Yesterday’s leader column in this newspaper levelled two charges against the Scottish government in relation to a possible independence referendum in the wake of the Brexit vote.

First, it said that a referendum would have no justification and second, that should one be proposed, the Scottish government would be acting in bad faith.

At the time of writing, no decision has yet been taken to propose an independence referendum. On the contrary, we continue to seek compromise with the UK government, although we have not seen any evidence so far of any real willingness on the part of the UK government to compromise.

However, the purpose in writing is to set out, respectfully, why the charges levelled at the Scottish government are unfounded.

First, the