – Nicola Sturgeon

SEVERAL political commentators have theorised that the explanation for Theresa May making such a mess of the Brexit negotiations is because she was a Remainer at the 2016 referendum. However, this is not borne out by Mrs May's conduct during that campaign, when she kept her head well below the parapet to such an extent that her then boss, David Cameron, allegedly called her "submarine May"; and on taking over as Prime Minister Mrs May was very quick to declare "Brexit means Brexit and we're going to make a success of it". That may turn out to be the quote of the century. But whether she was a reluctant Remainer or a latent Leaver, it seems to me that the true explanation of Mrs May's disastrous Brexit journey, is that she's just not up to the job.

Indeed, the only success Mrs May can claim is that the result of EU summit after summit and her humiliating trips around Europe pleading for Brextensions, has been to unite the 27 countries of the EU more closely to each other than ever before. That realisation might provide cold comfort to Mrs May in future days as she surveys her dismal wreck of a Premiership, and her introverted, isolated country.

Ruth Marr,

99 Grampian Road, Stirling.

ANGUS Macmillan (Letters, April 9) informs us that most of the Remainers to whom he has posed what he describes as a simple test have not had a clue to the identity of their MEP, the movement of the EU Parliament between Brussels and Strasbourg, and how much Jean-Claude Juncker earns.

I agree that his questions are simple. So simple that the answers to all three are available on the internet in less than five minutes, and hardly relevant to the broader picture.

Also available on the internet and from respected sources are the implications for security, trade, business, jobs and consumers goods if the UK leaves the EU.

It’s a pity they don’t sell crystal balls on Amazon.

R Russell Smith,

96 Milton Road, Kilbirnie.

IF nothing else, Brexit has taught us all a lesson about how not to go about constitutional change. Clear and unambiguous campaigning by all sides is a must – no buses adorned with ridiculous claims of preposterous amounts going to Brussels and where it should be spent instead; no pie in the sky projected oil prices; no utterly insincere "once in a lifetime’’ claims before beginning campaigning for another referendum the day after losing. Truth should be a given, not a concession; it is too precious for party politics.

If the SNP does indeed go along the plain truth route I for one will be delighted. I would be even more delighted if it simply accepted that with every advantage imaginable it lost in 2014 and every indication is that it would lose by an even bigger margin should the people of this country be forced into another referendum that no-one but nationalist zealots wants.

Alexander McKay,

8/7 New Cut Rigg, Edinburgh.

NICOLA Sturgeon now claims independence would grant Scotland a seat at the EU top table. Really?

First off, it'll take Scotland a decade or more to meet the EU's stringent financial entry requirements, as per the SNP leader's own Growth Commission report. So no time soon. And then Ms Sturgeon appears to suggest France and Germany are going to hand genuine power over to Scotland? Every EU country of course votes on EU matters but real control rests with the big financial hitters, those with large populations.

Ms Sturgeon, if you're going to spin, at least try to hold onto a semblance of reality.

Martin Redfern,

Woodcroft Road, Edinburgh.

DAVE Stewart (Letters, April 8) quotes Edmund Burke's interpretation of the duty of an MP: "Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment, and he betrays instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion". How can we be sure that our MPs are indeed giving us their industry when so many of them are multi-tasking in various well-remunerated jobs in addition to their parliamentary one?

Many have been exposed for failing to declare conflicts of interest, some promoting companies without disclosing that they are being paid by these self same organisations. Burke's words which presuppose the integrity of MPs to make sound judgements ring very hollow in the wake of the MPs' expenses scandal , the Iraq war and the Panama Papers, which have destroyed any faith the public has in them.

In the words of the SNP's Mhairi Black: "The problem with Westminster has been that it's filled with people who have got self-interest. And that's apparent even now, I can see that. People, quite often, they convince themselves that what they think is best and that they are being very principled. But deep down, when you scratch beneath the surface, it's not. It's pure selfishness."

Morag Black,

3 Leeburn Avenue, Houston.