AS the First Minister angles for a second Brexit referendum, perhaps she angles – or will soon – for two Scottish independence referenda, two to three years apart, the second to validate the result of the first. Perhaps there would be a need for yet another; but we would then be moving beyond my likely life expectancy and I concede diminishing personal interest.

Perhaps a two-thirds majority of the electorate, or of those who cast a valid vote, would be required to prevail. I understand that the constitution of the SNP requires a two-thirds majority for change, but I have been unable to confirm this point on the internet, with the SNP website shy – perhaps deliberately shy – on this point. If this letter is published, without doubt I shall be enlightened.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon to outline Indyref2 plans 'within days'

If the two-thirds rule for the SNP is confirmed, perhaps the First Minister, and the SNP collectively, subscribe to that well-recognised politicians’ philosophy and practical policy: do not do as I (we) do, do as I (we) tell you to do.

William Durward,

20 South Erskine Park,

Bearsden.

WITH dozens of seats, both at Holyrood and Westminster, being held by the SNP thanks to the other contestants cancelling each other out, surely it is time for the pro-UK parties to form some kind of agreed pre-election pact and allow those best placed to beat the nationalists win the seat.

The greater evil by far – outweighing even the most bitter ideological inter-party differences – is the SNP winning by default as it has been doing for some time and being able to pursue its obsessional, one-issue politics to the exclusion of all else.

Alexander McKay,

8/7 New Cut Rigg,

Edinburgh.

I HAVE lived in Scotland for 27 years but for some I still do not belong, nor ever will. Indeed they would like me and others with similar opinions, to be silenced, and are happy to use abuse to get their way. Amongst their number are those who from time to time send anonymous letters to my home. They do not arrive very often, but when they do their hate-filled words take my breath away. I know of course that Scotland is better than this.

What is my "crime" and that of others like me? Simply put, it is wanting to keep my country from being broken apart, exacerbated in the eyes of some, by my refusal to keep quiet about it. I write letters to the newspapers countering what for me appears to be a drip feed of grievance and negativity from the SNP government about anything to do with the UK.

I love this place that has become my home, but it seems there are those who believe only they know what it really means to be Scottish. I know I should not let them get to me, but they do. I have often hesitated, wondering if I should stop writing letters to newspapers, and did so again on receiving the latest unsigned missive pointing out all my failings.

Yet I continue to conclude that I should not be cowed into silence, because in my head and my heart, I truly know Scotland is so much better than this.

Keith Howell,

White Moss,

West Linton,

Peeblesshire.

IT is not just Scottish bank notes that need to become legal tender - as Judy Murray, Alistair Carmichael, and your Marianne Taylor (“Had you Scottish bnknotes refused? Time to stay calm”, The Herald, April 15, and Letters, April 16) suggest.

Try using a Scottish bank note in Belfast. Or even an Irish/ Northern Irish £20 note in Scotland or England.

I thought all were legal tender until I checked. I’m told by shop-keepers that it’s to prevent fraud. But if the cash machines issue it, then surely it should be legal tender?

Yes, all should be legal tender. But if it’s not legal tender, then why are the banks allowed to issue such notes?

Dave Sutton,

Douglas Gate,

Cambuslang.