NICOLA Sturgeon has added predicting the future to her abilities (“SNP report lays out ‘economic renaissance’ post UK”, The Herald, May 23.) She talks of the “despair of Brexit” despite the fact that Brexit has not happened yet and current economic indicators such as very low UK unemployment figures and record highs in the stock market hardly presage doom and gloom.

Conversely, the Scottish economy is doing very badly right now, prior to Brexit. It is much more likely that the despair of another independence referendum, rather than Brexit, will cause more really serious economic problems for Scotland but of course, with Ms Sturgeon’s remarkable powers of far sight, she knows that already, which is why another referendum will never happen and she is just debating it to keep her supporters happy.

Dr Gerald Edwards,

Broom Road, Glasgow.

IN 2015, Nicola Sturgeon addressed her troops saying that she wasn’t calling for a referendum “tomorrow”. She told them she would call for another referendum “when it is clear that a majority of the people of Scotland want independence. It would have to be a majority of the people of Scotland that wanted independence”. There has been no indication that that is what a majority wants.

If this is still her position – and I wouldn’t bet on it – why is she now talking about “restarting” talk of the separation question?

Jill Stephenson,

Glenlockhart Valley, Edinburgh.

ALEXANDER McKay (Letters, May 23) boasts that he predicted before the 2014 independence referendum that only a requirement for a two-thirds majority or a 30 or 50-year ban placed on any further referendum would have prevented what he sees as the upheaval of a new one.

Given his clairvoyant powers, perhaps he can now tell us – just so that we will be prepared – if Better Together will once again resort to using the same lies, distortion and general chicanery in the next referendum that it used last time.

Peter Swain,

Tyme Cottage, Innerwick, Dunbar.

WHEN the media are covering extensively the utterances of Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, we are entitled to ask “what, exactly, is she up to?” (“Davidson: Tories have a moral duty to appeal to all”, The Herald, May 22). That reports on a “revival” of Better Together “celebrities” such as Alistair Darling and Jim Murphy, as well as Ruth Davidson herself.

It cannot be said that her agenda is Scotland and its future prospects.

English-based broadsheets have been targeted. So, has the present Scottish Conservative leader got her eye more on the English audience, in an attempt to improve her credentials when the rumoured call comes from English Tories for her to bail them out of their travail?

We have to bear in mind Theresa May’s misjudgement in calling her General Election; the only conceivable purpose was to reduce the SNP presence at Westminster – its numbers could only go down. But she squandered David Cameron’s majority, requiring the support of the DUP in Northern Island in order to form a government, which was enabled only by the 13 Scottish Conservative seats out of 59, which meant the English had a government they had not voted for. What part did Ms Davidson play in advising Theresa May to follow that course? Whatever the case, there was an error of judgment from both standpoints.

Scotland voted two to one in favour of Remain – Ms Davidson campaigned vigorously in support. But the English Brexit vote overwhelmed our wishes so we are being dragged out against our will, and Ms Davidson is now just as vigorously campaigning for Scotland’s Brexit.

The English claim their Brexit vote gave them their independence. So what are the consequences for the Scottish subsidy their taxpayers claim they fund?

Ms Davidson often claims a tenet of her party is to encourage individuals to stand on their own feet. That contradicts her vehemence against a country comprising such people becoming independent.

Douglas R Mayer,

76 Thomson Crescent, Currie.

I NOTE Ruth Davidson’s speech to the Policy Exchange in London. As a summary of the last 11 years, the current situation and her way forward it was excellent. Thankfully she cautioned against complacency, especially since Alastair Darling, Jim Murphy and even Michael Gove were writing off the threat of a second independence referendum.

They hugely miss the point. Historians will call the period since 2007 Scotland’s lost years. The next three years will be blighted by Nicola Sturgeon’s need to further debilitate and divide Scotland by kicking the independence referendum just far enough along the road to get her through the next party conference or election.

Her ideas on how to move forward reassured and enthused me. She insisted the work with the SNP on Brexit is actually productive, collaborative and a model for future relations, and signalled the need to move UK organisations out of London, not as devolved powers but to strengthen the Union. All pro-Union parties should espouse this hopeful message.

Allan Sutherland,

1 Willow Row, Stonehaven.

IT’S a welcome sign to see Scotch whisky contribute so strongly to exports (“Appeal for export support as whisky cuts UK trade deficit by 3%”, Herald Business, May 23).

Trade balances are playing an increasingly fraught role in relationships between President Trump’s United States and everyone else. Hopefully it will all calm down as trade economics are explained to him.

For Scotland, it’s a big plus that we have a substantial balance of trade surplus and have run a strong surplus year after year for many years. If we ever do decide to float a new currency, that trade surplus will be a big help as it will draw in foreign currency.

This, by the way, is nothing to do with budgetary decisions which will face any new Chancellor of Scotland. That is more difficult to ascertain. No serious economist considers GERS to point to what the Scottish economy will be after independence. I am certainly not an economist, but looking at other small countries in our corner of the world, there is no reason for pessimism.

Even Ruth Davidson is taking a leaf out of Alex Salmond’s book, and calling for her greetin’ faced Tory pals to cheer up, and be more positive about life. So let the rest of us all do the same.

GR Weir,

17 Mill Street, Ochiltree.