But Mr Gordon fails to give a wider context to the next election. There are people like me, who are not members of the SNP, but regard independence as vital for Scotland, after more than a century of relative decline, and who will vote for the SNP to attain that goal. There are also many voters who discount much of the media content about the SNP, because the media has indulged in “knocking copy” about the SNP for at least two decades. Cry wolf too often. Nor is there any mention of the lamentable opposition. Alison Rowat ("Even HQ thinks Scottish Labour is a waste of space", The Herald, February 4) nails Scottish Labour to the mast of a Viking funeral ship.