Time to say sorry

In a show of apparent goodwill 50 MEPS from a number of EU countries (including Spain) signed a letter suggesting an independent Scotland should be able to rejoin the full EU membership if it became independent. However, there was no information forthcoming on what the terms would be or how long the process would take, which would be essential to know in the knowledge that Scotland’s position outside the EU and UK internal single market would be extremely damaging to our already fragile economy.

However, what we should know is that an independent Scotland EU membership would be on far less attractive terms compared to the current UK opt-out agreement arrangements, meaning we would have to pay several hundred millions more per year (without the rebate), plus, there is the thorny issue concerning VAT, which is zero rated on children clothes, newspapers and books, which would also be under threat in a Brexit reversal.

Furthermore, there is the small matter of our fiscal deficit, which is three times the amount permitted by the EU and would undoubtably lead to the Greek-style slashing of public services to think about. Nevertheless, by far the biggest problems for us to deal with would be the loss of the UK single internal market, establishing a different currency and handling a hard border with the RUK restricting the movement of people and capital.

Small wonder the SNP, in their latest u-turn, are now saying they would not automatically seek to rejoin the EU or even seek full membership – the very excuse they used for justifying indyref2.

Now the truth is out and to avoid further embarrassment the SNP should apologise to the Scottish people and the gullible MEPS and do us all a favour by scrapping indyref2 and instead do something useful like getting on with the day job.

You could not make all this nonsense up if you tried.

IAN LAKIN

Murtle Den Road Milltimber, Aberdeen