Spanner in works

It will surely come as no surprise to anyone, regardless of how heavily rose-tinted their spectacles are, that the latest Snp-commissioned report has come back with exactly the conclusions that Nicola Sturgeon wanted, that in an independent Scotland we would all be much better off. She could not have written it better herself.

This comes in a week when teachers are expressing concern regarding the increasing numbers of Scottish pupils coming to school hungry, wearing dirty clothes and infested with body lice – clearly the fault of Westminster.

Meanwhile, our leader is dealing with more pressing matters, holding “Brexit talks” with Michel Barnier in Brussels. Ms Sturgeon is not the leader of a member state of the EU, and even if Scotland were to split from the UK, its staggering financial deficit would disqualify it from membership, even if, by some miracle, it were to gain the endorsement of the other member nations who wish to discourage their own separatist regions.

So why is M. Barnier playing along with this charade? Well, it seems to me that all Ms Sturgeon has to bring to his table is the promise that she will do her utmost to be a pain in the neck to the UK government and torpedo the Brexit negotiations, thereby ensuring that the UK does not get the best possible deal. I am sure that M. Barnier regards a good lunch as a small price to pay for a fifth column in the UK .

At a time when the country should be pulling together, those who never seem to be able to accept the result of a referendum are cutting off their nose to spite their face. A bad Brexit deal for the UK will obviously mean a bad Brexit deal for Scotland, but who cares, at least we can blame the Tories.

WALTER J ALLAN Colinton Mains Drive, Edinburgh