SIR, THE problem for those who don’t want us to vote SNP in May is that they have to turn their eyes from the things the party has achieved for Scotland and to focus on local, controversial issues such as wind farms and services.

They lack vision; one recalls a David Mundell pamphlet while the referendum campaign was in full cry in which he is tellingly portrayed gazing into a pothole.

While making some persuasive points against centralising tendencies in SNP policy, David Millar’s letter last week seemed not to see the contradiction in its final paragraph, advising us against voting SNP because there are “three non-centralising parties” to choose from.

On the contrary, in a UK context, surely it’s the SNP that is the only “non-centralising” party, for the other three are committed to reserving to Westminster the three key elements of our national character and identity (as well as those of Wales and N Ireland) - our governance, finances and defence.

The SNP has brought political Scotland back from cynical despair to vibrant new life. The party actually achieved that long-cherished goal to give us a free vote on our country’s independence, and, in spite of two years of concerted pro-union effort by almost the entire “free” UK press (and some telling help from the BBC) almost won the day! And wow!

Look now at the party’s confidence, solidly based on surging membership and intent on further modernising of that political anachronism, the 1707 Union. But what sort of union do they want, these rampant nationalists? Simple - the kind that loosely binds all our EU partners, with open borders and free trade but where each member state cherishes control over its own governance, finances and defence. It’s the birthright of all nations, say the SNP, and thus the least any self-respecting nation should settle for.

Here’s tae them!

I am, etc.

John Melrose Whitehaugh Park Peebles