Fuels rush in

verted and isolationist haven craved by some, it would be an autonomous state in a union of equals. It would sit alongside our friends in England but no longer have to endure the second class status imposed by government from Westminster. The current shambles in that body makes the case even more pressing.

European Scotland should also be a strong advocate for the drastic changes which are required within the European Union. The disastrous Common Fishing policy should be replaced with Scots deciding who fishes in Scottish waters.

Similarly, autonomous control of all Scottish waters should ensure a sizeable percentage of oil and renewables taxes would remain in Scotland rather than disappear down south, as has been the case to date. Sixty per cent of taxes raised in a state such as Texas remain there and a similar arrangement should prevail here.

The European Dream is still alive and Scotland should not only be a member, it should be at the forefront in transforming a continent which brought a union for peace from two world wars. The defence budget alone would plummet, per capita, but still be by far the biggest on the globe.

This is why I support both Scottish Nationalism and European Federalism.

PETE MEARNS Hamilton Place, Aberdeen It is staggering to read that a quarter of Scottish homes are apparently suffering from fuel poverty. Whatever reservations there may be about the definition of fuel poverty, what is abundantly clear is that a great contribution to the problem is the close to fanatical pursuit of wind farms to the exclusion of all else by those running the Scottish administration over the past