Sturgeon’s ironic trip to the USA

Sir, - It is rather ironic that Nicola Sturgeon can travel freely to the US after having called for a ban to prevent President Trump from entering the UK.

It is to be hoped that she will learn a lesson about how free countries operate, but I’m not holding my breath.

There is a further irony in Ms Sturgeon’s insistence on speaking about Scottish secession from the UK in a country where a very bitter civil war was fought in the 1860s to prevent one part of the union seceding.

The resounding victory for the union has not been seriously challenged since then.

Yet it now seems that Ms Sturgeon, in the face of Mrs May’s “now is not the time” response, is raising the possibility of “testing” the part of the devolution settlement that reserves constitutional issues to Westminster.

She mentions this while acknowledging many Scots are reluctant to embark on a referendum campaign so soon after the 2014 referendum.

It is clear that anything she has said about not holding another referendum until the people of Scotland demonstrably have an appetite for one is as worthless as the once in a generation mantra she repeated ad nauseam throughout the 2014 campaign.

What the Americans are making of the leader of a devolved administration in a tiny country claiming that she wants Scotland to be the equal of the United States is anyone’s guess.

I imagine there is much mirth among those who have actually heard of her and her visit. Jill Stephenson. Glenlockhart Valley, Edinburgh