THE SNP has morphed into the NSP – the Nicola Sturgeon Party. The cult of personality is alive and well in Scotland. Surrounded by a team of anonymous duds in Cabinet, Ms Sturgeon obviously has no confidence in allowing them to front the daily update. Convince a gullible public she has performed really well dealing with Covid-19 and that should be sufficient for them to vote for independence.

Really? Never mind that many policies of the last 12 years have failed. Surely the voting public of Scotland are not as stupid to add the turmoil of independence on top of the economic turmoil of CovID-19 and Brexit.

In the current geopolitical world of big hitters how would Scotland fare? A population of five and a bit million has no influence, I would suggest, compared with the rest of Great Britain at 60-plus million; even less influence when compared with the EU’s 500 million population at percentage by ratio. A case of not "will we jump" but one of "how high?" in any negotiations about trade or other matters of state.

So the Scottish voting public need to apply serious thought to the ramifications of independence and not the cult of personality because Ms Sturgeon will not be around forever. Achieving independence for Scotland may end with unexpected consequences, so be careful what you wish for, as you will end up with something different.

John Findlay, Greenock.

ALAS for Mark Smith, "calm reasoning” is not in the DNA of British nationalists ("Forget aggressive arguments, calm reasoning is way to win", The Herald, August 3). “Separatists, nationalists, wreckers” were among the milder expletives used, over the last half century, to express their collective outrage at people who wanted Scottish self-government. It does them no favours.

They get worked up over fairly low-level stuff in Scotland, but stay silent over far worse incidents down south. Do they think the public is stupid? We can read, see, hear what is going on and put it into far better context than they or much of the media seem able to. It’s going to be interesting to watch “bovver boots” Ruth Davidson at First Minister's Questions as she reprises her single-policy shouty blathering; at least now she won’t be able to annoy us all by sitting playing with her phone, while we pay her to work.

GR Weir, Ochiltree.

THE SNP is forever saying we keep getting a government in Westminster that we never elected. After 14 years of SNP power perhaps it is time to consider if we have elected the government we actually want in Scotland too.

The shambles that is beginning to emerge over the upcoming Edinburgh Central election ("Robertson claims SNP members ‘let down’ by seat selection battle", The Herald, August 3) is a pointer to a party in power for so long that it thinks changing rules at the drop of a hat to suit itself is acceptable. There seems to be no free thinking allowed in the party, only toeing the party line. No other party in the UK has escaped open differences of opinion in the ranks, now it is finally the turn of the SNP for this to come out too.

Despite the SNP Government being a minority one it still exerts near absolute control. This is not a balanced situation and may well be exacerbated in 2021 if the SNP gains as many seats as it expects. Devolution was meant to stop this type of scenario. Can it, given the recent change of nationalist tactics to use the second preference votes to push for independence, even if the SNP leadership has not approved of this? Coronavirus is not the only disaster facing Scotland.

Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow G77.

NEITHER your letter writers nor your columnists have given adequate attention to the Scottish Green Party in the discussion on alternative list parties for independence. Yet it is a party which stands for independence and puts forward list candidates.

Its MSPs are prepared to walk the walk as well as talk the talk on climate change, local government finance, counteracting the democratic deficit in Scottish governance and promoting a real green new deal.

A stronger Green representation next year would help push the SNP into taking more effective action on these issues as well as underlining the case for a second referendum.

I would urge people to just vote Green instead of seeking alternative independence parties which could well end up as vehicles for a managerial vision of independence.

David Mumford, Dunbar.