National powers

David Steel (“Grimond’s view”, Letters, 19 September) tells us that “once we accept that the Scots and Welsh are nations, then we must accord them parliaments which have all the normal powers of government, except those that they delegate to the United Kingdom or the EU”.

But surely if Scotland and Wales are nations it is not ‘normal’ to delegate powers to another nation, particularly one with a population which dwarfs our own, thus allowing it to overrule in any poll the expressed wishes of the Scottish people.

The most obvious recent instance is B rex it, against which a strong majority of Scots voted. But a much bigger issue is the fact that for most of my life Scotland has been governed from Westminster by a Conservative Party which the people of Scotland have not considered worthy of a majority in the last 17 general elections, the last time being several generations ago in 1965.

Might I remind Mr Steel of Jo Grimond’s other famous quote that being in a union with England is like “being in bed with an elephant”.

LES MACKAY Carmichael Gardens, Dundee