SNP should stop its constitutional games

Sir, - Now that Nicola Sturgeon and Theresa May have signed Section 30 and Article 50, it is game on.

Ms Sturgeon and the SNP will, of course, stand shoulder to shoulder with Brussels and the EU to deliver as damaging a deal as possible regardless of the economic damage to Scotland and the rest of Britain.

The unsettling logic of the SNP seems to be that the break up of a 300year union in which Scotland has the most powerful devolved government in the world and where trade with our UK partners is four times greater than anywhere else, is a sacrifice worth making.

The certain loss of sovereignty, our currency, the supremacy of our law and the submission to diktat of the European Commission, seems lost on Ms Sturgeon.

The fact that there can be no such thing as independence in Europe is held in wilful disregard by her.

For Ms Sturgeon it is the last throw of the dice and her political career and the success or failure of her party and ideology depends on it.

As a strategy it is a highly risky option. Scotland voted No convincingly to remain within the UK when the economic outlook for an independent Scotland was far superior to today’s situation.

No amount of oil discovery will alleviate economic deficits if the cost of extraction exceeds the market value of the product and sowing confusion and doubt about her own government figures (GERS) is holding unashamedly the collective intelligence of Scots in contempt.

As the SNP plays the constitutional game, our nation suffers an appalling neglect of proper governance, having passed no bills for over a year, the last being on abusive behaviour, bankruptcy and burial. Iain G Richmond. Guildy House, Monikie.

Nicola Sturgeon announces her referendum plans at Bute House in Edinburgh.