Spain will block EU entry bid

Sir, - Two important points about the position of an independent Scotland seem to have escaped the notice of the SNP and its fellow travellers. Any application by Scotland to join the EU will be vetoed by Spain so as to make it clear to the Catalans that they too will be shut out of the EU if they break away from Spain, and to deter them from doing so.

Once freed from the restraining influence of the union, England will revert to type and bully its small neighbour mercilessly.

It may be going too far to say that Scotland will play Ukraine to England’s Russia, but the relationship, if not the precise method of operating, will be exactly the same. Michael JB Almond. The Retreat, Grange, Errol.