My letter (May 14) was indeed about why the Liberal Democrats are right not to join a coalition committed to introducing a Bill for a referendum on independence. So I did not discuss whether they should or might vote from the back benches for a Bill if Mr Salmond brings one to parliament at a later date.

I hope that if a Bill is presented, the Liberal Democrats will judge it on its merits in the circumstances at the time. If, for example, there is to be some kind of constitutional commission that produces well-considered proposals for extending the powers, including tax, of the parliament, there might be a case for a consultative referendum on the options. In those circumstances, independence might be put as one of the options.

I am not and never have been a dyed-in-the-wool Unionist. I can imagine circumstances in which I would vote for independence, if there were a broad consensus across Scottish politics that this was necessary for good government in Scotland.

But that position is not advanced by the SNP making unsustainable claims about public opinion in Scotland. There is no independent evidence that a majority of voters in Scotland want independence now. What evidence there is suggests more people voted SNP this month as the most visible alternative to Labour than supported independence.

Nor is there any merit in the new SNP doctrine that other parties have a duty to vote for SNP policy on a referendum if they do not think a referendum would do anything to develop good government in Scotland. All the parties set out their positions on the referendum in the course of the election. It is reasonable to suppose the people who voted for them knew and accepted what those positions were. Why are the Liberal Democrats, the Labour Party and the Conservative Party now supposed to be under an obligation to vote for something they opposed in the election? They may decide to do so in two or three years, but that would be a decision they would have to justify to voters in the following election.

It does not help the SNP cause to promote a false version of history. It is not true, as David McEwan Hill asserted, that contradictory positions on Irish home rule destroyed the Liberal Party in the early years of the twentieth century. The Liberal Party split in the 1880s over Mr Gladstone's policy of promoting Irish home rule and home rule all round. Liberal Unionists joined the Conservative Party. The Liberal Party went on to win a landslide victory in 1906, and eventually pass through parliament an Irish home rule Act that would have come into force in 1914 if it had not been for the outbreak of war.

Christopher Mason, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, Glasgow City Council.


With regards to the recent correspondence about the legality or otherwise of the Scottish Parliament and Executive to conduct a referendum on independence, I wonder if anyone has thought of asking that nice Brian Soutar if he might stump up the cost, as he did over the Section 28 business a few years ago.

Christopher W Ide, 25 Riverside Road, Waterfoot, East Renfrewshire.