Sensible sauce
It was a singular pleasure today (15 August) to read the letters from Jim Sillars and Tom Walker. We need to have kept before us a sense of perspective and precedents on prorogation and Mr Sillars gives us the “sauce for goose and gander” aspect sadly absent in most commentaries.
Mr Walker’s rhetorical questioning highlights starkly the extent to which the EU posture towards the UK on Brexit is driven by vindictive punitive intent, a far cry from the founding rationale for the Common Market rooted sensibly in the mutual benefits of free trade economics. RONALD JOHNSTON
St Ola, Orkney
Kit Fraser and I part on the basic principle of democracy. I believe in accepting the decision of the question on the ballot paper, he does not. Neither of us may have liked the result of the 2014 referendum, but the majority kept Scotland within the UK. Therefore, the question in 2016 of whether the UK voted to Leave or Remain was the only one before us. No doubt that was why Nicola Sturgeon did not restrict her campaigning to Scotland alone, but chose to do so in England.
It just so happens, as I set out in a pamphlet in 2016, that I believe it will be easier to eventually obtain independence with Scotland out of the EU along with the rest of the UK. In 2014 we were in a triangle – Edinburgh, London, Brussels – with the latter two
opposed to independence (see Commission letter to Holyrood in 2004, policy repeated in 2014). If the UK remains in the EU, as a major economy and net contributor, it is naive to believe the EU position will change. Readers may have noticed that despite the lavish praise heaped upon Brussels, the SNP leadership have got nothing out of it.
The present SNP position has set a trap for the future. If they do not accept the result of the EU ballot, and demand a second referendum, how will they contest the losing Unionists’ adopting the same grounds and tactics? Independence will not happen the day after a ballot. There will have to be an Anglo-scottish treaty, the subject of negotiations. That is when Unionists will bring out all Nicola Sturgeon’s statements, the perfect template for obstruction, and demand a second referendum. The present SNP leadership and membership does not seem able to think down the road.
JIM SILLARS Grange Loan, Edinburgh
I am an unrepentant Remainer because I consider the EU to be the greatest project ever undertaken by humanity in seeking to create an institution the intention of which is to overcome the divisions and rivalries between nation states which led to centuries of war and atrocities. I am convinced that the EU, for all its shortcomings, is a clear demonstration that there is hope for humanity in the face of the discord being sown by Johnson, Farage, Trump and their supporters.
I say to the likes of Linda Holt, John Hunt and Paul Lewis (Letters, 16 August) that if, on 31 October, this country ceases to remain a participant in the promotion of this highest of ideals, I shall retain no meaningful sense of loyalty to the resulting dysfunctional disunited Kingdom.
JOHN MILNE Ardgowan Drive, Uddingston